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LCBA NEWSLETTER, December 2016
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Melancon to be out: LCBA Pleased with Change, Looks Forward to Working with Next LDWF Secretary
The Louisiana Charter Boat Association is pleased with Governor John Bel Edwards’ announcement that Charlie Melancon has resigned as LDWF Secretary.
Our commitment to work with the Department to protect and promote our state’s charter-for-hire fleet remains our top priority, and this announcement bolsters our belief that LCBA and LDWF can once again make positive strides together.
During his less-than-impressive tenure, LCBA’s best efforts to work with former Secretary Melancon resulted in several breakdowns in communication. Melancon’s lack of experience as a natural resource manager and apparent disinterest in his role as head of LDWF were continuously on full display over the course of his tenure and were well documented during several public meetings this year.
LCBA is ready to turn the page, and we look forward to developing a great working relationship with the next Secretary. We have great faith in LDWF’s Fisheries staff and believe they will support Louisiana’s charter-for-hire fleet in ways Melancon did not.
LCBA is optimistic that our efforts to support our state’s charter-for-hire fleet will be accepted, appreciated and taken under advisement as the Department moves forward with new leadership.
LCBA staff wants to know which issues matter to you most
As you know, the Louisiana Charter Boat Association takes great pride in representing our members and fighting for the issues that matter to you most.
In an ever-changing landscape of policy, regulations, economics and competitors, the most pressing issues facing our captains are fluid and, also, ever-changing.
Therefore, as the calendar is about to turn to 2017 and LCBA begins setting goals and expectations for the year ahead, we would like to take this opportunity to listen to you, our captains, to get a sense of which issues you think we should take up on your behalf.
We kindly request that you take this open-ended survey so that we can better serve you, our valued members.
LCBA Communications Manager Richard Fischer will then compile your most popular responses into a multiple choice survey to send back to you.
Upon the receipt of this information, LCBA employees and board members will have a better understanding of how to direct our time and resources in 2017.
Thank you so much for your membership with LCBA, and for those of you who aren't members yet, here's another great reason to join.
Click here to take the survey
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LDWF announces it is now requiring proof of commercial liability insurance for charter-for-hire license renewal
LDWF sent a press release Thursday confirming that it is now requiring that captains submit a copy of their commercial liability insurance policy in order to obtain or renew their charter-for-hire license.
For some reason this change was not written in the renewal packet LDWF recently mailed out to captains, and misinformation was accidentally provided to some of our captains by LDWF staff.
We have worked to get clarification from LDWF and Thursday evening, they finally issued a press release to inform charter captains of the new requirement.
If you have any questions regarding the status of your license or specifically what you need to submit, please call LDWF on business days between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. at 1-800-256-2749 or 225-765-2800.
Click here to read LDWF's press release in its entirety.
You can still participate in our partnerships with Guy Harvey's theonlinefisherman.com and Bill Dance Outdoors
LCBA has also produced two Basin Reports (and has completed filming on another), which have been shared by
Bill Dance Outdoors' popular social media pages and can be viewed
here and
here.
These are great opportunities for our captains to gain online exposure and increase the geographic footprint of potential customers.
Participating in content sharing with Guy Harvey's
theonlinefisherman.com can take you five minutes per week – doing something many of you already do. As a reward for participating, you'll get a profile page with your bio and contact information on a site which generates 118,000 unique visitors and 1 million impressions per month.
And participating in a Basin Report for our
Bill Dance Outdoors partnership is as easy as going fishing just like you would on a normal trip. We even offer to make you whole for taking LCBA Communications Manager Richard Fischer out with you.
If you are interested in participating in either of these promotional opportunities, please email Richard at [email protected].
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We're partnering with Guy Harvey's theonlinefisherman.com to give away a Louisiana offshore fishing trip!
Promote this opportunity to your customers and they could be fishing with you for free, and you still get paid!
There's still time to enter to win a Louisiana offshore fishing trip for one lucky winner and three of his or her friends!
The sweepstakes is part of an effort to help launch our partnership with Guy Harvey's theonlinefisherman.com.
The winner will have the opportunity to choose any LCBA captain they'd like for the trip of a lifetime. The winner will have one year from the date the prize is awarded to redeem the trip. LCBA will facilitate initial communications between the winner and the selected captain. LCBA will cover the cost of the trip and pay the selected captain the deposit upon booking and the balance immediately following completion of the trip.
LCBA staff, board members, member captains, immediate family members and those living in the same household are not eligible to win.
If you're eligible and interested in entering the sweepstakes, click here to enter. You have until Dec. 17 at 11 p.m. CST to enter.
We also request that our captains spread the word about this sweepstakes through email, social media or word of mouth. Our social media likes and follows spike as a direct result of people entering the contest, which,of course, means more exposure for LCBA and our member captains.
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What we've been up to....
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LCBA's website lasaltwater.com keeps setting records!
LCBA is proud to be able to boast that our website, lasaltwater.com, has set new records for visits, page views and unique visitors in each of the past three months.
In November alone, lasaltwater.com got more than 9,700 visits, more than 21,800 page views and more than 8,900 unique visitors!
These strides can be attributed to our digital, magazine, billboard and television advertising efforts, which have been targeted at drawing more attention to Louisiana saltwater fishing guides.
In the picture above, each dot represents at least one website hit to lasaltwater.com, and that's just in the month of November!
This is thousands of potential new customers who could be making their way to your lasaltwater.com profile page, and decide to contact you to book a trip.
This is why we've been saying if you don't have a profile page on our site and you aren't taking advantage of all of the other perks of being an LCBA member, you're really missing out.
Contact LCBA Communications Manager Richard Fischer at [email protected], and he'll let you know what LCBA can do for you to maximize your membership.
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Louisiana Charter Boat Association | 225-421-9130 | lasaltwater.com
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