STAR Tournament Update

[silverking]

OK, I spoke with STAR Tournament Director Leiza Fitzgerald this afternoon and here is the scoop.

CCA National does the on-line STAR registrations for each participating state. Due to the complexity of the different membership levels (multiple per household, different donor levels, etc.), there were too many variables to write the code software to prohibit a non-member from registering for the tournament. However, there are several defaults that alert someone registering that they must be a current member to be eligible to win any prizes and they get additional notices to that effect. If someone is a member but their membership expires during the tournament, they are also notified about eligibility. For example, if a membership expires on June 30 and they don't renew and catch a tagged fish on July 4 weekend, that fish won't count. In order to win any prizes in the STAR, your CCA membership MUST be active before the catch is made to win any prizes. Additional defaults will be coming on-line before next year's tournament as well.

The random drawing winner last night was totally qualified this year and took the Pathfinder as his prize. Congrats to him. The remaining boats and GMC pick-up will be sold with the money used to fund the scholarships with any remaining going back into the tournament account for the 2017 tournament. The STAR Tournament Committee goes above and beyond to ensure fairness and integrity and I salute Leiza and her assistant Andrea for all their hard work making it such a success!

Thanks to all in the Big Bend who participated this year. Like in Texas and Louisiana, the STAR has really raised awareness of CCA's mission and helped boost membership significantly, which in turn supports more conservation efforts as well as work on other important issues like habitat/water quality, battles against no-fishing zones and lobbying on the state and national levels.

Finally, you don't have to wait until next Memorial Day and the 2017 STAR to join the ranks.

http://www.joincca.org

[TomParis]

I never saw an update on Ralph Bevilacqua the guy who caught a tagged red fish in Wakulla county, did he make it through all the protocols and win a prize as well?

[silverking]

His fish did not qualify.

The press release on all the winners should be out in the next few days. I'll post it here when I get it.

[TomParis]

why did his fish not qualify? Last thing CCA posted was pending the lie detector test he was a winnner.

[zload]

Wow looks like they could easily program it to require an active CCA membership number as part of the tournament registration process. Either way a cool tournament format and good cause. I have to register myself, the wife and my daughter because with my luck the only way we're going to catch a tagged redfish is to NOT be registered and then we'll catch everyone of them and my wife would kill me, she had already planned on choosing the Contender if it wasn't for bad luck...

why did his fish not qualify? Last thing CCA posted was pending the lie detector test he was a winnner.

Hmmm maybe 1+1 = 2 in this case?