recieved an online christmas card from the African Hunters Guild, until now, never heard of them, anybody familiar. Web site didn't tell me much.

http://www.africanhuntersguild.com/Index.aspx

Gringo

See the post "Africa O Africa" where Balla Balla uses the same poem, maybe this is the clue ?

Kudu

They're just another company who advertise African hunting via the internet. They approached us a few months ago trying to convince us that we wanted to pay them a monthly arm and leg to advertise our company on their website.



They don't appear to do any checks on the companies they advertise.......or at least they didn't do any checks on us at all.........how they find peoples e-mail addresses I don't know, but they are certainly very pushy and they pursued us for a while and didn't want to take no for an answer.



..........But at least they have the good taste to appreciate the poems of C. Emily Dibb.

Shakari,

I figured they were a booking agent of some kind, the web site they have doesnt lead one to believe they have much to offer other than moral support for one's money.

Hi Folks,

The season greeting cards are from me; simply from one passionate African hunter to fellow hunters with the same interests.

I have been a member of the AR forums from way back "kind of before the rindepest" as the saying goes at home, and as may will know, have been involved actively in the safari business for many years having hunted professionally across a number of southern African territories. During this time I have noted that our industry is fraught with fraudulent operators or simply put "sharks" who think nothing of taking folks hard earned dollars in exchange for buls@#$%t and promises - by example Keith, Nikki, I and a few others ran foul of one such operator a while back.

In light of this, and that many safari or hunting associations are often nothing more than "toothless bulldogs" when it comes to disciplining fraudulent operators, I and a number of other serious hunting professionals, major land owners and top concession holders have got together to set up a new niche association of hunters and top outfitters so as to provide Guild members with peace of mind by dealing with only the best that southern Africa has to offer by ways of credible outfits and hunting destinations � this has directly led to the recent establishment of The African Hunters Guild, which is essentially an exclusive membership driven society and a Guild in the true definition of the word - not an Agent nor an Internet company!

As our good friend, Steve �Shakari� Robinson has so eruditely mentioned, we have have offices across several regions southern Africa and are dealing with select outfits for invitation as members of the Guild � what concerns me is that in Steve�s case the message seems to have got across incorrectly and created a mis-perception � this I will attend to directly.

At this point we already have a significant membership base of select outfitters and operators who have passed the selection process i.e. we are satisfied that they are Guild material and includes some of the top or best outfits in the game and are able to truly offer great hunting and safari experiences. Our concept and credentials have been presented to the officialdom in each and every region where we choose to operate and have received full official endorsement. Similarly, I was recently invited to present our concept and credentials to a full sitting of the IPPHC (Inter Provincial Professional Hunting Committee) tasked with regulating the industry in RSA and again at the highest level of our Department of Environmental Affairs (DEAT) � in each instance our concept has been endorsed and embraced with clear agreement on protocol for operating going forward.

Seeing as Steve has raised the point, I feel it would be fair to point out that the process for outfitters to join the Guild includes amongst other things, exhaustive checks done in close co-operation with the relevant Nature Conservation departments, extensive reference checking and very extensive and stringent criteria including on-the-ground checks of game quality, facilities and the like (having being in the trade for a while, we know what to look for and how to do the checks). Also and for what it�s worth, we have turned down a fair number of outfits who have approached us for membership � it�s not a case of how big the outfitter�s cheque book is but rather a case of how good their full credentials are � where they don�t stand up to scrutiny the outfitter is simply not allowed to join � this has made us un-popular in certain segments where we are perceived as a threat for some reason or the other.

I do not wish to use our gracious host�s forum as an advertising platform; suffice to say that the Guild will be open to accept hunters as members in Jan 2005 and we have several press releases in the pipeline to this effect, including coverage in my friend Richard Lendrum�s African Sporting Gazette � read the releases, meet us at some of the shows in future and watch us grow.

Happy holidays and everything of the best for 2005