Deer season opens this coming Saturday. The date is savored by many Texas landowners about the same way as a phone call from the Internal Revenue Service. At T minus six days and counting, I still saw flatbed trailers with new deer blinds and corn feeders en route to somebody's back forty. Nothing like waiting til the last minute, eh?

At many of the landowner meetings I've conducted over the years, I begin with a "fill in the blank" examination to find out what the folks on hand know, or are thinking. My goal at any meeting is to get my audience to do one thing: think. Especially if it's outside the box. The last question goes "I think hunters are the _____". Or, I'll let them use ______-______ if they wish.

You can pretty much pick out those who answer blankety-blank, and those who want to use four-letter words. I can read it in their eyes. But there are always others who give answers claiming that hunters are the "salvation of ranchers," "keys to keeping the ranch," or "ticket for me keeping my cows, sheep, goats, etc." This latter group of ranchers has begun the transition from being a wildlife "miner" to a wildlife "manager." Similarly, they have discovered that the key to making a profit in a wildlife enterprise is largely dependent upon themselves becoming people-tolerant, if not people-savvy. The lack of suitable "people skills" is an Achille's heel for many ranchers, at least relative to hunting enterprises.

I've interacted with a lot of hunting lessors and landowners over the last 15 years. Unashamedly, I've used some of those whom I consider the best on various educational programs over the years. I figure Henry Welge of Doss and Forrest Armke of Melvin probably deserve at least a 25 percent appointment with Texas A&M for all the programs they've given over the years. Unlike some others with whom I've worked, Welge and Armke don't mind sharing their trade secrets. Let's examine their strategies.

Henry Welge is a Deutch Will (would that be Wilhelm?) Rogers. I first heard Henry speak in 1981 at a conference in San Angelo (I was a graduate student at the time). He impressed me then with his charm and savvy, and his ability to get people to laugh. Years ago I adopted a philosophy by a guy named Alfred Smith. Smith said, "if you can make a person laugh, you can make them like you, and believe you, and trust you." Welge uses such a strategy adeptly. He could sell fire ants to nursery schools.

I've probably used Henry on at least 20 programs over the last 15 years; I don't think he's ever turned me down, not even once. And he's still telling mostly the same stories that I heard back in 1981; and they're still making people laugh ... and think. I don't mean to imply that Henry isn't making professional developments, for he is. He's a student at every workshop where he makes a presentation.

Perhaps my favorite Welge-ism stems from the time he was helping his daughter work on her fifth grade book report. The subject? Wildlife management, of course. But when the daughter asked her father how to spell wildlife management, Henry paused for a moment and then spelled very deliberately "w-o-r-k." One doesn't get to the point where Henry is any other way. As somebody so aptly said, "the only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary."

Forrest Armke reminds me a little of another Forrest ... Forrest Gump. And I mean that as a great compliment (Forrest Gump is my favorite movie!). Matter of fact, straight to the point, and with a country charm that you can't help but embrace. When he talks, people listen.

I first met Forrest back in June 1987. I had just signed on with Texas A&M and my first big assignment was to work with my former employer, Oklahoma State University, to produce a video teleconference on lease hunting enterprises. The television producer, Ron Dahlgren from OSU, was a former colleague. Ron brought a cameraman down and I got them lined up with seven ranchers who would discuss the ins and outs of the hunting lease business.

A fellow named Forrest Armke was our first appointment. As we pulled through the cattleguard to Forrest's house at the Ford Ranch near Brady, I remember telling Ron that I didn't know Armke from Adam, and didn't have a clue what kind of interview we'd get. I assured him we'd have six more to choose from. When he saw Forrest walk out with his flat-brimmed straw hat on, Ron wondered if it might not be best just to say hello and head on down the road to the next appointment. But since we were there, we wired him up with a microphone and rolled some videotape. WOW ... the sound bytes began to flow ad libitum.

An hour later, we left headed for our next appointment. As we crossed the cattleguard leaving the ranch, Ron and I looked at each other simultaneously and asked the other, "why did we schedule six more interviews?" Hence my admiration of Forrest as a speaker, and a manager, and a person.

Put Forrest Armke on a panel discussion with any audience anywhere from Mason to Manhattan, and you'll probably have disappointed panelists on your hands. Forrest will get all the questions. He will have the audience eating from his hand like Hereford cows going for cottonseed cake on drouth-stricken range. All in a very nonthreatening manner with a demeanor that draws out questions like Campho-phenique draws out the itch on a chigger bite.

Ben Franklin once said that "every man I meet is in some way my superior, and if I will listen to them, I can learn from them." Most of the education I've earned thus far comes from listening to folks who've "been there, done that." When it comes to being Der Deerhuntermeisters, Welge and Armke are definitely Boone and Crockett. I sincerely thank both of them for the sacrifices they've made in educating landowners.

If you ever get a chance to hear Armke and Welge, you'll be better off for it. But don't call and ask them to be a speaker on one of your programs; or at least don't tell them that I mentioned their names. These horses need a well-deserved rest.

Besides, I want to save them for programs that I've got a hand in!