Mods, please give this a few days on this forum before moving it. I need it to get all the exposure it can.
I need help from all of you who can manage it.
Background;
I lead a group of 90, 6th, 7th, and 8th graders on a field trip last week to perform a community service project picking up garbage at one of our state parks. In the process of planning the outing I discovered that the law that allows Boy and Girl scout troops and most other 501c organizations to fish with-out a license while on the outing does not apply to public funded schools.
I am teaching a class at the Open Classroom on government and how to change laws and we have selected this law as the one we want to try to change.
The change will be simple and involves including "public funded schools" in the list of eligable groups to fish without a license while on outings.
[url "http://le.utah.gov/code/TITLE23/htm/23_19_001405.htm"]http://le.utah.gov/...htm/23_19_001405.htm[/url]
I am looking for students from all over the state to get on board with this effort.
If anyone from anywhere has students either in school or who would be interested in helping get this change made please contact me at
[url "mailto:pbjet@hotmail.com"]pbjet@hotmail.com[/url] with law change in the title.
Any help from fishing stores, politicians, or teachers would be a big help too.
Anyone with any questions feel free to contact me.
Thanks for any and all help, this is for the kids, not me. I am just a volunteer trying to teach kids how laws are changed and to get more kids eligable to fish for free on school outings.
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A stupid post deleted
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I believe all you have to do is contact the nearest DWR office and give them the details of the activity and they will issue a permit for the activity !! When I worked for Youth Corrections, we used to take the kids from O&A on excursions from time to time and were able to get permits for them !! Check with DWR on the process !!!
Thanks for your reply.
I have done the free thing with scouts many times, you don't even have to contact the DWR, just filout the form on line.
Problem is that public funded schools are not considered 501c3 organizations so they are not eligable as the law is currently written.
That is why the students want to get the wording changed to include public schools on a school sponsored outing.
If you read the statute [url "http://le.utah.gov/code/TITLE23/htm/23_19_001405.htm"]http://le.utah.gov/...htm/23_19_001405.htm[/url] what we want to do is have a line D inserted in paragraph one to read (d) Is a Utah Public funded school participating in a school sponsored field trip.
and to have the words resident in 2 and 2a replaced with the word youth.
What I am asking for is help to get other school kids who may be effected by this change interested in writing to their local represenatives and get them to agree to vote for this if it gets out of committee and to the floor.
I'll need them to write their Represenatives, Senators, local officials and the govornor asking for support of this measure.
I really need help from places like Daggett County, Uintah, grand, San Juan, Washington, Juab, Beaver, Millard, Sevier, San Pete, Toole, Box Elder and Rich counties so that this becomes a state wide effort by kids all over the state and not just a Salt Lake thing.
If I can get kids from all over the state interested and to write their represenatives I think we can get this changed so that public school kids all over the state can go on a school picnic or field trip and fish without a license if they are age 12 or 13.
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Sorry, I might be totally lost in times but right now i'm 18 and unless the law changed didn't I recall that you didn't have to have a fishing license to fish untill you 14? Did the law change? 6-8th graders should be in that range. I only worry about me so sorry If I'm wrong and this post is useless.
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Yes, it changed a couple of years ago.
Now fishers age 12 and 13 need to have a license. It's not full price like the one you and I need, it's $5 and good for a year, but they need one now.
When they turn 14 they need the full price license.
This change to the law would exempt school kids on a school picnic or field trip from having to have a license if they were 12 or 13. If they were 14, they would need a license no matter what.
Are you still in school?
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I know in Idaho the scout master is supposed to have a group license of some sort. On the IDFG web sight there is a form for group fishing where there only has to be one licensed fisher present. I dont know if Utah has this or not.
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Yes i'm going to school but it's not high school. I just started my first semester at the University of Utah. Dang those laws are kind of lame. I'm not sure but my guess as to why they changed it is because as time goes on more and more people fish. As a result, fisheries and places get fished out. That's too bad though that the community service kids can't fish for free though.
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Yes, it is to bad. That's why we are trying to get the law changed.
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Most school districts have a related C3 organization so people can give cash and in-kind contributions to the district and receive a tax deduction. Could you work through them to get the permits you need?
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As it was explained to me, the school it's self is not a c3 and therefore could not be exempt as an organization.
This is why we want a (d) line added that specifies that public funded schools are included as an exempt organization for purposes of the laws exemptions, no matter what their tax designation is by the IRS as line b (i) and (ii) specifies.
It's really just an adjustment to the existing law that specifies that public funded schools are included in the list of exempted organizations.
It would not exempt 12 or 13 yr olds when they are not part of an official school function.
I'm not a lawyer, so much of this is greek to me, I'm just a guy who is trying to help kids learn how to change a law that affects them by coaching them through the process and get an exemption that will possibably promote more schools to let kids fish while on an outing where fishing is possible.
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I just got off the phone with the division and they confirmed that public schools are not eligible for this exemption as the law is currently written.
I left a message with a Kenny Johnson, (whom I was transferred to by the desk agent) asking how the division might feel about supporting a change to the law to allow schools. I probably won't hear back from him till Monday and I'll keep you all posted about what he says.
Thanks for any support any of you can manage to give me on this project.
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