Ducks Unlimited Podcast

Jimbo Robinson: We would like to welcome everybody to the DU podcast. We are here recording in studio one Waterfowl way, the new, uh, improved and awesome studio. I am your host today. Jimbo Robinson, alongside co-hosting with me is Tim Fehringer. And as always, the guy behind everything, our world famous audio engineer, Mr. Chris Isaac. Good morning, Tim.

Tim Fehringer: Good morning. Thanks Jimbo. Welcome everyone. Today, we have a few of our university chapter volunteers in for our summit leadership, summer leadership summit. It's called Third Term, and this is the apple in many of DU volunteers eyes and our fundraising team is super excited to have you all. Thank you very much for being here. Can't wait to kick off. Let's start out who we have. So we've got three university students coming in. There's plenty more. And Jimbo, you can kind of get into totals later, but let's start with names and where you're from and how you got here.

Eric Copeland: My name is Eric Copeland. I'm the president chairman at Prairie View A&M University over at my HBCU.

Alina Birchmeyer: My name is Alina Birchmeyer and I'm from Michigan State University.

Will Burden: My name is Will Burden, and I am here representing Chico State University, just graduated.

Jimbo Robinson: Awesome. Yeah, we know this isn't the normal host with Dr. Brasher and Chris Jennings and Katie, and we wanted to bring a special episode with these students in the studio with us today for our third term this weekend. We're very excited about it. We've got over 300 students here from 80 different colleges and universities, which is speaks a lot to this program compared to 282 last year from 70 colleges. So it's going to be a great week. We like to do something a little bit different. We're going to call this part of the program the flock shot where we are going to ask you all some questions and they're icebreaker fun questions. Give us one word answers, insert however you want. But My man, Eric, we're going to start with you. Do you hit the snooze button or do you jump straight out of bed in the mornings?

Eric Copeland: I jump straight out of bed, man. I don't like the alarm.

Jimbo Robinson: It gets me all scared and rowdy, so I just jump up. Do you naturally wake up or do you have an alarm? I actually wake up, but I have an alarm. Okay. Yes, sir.

Jimbo Robinson: All right, Alina, what's your favorite color Gatorade?

Alina Birchmeyer: Definitely the blue one.

Jimbo Robinson: Do you know the name of it?

Alina Birchmeyer: I think it's like Arctic blue, maybe. Okay.

Jimbo Robinson: Is that it? It's, I don't, we don't know. Something we talk about all the time. We, we, people like to say the white one. We're like, what's the name of it? We don't know.

Alina Birchmeyer: It might be like glacier or something. I don't even know.

Jimbo Robinson: All right. Apple or they enjoy their will.

Will Burden: Ooh. I'm going to have to go with apple.

Tim Fehringer: Ooh. Green text, blue text, blue text.

Jimbo Robinson: Nice. Nice. All right, Eric. Field hunting or over water over water. Yeah. Over water. Have you done both? Yes, sir. Awesome. All right. LeBron or Jordan. Who's your favorite NBA bet. Who's the greatest basketball player of all time.

Alina Birchmeyer: I don't even watch basketball. So All right. I can't pick from that.

Will Burden: Well, I don't, I, I couldn't tell you Eric.

Jimbo Robinson: Who's greatest LeBron or Jordan LeBron.

Eric Copeland: Really LeBron. Okay. That's I've been proven. Okay.

Tim Fehringer: There we go. That's why you get university kids.

Jimbo Robinson: That's why you get it. All right. Well, that is a great one. All right. This is going to be fun. You can answer this one. When you were arriving at a stoplight and it turns yellow, are you slamming on the brakes or speeding through?

Alina Birchmeyer: Definitely speeding through. Okay. Hopefully my dad doesn't hear that one. I blew my transmission last week. So. All right.

Will Burden: All right. Will? Speeding through.

Jimbo Robinson: You are? Yes, sir. Safety first though, right?

Will Burden: Yeah.

Jimbo Robinson: My seatbelt's on. We're all good. What we're going through? Awesome. I love it. Okay. We are going to run through a series of questions, um, with y'all, um, just to get your perspective on third term, what it means to you, uh, what, what it also means to your chapters. Um, I know that Eric, this is your first time, uh, attending third term and Alina and will y'all been here before. Yes, sir. Will, lucky enough, was one of our panelists at our national convention in San Diego, did a tremendous job talking about the impact the third term had on him there. And kind of what inspired this podcast to do it was to. bring you back and get a little bit more in depth with you and along with your other, the students here. So Eric, man, I'm going to put you on the spot and I'm going to start with you. Why did you commit to coming to third term as a new chapter and what was the mindset behind it?

Eric Copeland: And first and foremost, committed to such an event like this shows dedication to conservation. You know, a passion for wildlife or an experience in a wild-related or wildlife management field, you know, gives you a chance to get out there, you know, show you a different ballgame.

Jimbo Robinson: Absolutely. And, and I know that I'm going to put you on the spot with this question. Um, but you came to third term different, or you came to the university program different than most, right? So how, tell me a little bit about how you met Cam and how your, that interaction started with your chapter.

Eric Copeland: Okay, so originally I'm a part of a group, it's called 4W Outdoors. We're kind of like an outdoor group that promotes equity, inclusion, you know, everything's like that. So Cam been seeing me doing a lot of outdoor reach, a lot of volunteering, you know, a lot of things with the kids. So Cam actually reached out to me on LinkedIn. I am on LinkedIn. Cam actually reached out to me on LinkedIn and said, hey, you know, I like you. You know, Ducks Unlimited want to sponsor with you and your college, you know, so can you think we can get that going? So I say, okay, Ms. Cam, I could do that for you. So I took initiative and made that happen. And so when Ms. Cam and I sat down and talked together, we talked about a few things, you know, and made the college come together as a whole and planning this chapter.

Jimbo Robinson: Yep. And, you know, there's a second HBCU that's come on board that's attended third term at Tuskegee last year. And now you guys here this year and, um, she's very excited about your enthusiasm and enthusiasm of your other students. And I know that the tabling day y'all did to kind of kick off in the, on campus was, was a complete success. So excited to have you, Eric, and, uh, you got a few more questions, but we'll come back to you. So we're going to start with you, Will, on this one. Third term is our collegiate leadership event, and most of our collegiate leaders attend this event. What has been the benefit to your chapter by attending?

Will Burden: One of the biggest benefits that I see that our chapter has really just taken away from this third term event was just what, I mean, what the event does. And when I attended last year, coming to third term for the very first time, I had no idea what it was. My RD told me, hey, Will, there's this college conference deal. I want you to go to it. And when we attended, it just, something about it, it really gave us just the motivation and drive to push our chapter and push our committees and drive everyone more to raise money for conservation and being able to talk with other students and network with other students and being able to take ideas from different chapters and different RDs and what we can apply, because at the end of the day, everyone's doing their stuff differently. Um, and really seeing what we could bring over and there, there's just so, so many great benefits that third term gives to these college chapters. And, um, I'm, I'm really excited for this year. We, we brought a bunch of new people. There's six or seven of us. And, uh, everyone here has never been. And, and, uh, I, I selected these students because they all look at like as great leaders who are going to continue this legacy of our chapter. And I can't wait to see what third term does for them.

Jimbo Robinson: And both of you and Eric, you both mentioned leadership. And I think that that's one of the things that's growing. This is the leaders that are coming and going back and expressing that. And you're going to hear a lot more about leadership this weekend. But getting everybody from Chico State to Memphis, Tennessee in the easiest, the all every I'm assuming everybody flies, right? Yes, sir. Well, is that is that an easy sell to your other students?

Will Burden: Oh, I mean, it ain't too bad. It's, it's three hours and an hour layover and then another two, three hours. And it's, it's not too bad. It's just, it's, it's expensive.

Jimbo Robinson: It is. It is. And that's what makes this weekend. I think so special is that there are some offsetting costs for, for chairman co-chairman on it, but the rest of the students, they pay their own way. And that, uh, that shows the passion and dedication of our university students and paying their own way to get here.

Will Burden: They're, they're committed to, they're committed to the call. They're committed to the involvement and being involved with DU. Absolutely.

Jimbo Robinson: Committed to the call is great.

Tim Fehringer: I think that that commitment is super important too and people recognizing that and students recognizing that not only are you learning about what you can do better or how you can get involved more or getting your people. It allows you to jump in and network outside of just your local chapter and people getting here when they see that it's super beneficial. Elena, I'll jump to you and kind of speak to a little bit about that network with inside the collegiate volunteers to those that you meet that are either adults or other students across the country.

Alina Birchmeyer: Yeah, no, it's a great networking opportunity for everybody. There's a lot of people in our chapter that don't understand the dedication that it takes and how much you actually learn when you're going through this, because you kind of join the club to meet all these people. Michigan State's a huge university, so you're just trying to make friends, and then you come down here and you realize how much this means to everybody. And me and the president of our chapter, Natalie, we ended up meeting people at third term and we got invited to go to the DC fly-in. And that was super important for us because we were able to learn about all the policy side of things. So you're just making all these connections through third term and then it just continues to grow and it just gets bigger and bigger.

Tim Fehringer: What's your degree in? Criminal Justice. So that policy kind of plays into that, the fly-in, getting involved inside of that, playing inside of not just, and I think that's one thing that this weekend speaks to, it's just not a conservation background, a sales background, a policy background. It's all encompassing inside of that and there's kind of something for everyone. I was in northern Nevada. I was a regional director of the state of Nevada and I always asked the students coming in, you have a lot of opportunities to do things in college. You have a lot of distractions or a lot of focuses. And it's super, super neat to see students jump in to raise money, to understand about our mission, to get involved just when they have so many other things to do. Maybe speak a little bit to that as to, you know, why it's important to you and why you chose DU and kind of this program.

Alina Birchmeyer: Yeah, so I actually had no idea what Ducks Unlimited was. I'm from Dexter, which is where the Great Lakes regional office is. So I always see the signs, but I had no clue. And then when I went to Michigan State, we have this thing called Sparticipation, where you can go and see all the different clubs and stuff at the college. And I walked up to the Ducks Unlimited table. They just seemed like the nicest group of people. They were so laid back, and they were just explaining the conservation aspect. But they're like, sometimes we go on chapter hunts, but it pertains to literally everybody. It's not just specific to that. So that kind of drew me in, and then I've learned so much while I've been there. And now, I mean, I'm a criminal justice degree. It's not as relevant as a lot of other things, but it still pertains to so many different Ideas and like variations of jobs and then you build all these connections and it just kind of

Tim Fehringer: takes you. It's dead on. If there was a plug, that would be it, right? If this weekend, and that wasn't a plug. So for those of you listening, that wasn't written down. It wasn't a scripted note. That is the sale of this program to not only students attending or our keynote speakers or those that are funding some of this program is that it's all encompassing and it hits so many different levels of of people and passions and love. So thank you very much.

Jimbo Robinson: Eric, coming back to you, buddy. This is going to be kind of a two-part question. We'll start with one to kind of go together. What do you hope to learn this weekend while you're here at third term?

Eric Copeland: Man, I hope to learn plenty of things, but first to start off with, I'm here to learn some conservation strategies, you know, some conservation strategies for wetlands, different waterfalls, you know, different things like that. I'm also here for the networking skills, like she stated, you know, building connections with other professionals, volunteers, stakeholders, and people like that. I'm also here to learn different Ducks Unlimited projects, you know, I want to know you know, what's the next projects coming up, new events, you know, things like that. So I'm here to learn numerous of things.

Jimbo Robinson: Is this your first time in Memphis? Yes, sir. So it'll be your first time here at headquarters. You're here now, obviously, in the studio. What's your impression of the building? And what is your, what are you most excited for to kind of find in here, explore while you're here tonight?

Eric Copeland: The most thing I'd have seen while I was here, it felt like I'm outdoors, indoors, if that makes sense. Absolutely. And it's a blessing, man, to be here. You know, all these mallets around the wall, you know, different shotguns hanging around. It's like I'm in a man cave, man. Absolutely. Felt like I'm outdoors, indoors, man.

Jimbo Robinson: I've never heard that put that way, but that is an absolutely awesome way to put and encompass what happens inside these walls. Yes, sir. Will, we're coming back to you. You're probably the most, what are you, a senior? You're a senior. No, you've graduated. Yeah, getting ready to go in the credential program. That's right. And you're a junior?

Alina Birchmeyer: I'm a senior, but like this is an extra semester. I graduate in December.

Jimbo Robinson: All right. That's right. Okay. So Will, what does DU investing in our college program with the resources and the people, what does that mean to you?

Will Burden: So with Ducks Unlimited investing in our youth and our college chapters, it's really investing in our heritage and ensuring that it's going to last with, with our youth really being the, the next generation who's going to lead this on. It's protecting our heritage and it's signifying Ducks Unlimited's commitment to nurture our young conservation leaders and help them grow as leaders and really just shape them to carry this whole thing on. And with Ducks Unlimited investing in our youth and our college chapters, it's equipping our students with the tools and knowledge to in all advance the mission of DU. Absolutely.

Jimbo Robinson: Yeah, great answer. So how many times have you been to third term? This is going to be my second time. Second time. Awesome. What are your, are there other people from your chapter that haven't been to national headquarters? Uh, yes, sir. How have you laid the groundwork? What have you told them about the building? Cause Eric gave us an incredible answer that I'm going to use again one day. So what have you laid the groundwork for your new committee members coming here?

Will Burden: I haven't told them anything. Really? It's just just how my RD said, hey, well, there's this there's this college conference thing called third term, and I want you to go to it. I came in not knowing. I mean, shoot, we came and received awards and I had no idea. And they have they my committee has no idea what's going on. They don't know what to expect. They they it's it's a surprise for them.

Tim Fehringer: It's, it's something it's kind of people ask about it or students will ask about it. And it's, it's simple just to say, just come, just go and don't ask questions. Cause it's going to be awesome. But, but then you have, you have adults that ask questions like, well, what'd your parents say when he said, I'm going to, I'm going to go to Memphis and go there for the weekend and hang out at ducks unlimited. Oh, it was question after question. And he didn't, and what were your answers?

Will Burden: I just had to talk with, let me get back to you, mom. Let me get back to you, dad.

Jimbo Robinson: Let me, let me talk to my RD. So that's the beauty of this program. And I think the faith that people have in Ducks Unlimited as an organization, because as a parent of two younger kids, but I can't imagine what you say, Hey, I'm going to go with my ducks unlimited regional director. And your mom's like, who's that? Well, it's, you know, this guy named Dan pap out here in California. And you just, you go thinking, you're like, well, we're going to Memphis. How are you getting there? We're taking a plane. What, how are you buying a plane ticket? So like, there's a lot of things, but I think that when people see the ducks unlimited, they see the brand, they understand the quality and the, the passion that we have and obviously we're a good faith company because there's a lot of parents that are watching their kids travel across the country as we're doing this right now to be here.

Tim Fehringer: Well, it's tough. It hasn't been done a lot and so to answer those questions, it can be difficult to relay the message of how critical it is, how important it is, and it's just not a fundraising event all weekend that maybe that somebody may perceive as it being dinners and open bars, which it's not. And so it's hard to answer that question as to what is this and and how effective is it. So that's why I had to ask that.

Will Burden: Justin also puts a pretty good email together too that the students are able to forward over to their parents so they could kind of see what's going on. Definitely.

Jimbo Robinson: Yeah, is that what helped you Eric?

Eric Copeland: Definitely.

Jimbo Robinson: Yeah, so Justin's our manager of youth engagement programs and does a tremendous job here at Ducks Unlimited As a former teacher, he understands those questions way better than Tim and I would. Justin Aycock does a tremendous job. So, I'm glad that… I don't even think I knew he did that. So, that's awesome.

Eric Copeland: Shout out to Justin.

Jimbo Robinson: Yeah, he's great.

Tim Fehringer: He's great. Balancing it. Absolutely. You know, part of that too, and one piece, and there's plenty of pieces to it, is one of our most popular sessions is a question and answer breakout with regional directors. You'll have multiple regional directors there that you can come and ask questions just about fundraising tactics or building your local chapter. Elena, talk about maybe, maybe one question you have for an RD that you're thinking of that, that as you're flying down here or hanging out that you can, that you can jump to.

Alina Birchmeyer: That's a hard one. I feel like since all of the regions are so different, varying in how their banquets go and just events that they do and stuff, I feel like I would want to ask one of the RDs from the South what their biggest push is for just fundraising throughout the year. Because all Michigan State does right now, We do our just like our main banquet and then we want to try and get into bingo. And then last year we heard about like golf outings and that kind of stuff. But we're still like we're just like stuck in this rut like our we have a. the Red Cedar chapter, which is like right by Michigan State. They actually do their banquet on our campus. So it kind of makes it really difficult for us. So we just like want other ideas and like ways to do our events and how to fundraise in the best ways possible. Even though Michigan's a lot different than the South, I feel like getting a totally different outlook would be something that would really help us.

Tim Fehringer: It's, we don't want to reinvent the wheel, right? We don't have a, we don't, we're college students or we're in a, in a master's or a PhD program, stealing, begging and borrowing and, and figuring out other ideas from other regions or even neighboring towns, whatever P is.

Alina Birchmeyer: Yeah, definitely. And like, we're like, that's the biggest thing is like, yeah, like, we may say like, we want to raise more money than Ferris State does. But like, we're all doing the same thing. We're all in this together. So like, helping each other out is the biggest thing. And I think that's how third term comes into play is like, you're able to make those connections and actually support everybody, because we're all doing it for the same reasons.

Tim Fehringer: Eric, do you have a question you'd ask him that you can think of? You're fairly new, right? Yes, sir.

Jimbo Robinson: How long? When did you start the chapter?

Eric Copeland: I started the chapter actually last semester of my school year. So around September, October time of last year, of 2023, got it going on. Didn't get it put in place until the next semester, like in March, but I got to talk, you know, I got the school to talk about it. But one question I would have is like, for you guys, what were some major barriers that it took you guys to get in the position that you are now for DU. Us? Yes. Or, or any, any Ducks Unlimited. Yeah. So the regional director?

Jimbo Robinson: Yes, sir. It's a great question. I think that in that RD Q&A, you're going to have, you have some, some of the most veteran staff that we have. Um, and, and you've got some guys that have, were in the new RD class last year. Um, and then some of them are very young and some of them are, um, older with kids. So you're going to see a big variation in those, in that breakout session with the RD question and answer. And for those that are wondering, the RDs, those are our regional directors. Those are the guys in charge of our fundraising events across the country that work with all these college and university students. And so in this session, they get to ask them any questions they want. And it's become, like Tim said earlier, one of the most popular sessions at third term every year. But that's a great question. for them because it's not, it's not in totally involved in the fundraising, but it gets on the, on the side of how did they basically, how did they get here? Right. Yeah. Did you have any, um, issues at Prairie View with getting the chapter going? Because y'all are a big ag school, right? Yes, sir.

Eric Copeland: Yes, sir. So overall, I did have a problem. So I actually came into Planting Initiative and called a whole ag meeting. I called everybody, the dean, the students, everybody who was in the ag program or anybody who wanted to be a part of the program that I'm about to start. And I stood up and I said, hey, I got some people that want to come to the school, you know, want to show a different side of life than just cows and, you know, different side of ag. They want to come show you the waterfowl side of things. So the dean said, OK, you know, send me over, you know, send me over his name or the people that, you know, that's putting on this show and we can get it going on. So, you know, it took a minute. It wasn't easy, you know, but just being back and forth between talking to Cam, talking to Mr. Justin, talking to Mr. Otto, back over here at school talking to the Dean, you know, it wasn't easy, you know.

Jimbo Robinson: But you know, Ducks Unlimited, our connection with the Ag is grown a lot in the last few years with our partnerships with the USDA and other things. So it is a different side of the business and it's opening the doors for more people to be involved with DU and it's a It's great for ducks. It's great for grasslands. And it's, you know, obviously it's helping, um, in the agro agricultural world as well. So that's, uh, that's, that's a, that's a, that'd be a good question. Save that one. Don't, don't say anything to any of them about it. That went on with a surprise.

Tim Fehringer: I think, I think that everyone's got an agenda, right? Everyone has an agenda going into things, but resiliency, consistency, and that passion helps you kind of build that. And. this isn't, this is a company that you can go to work for. And, and there's a lot of companies that surround and support you that you can go to work for. And so to that point, I think it's not growing up. You see it as a magazine or you see it as a TV show and you don't know that it, you always don't look at it as something that you can strive for or do. And it's, it's attainable.

Jimbo Robinson: Alina, what, um, what is your favorite memories from third term last year?

Alina Birchmeyer: Definitely bingo night. Really? Yes. It's so much fun. Just like last year, I just remember everybody, like our generation, everybody's always on their phone. Like it's annoying. But like last year, everybody just did not have a care in the world. Like they were all singing family tradition and like just having the time of your life with like everybody in the same room.

Jimbo Robinson: Absolutely. It's one big party. Will, what's your favorite memory?

Will Burden: I got a lot of them. Um, no, my, my favorite memories from third term are really, I mean, just being able to talk and network with people. And, and my, my favorite memory has got to be after the award ceremony, when I got invited out to Colorado by our DUTV co is calling that was man, that that's a memory I'll never forget.

Jimbo Robinson: And you actually went on and talked about that at our national convention. Yes, sir. Yeah, that's a, that's an awesome thing. Um, Eric, what are you most excited about? Uh, for your chapter this school year, you've told us kind of what you want to learn this weekend, how you got going, um, why you came. So now what, what put yourself leaving here on Sunday was a ton of new information and a great. kick back to go, what are you most excited about to take back to your school?

Eric Copeland: I'm mostly excited about the new events and projects that I got coming up with these students, you know, especially these students, you know, not going to say they don't have experience, you know, in what we do, but, you know, just coming from a HBCU school, you know, it's something new for them to experience. So these different type of things that we will be doing, you know, I think it'll be real fun for them. And I think, you know, it will grow on to more people, you know, and I think we can get previews chapter, uh, you know, bigger and get it going way better than what it is now for DU.

Jimbo Robinson: That's awesome. How many students came this year? Four students came this year. So it's you and four? Yes, sir. That's five total? Five total.

Eric Copeland: There you go.

Jimbo Robinson: That is awesome. That'll be fun to have just to build that camaraderie amongst each other. And obviously your passion for DU and the outdoors is growing, but to get to share that with them will be a lot of fun.

Tim Fehringer: Have you had any mentors inside of the ag school or those that kind of jumped on board as you pitched it?

Eric Copeland: Outside of school, like the group I'm in, 4W's Outdoors, his name is William Franklin. He actually took me up under his wings, man, and just showed me the way, you know, as far as everything, you know, like I can speak on, I met, it could be down the line that I met Cam. I actually met Cam through another lady, through another lady at a Texas Parks and Wildlife event volunteering, you know, so it was just, it's overall a good deal, you know.

Tim Fehringer: Good, good, good. How about you? Any mentors that you've had that have helped you along or got you continuing on the path?

Alina Birchmeyer: I mean, obviously our RD, Craig, he's great. Scott McFerrin has helped a lot. I worked for Ducks Unlimited last summer, like in the youth and engagement program for their trap shooting stuff. And Scott is the only reason that I was able to get there. And through Scott, Justin has helped us with a lot of stuff. Just like people who've came through MSU and just care about waterfowl, they've all helped us. Callie Rush, she works for Docs Unlimited now, but she's the one that started our chapter and she helps us all the time. She kind of shares the more in-depth research stuff with our chapter, which I think is really important because a lot of people don't get to hear about that aspect.

Tim Fehringer: Will, you have one? You've got a mentor that helped you and pushed you?

Will Burden: Yeah, my RD, Brian. I'm always seeking advice to him, asking him what I could do, how could I change things up, and he's always been there, calls me, talks to me, and yeah. I mean, now it's Garrett. I just moved back home to my hometown, and then I got a text message from Garrett, the RD for my hometown location, Hey, Will. Glad you're home. This is when our next meeting is. You're not getting away so fast.

Tim Fehringer: I love it. The alumni transitioning from university to adults and when you move, you can't get away, right? When you're moving into your back to your hometown or somewhere else after college, you can't get away because you're going to be found. That's awesome.

Jimbo Robinson: Well, as we, I know that y'all have a very busy day planned. We have our business meeting this afternoon. Um, and y'all probably haven't gotten to register yet. So I know y'all are eager to get back over and register. So as we begin to wrap up another episode of the ducks unlimited podcast, do y'all have any questions for us or, or comments you'd like to make? I mean,

Eric Copeland: I'll say if you haven't already done so, give it a try. Come here. I done already met 15 friends. That is awesome.

Jimbo Robinson: That's a good, good advice. What about anything you'd like to say or offer advice to others?

Alina Birchmeyer: Basically the same thing, like don't hesitate. Third term is one of the most amazing things that could have happened to I know me and the people that have came from my chapter. We've learned so many things and it's helped us a lot.

Jimbo Robinson: And not just in DU terms, but probably in life maybe and in I mean Eric shaking his head but just in overall.

Alina Birchmeyer: Yeah everything I mean it's even like they do the mock interviews they help you with everything your resumes like we were talking about earlier my major you wouldn't think is related but like I've learned so many things that I will take with me through that.

Jimbo Robinson: There's a lot of passion in your voice and and I know that I can feel it in here and and it's exciting and it when I get done with third term weekend it's a jolt of energy that's pretty special. What about you, Will? You got any last comments?

Will Burden: Yeah, I mean, whether you're listening and you are passionate about hunting or passionate about conservation, and I mean, you're young, you're youth or high school, college, and you want to get involved, like, get involved. The people you get to meet, the connections you get to make, and it's, there's, Ducks Unlimited provides you with so many amazing benefits and opportunities. I mean, it could even grow in the careers. It's just, it's awesome. There's so many great benefits and just get involved, talk to your local RD, find out what you could do to get involved. It's a great organization.

Jimbo Robinson: And for all the college students or high school seniors that are going to college, if there's not a Ducks Unlimited chapter in your area and you'd like to start one, You can go to volunteer4du.org or ducks.org backslash volunteer, either one of those and sign up to become a volunteer. And we will quickly reach out to you, get you plugged in with a, the local chapter. If there is one, or if there's not a local university chapter, and you'd like to start one, we can get you plugged in with one of our youth engagement coordinators or one of our regional directors in that area. and they can walk you through the steps of starting a university or college chapter in your area. And I think that that is one thing that we don't share enough is we've got all the ones here this weekend, but there is plenty of opportunity out there to start new university chapters, reach out to DU. We promise if you plug it into the computer and send it in, it comes in, it is read by one of us and we will get it back out the door quickly and get you involved as quick as you can. Tim, anything?

Tim Fehringer: No, super excited to have you all and welcome and can't wait to see what the weekend does and how it lays out. You can be doing a lot of things and you come here for conservation and leave with a bunch of other skills that are super fun and it's really engaging and energetic to watch this thing unfold and then also just build year over year over year the labor of love that goes into it and then just the passion that's driven out of it is super fun so enjoy yourselves this weekend have fun learn a ton and meet a bunch of new people.

Jimbo Robinson: Awesome so from all of us here at One Waterfowl Way we appreciate you listening to this special episode letting us come in and take over the hosting booth from Dr. Mike and Chris and that team. And we look forward to enjoying the rest of this weekend. Thank you again and have a great day.