Page 3 - May2011-Finall

I would like to introduce myself as the new editor for the Oklahoma Station Safari Club International “Safari Trails” magazine. My name is Larry W Gerads, most people know me as Network Larry (A story one day on that I am sure). I'd love to tell you all that I have years of experience in the making of some top rate periodical, have written and published hundreds of articles in the hunting world, and come on board with the all the required skills to make this THE subscription you can't wait to get your hands on each month! Well, I can't say any of those right now :( SCI is nonprofit and we are all 100% volunteers. What I can say is we are going to have fun, will try our darndest to produce content that everyone will find interesting and entertaining, and we will strive to be the best reading time you spend!

How are we going to make all this happen? By using you and all your writing friends. When it comes to making a readable publication, I do know that making the content hit home is required. So, I am officially asking all of my hunting/fishing/outdoor brethren and sisteren to give me some stories. Give me opinions, give me pictures, and give me content that I can use or just give me grief. I will manipulate it as I see needed, with your input, as I know we can all get a bit patronage at times but it will always be yours I will argue with your opinion, or quadruple gold star it. We will publish it for all to see, and we will all learn from each other’s experiences and have many a great laugh too.

If I don't have any of those accolades above, and want you all to fill me up with content, then what in the world will I be bringing to the table? Nothing hehe Just kidding of course :) Experience, wisdom, humor, and a ton of opinion. I was born and raised in the deep woods of Minnesota to a dad that would rather hunt it, catch it, or grow it than spend a dollar at a grocery store. We hunted, fished, and grew that stupid 4 acre garden that I had to hand weed every … woops, back on track .. everything there was and did it the hard or natural way. We didn't have money for most of today’s toys, never went on an Outfitted hunt, and always ate what the land allowed us to have. Minnesota taught me resourcefulness, humility and respect. From there I went world traveling and spent 15 years enlisted in the US Air Force. Now I could run a whole tangent on this time frame, but let’s say for the purpose here, I have lived in more countries than I have states and to me, there is no difference between driving to MN to see my friends or stopping in on them in China, it's all just a road trip (some by air) away. From this I learned compassion, world understandings, and discipline (no chance I came out of MN with ANY discipline hehe). After separating the military 10 years ago with my 4th honorable discharge, I started a couple companies. Today, I own 2 corporations and am involved in the beginning of a third. Again, the stories here could go on and on, but from this era I have learned Accountability, Politics, Sustainability and Technology. So, as you can see if I don’t know it, I can baffle my way through at least.