Published August 2023

As Fall quickly approaches, we’re reminded that another season of chapter banquets and Youth Mentor Hunts will soon be upon us. Our chapters are hard at work to make these events as successful as possible so that we can fund local habitat projects and youth education programs. Jared Meiergerd shares how the Nemaha Valley PF/QF chapter has embraced changes so that their chapter could experience renewed growth. 

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While we have a lot of local biologists staffed throughout our state, Nebraska also has 63 local chapters and each one is doing amazing things for the Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s mission. Chapters have the imperative role of raising money to contribute to statewide habitat projects, public access, youth mentor hunts, outreach events, local habitat assistance, and supporting our local communities by giving back.

In January I was elected President of the Nemaha Valley PF/QF and I’m already gathering knowledge of the amazing work that all our local chapters do throughout our state. Before I became president, I had been a volunteer at our local Youth Mentor Hunt for several years but wanted to get more involved and to expand our memberships. It has been very exciting being a part of an organization with the goal to educate our communities and establish and develop conservation.

The Nemaha Valley PF/QF chapter serves the most southeast portion of Nebraska. Our main county is Nemaha County, but we also serve Richardson, Pawnee and Johnson Counties because they do not currently have chapters. We currently have two no till grassland drills that are available to rent out for seeding projects and have done on average 200 acres a year. Our youth mentor hunt has had roughly 400 youth graduates from the program and has been a huge success over the last 25 years. Our chapter has started to gain new interest and currently has 20-25 active members. Currently we have 8 committee members including President, Vice President, Chair, and Co-Chair for each event and finally a treasurer. We have undergone some transition this year so there have been a lot of new ideas on what can be improved going forward.

This year we added Quail Forever to our chapter making it a dual Pheasants Forever/Quail Forever chapter, the first of its kind in Nebraska. This means we accept memberships for Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever. We wanted to add this opportunity considering we are in the heart of bobwhite quail range in Nebraska. In the future we plan to promote projects to benefit both pheasants and quail.

Since becoming the Chapter President, my goal is to establish objectives that are easy to accomplish and expand from there. We will do this by integrating what has worked in the past while adding some new ideas along the way. I have reached out to numerous friends, neighbors, acquaintances, and anyone that may have had an interest and passion for education, conservation, community outreach, or youth development to learn about our chapter. I had an amazing response and interest in joining our first several meetings of the year. So far this year we’ve held a successful Youth Pollinator Day and a golf tournament, and we are planning several upcoming events including a sporting clay shoot September 9th in Nebraska City and our Youth Mentor Hunt on December 2nd. We are also shooting for a banquet in 2024 which we have not had for several years now. The chapter would not be where it is today if it was not for the amazing original members that have stuck with it all these years. They have shown us members and volunteers how having the passion for conservation can drive these nonprofit organizations to succeed. That drive really lights a fire under new members and gives them a sense of ownership in the chapter.

Being involved with a chapter is more than just getting together with likeminded individuals. It gives a person a sense of ownership within the community to make a difference.  If I had any advice for chapters looking to recruit it would be to think outside the box. Maybe it’s a new event, rotating meetings to different local businesses or even just sending out informative messages to people that you know have had interest in the past. Maybe they are at a place in life now that gives them the time to jump in. As with anything that takes up our time, sometimes a little push is all we need to inspire interest. Let’s get out there and make a difference!