As Top mentioned, there are SFW Board members who sit on the UT Wildlife Board that will vote on this proposal on Friday. The application in the past was submitted by the Mule Deer Foundatio, who partnered with SFW to conduct the Expo. To my knowledge, there are no MDF Board members on the Wildlife Board.
It is very possible that MDF will submit the proposal, not SFW. That could allow the SFW Board members to in some way be considered unconflicted in their vote. The new RFP that arose after RMEF submitted their original bid, does ask for partners in the Expo application. I am not sure if MDF choosing SFW or it's parasitic sister group, Big Game Forever, as their Expo partners will be considered a conflict of interest.
I have seen the proposal that has been submitted by RMEF under this new RFP. The ante has been raised even further. It will surely be interesting to see how the other bids compare to what RMEF has offered. Odds are that we will not know what the other bids offered, due to the UT folks saying this will all remain confidential.
I seriously doubt the other groups will offer the financial incentives RMEF has offered or that they will subject their Expo financial activities to the same level of outside examination that RMEF has offered. But, given how the RFP is worded, a lot of rather curious criteria are given a lot of consideration; criteria that will likely result in a lower score without being involved in past Expos.
Either way, if more money ends up on the ground for Utah wildlife, habitat, and conservation, the RMEF;s involvement will have been beneficial. And if it raises the Expo and the process in Utah to a higher level of accountability and transparency, the folks of Utah will benefit.
