OUTDOOR CORNER: MDC TRIES TO AVOID ANY RECURRENCES OF RECENT PERMIT FIASCO

The Missouri Department of Conservation has opened a toll-free hotline to meet the needs of deer hunters who didn't get the any-deer or bonus permits they wanted. MDC officials admit they are at fault for not having anticipated the enormous number of hunters who lined up at permit vendors for the first -- and possibly the last -- statewide, first-come, first-served sale of any-deer permits in Missouri history.

The opening of permit sales for the 1997 permit year at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 1 was marked by long waits, short tempers and computer foul-ups that left some hunters with the wrong deer permits and deprived others of the chance to buy deer permits, even though they may have been available.

The MDC is urging hunters who had trouble buying permits to call or write the Department. Calls to 1-800-392-4115 should be answered from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. for the next few weeks. MDC personnel will help those who weren't able to buy deer permits, those who got permits with incorrect information and those who weren't able to get permits for the management units they wanted because of computer glitches.

"We'll never do this again," said a weary Aaron Chapman, MDC Fiscal Services Division Chief, as he rehashed the first-time performance of the over-the-counter any-deer permit sales system. "I'm not sure yet how we will do it next year, but it's got to be different. No one wants to go through this again."

After struggling through the first weekend of 1997 deer permit sales, Chapman and other MDC staffers huddled to decide what should be done on two fronts. Their first priority is helping hunters who stood in line for hours but didn't get the deer permits they wanted. However, he said it will not be possible to satisfy everyone in units where bonus permits are limited.

The MDC's second priority is to make sure those delays never happen again.

"Central Bank of Jefferson City is the Conservation Department's primary contractor for developing the computer system that handles deer permits," said Chapman. "The system has had problems before, but never to this extent."

The root of the problems with this year's deer permit sales was the number of hunters who wanted to buy permits all at the same time. Between 12:01 a.m. Feb. 1 and midnight Feb. 2, the state's more than 1,350 permit vendors sold over 210,000 deer permits. The overload slowed the computer system to a snail's pace. Hunters in some areas reported waiting 15 to 45 minutes for the computer to process their permits.

Chapman said the astonishing volume of business was the result of several factors. Most important was the power of the phrase "first-come, first-served."

According to Chapman, the number of available any-deer and bonus permits is adequate to meet hunters' demand in much of Missouri. In fact, permits available in northern deer management units far outnumber hunters there. Hunters in these areas didn't have to stand in lines Feb. 1 to get permits. In many units, hunters could comfortably wait until September or October to buy and still get what they wanted.

"We thought we had explained that, but some of the information we put out mentioned the importance of early buying in areas where permits were in shorter supply," said Chapman. "In hindsight, we can see that people didn't find out where permits were plentiful and where they weren't. They wanted to be sure they got permits, and 100,000 of them went and lined up to be sure they did."

Chapman said the MDC also didn't foresee that permit vendors -- mostly retail stores -- would build special sales events around the start of the deer permit sales. Stores all over the state announced "Permit Parties", "Bonus Bonanzas" and "Midnight Madness." Their competitors followed suit, contributing to a phenomenal turnout.

Another factor that contributed to the problem was a lack of data about bonus permit sales. In the past, hunters who were successful in the bonus lottery received stickers that allowed them to buy additional deer permits and convert them into bonus permits. MDC officials could only guess how many of the permits they sold were used as bonus permits.

"We didn't know what percentage of hunters were really interest in bonus permits," said Chapman. "It's easy to check off a box asking to enter the lottery, but not everyone whose name is drawn is actually going to buy an extra permit. On Feb. 1 we found out that 80 or 90 percent of hunters wanted bonus permits."

Chapman said the MDC may not have called enough attention to the fact that many deer hunter didn't need to buy their permits Feb. 1. On the other hand, given the first-come, first-served psychology, it's possible that no amount of publicity would have avoided the permit-buying rush and the resulting computer slowdown.

The MDC is examining alternatives to ensure that such an overload never occurs again. Hunters from around the state have suggested ideas that include staggering the start of permit sales in various units and instituting a limited lottery to allocate bonus permits in units where they are scarce.

Dave Erickson, assistant chief of the MDC's Wildlife Division, said over-the-counter deer permit sales were intended to make permit buying surer and easier. The old lottery system required hunters to fill out a paper application fo any-deer and bonus permits and mail it to the MDC. Then the agency processed hundreds of thousands of applications and mailed notification to hunter about the outcome of the drawing on a tight schedule. Hunters had to wait until just before deer season to find out if they qualified for any-deer and bonus permits.

Erickson said the postal problems have plagued the old lottery system in recent years.

"Last year we had 8,000 permits returned to the Department," said Erickson. "They were sitting here, undelivered, and the only thing we could do was wait for hunters to call and ask what happened to their applications. That was a nightmare, too. I know there's a lot of nostalgia for the old lottery system right now, but when 8,000 hunters have that kind of problem, it's not a perfect system. We can do better, and the over-the-counter any-deer permit sales has the potential to do a lot better."

Chapman said the computer technology that underlies the point-of-sale system is the same as that used by credit card companies to process their customers' transactions worldwide. Those systems sometimes slow down during peak buying periods like the Christmas shopping season, but they work. So can the point-of-sale system.

"There is no technological reason why we can't issue any-deer permits over the counter with this system," said Chapman. "But we must be darned sure it can be done without repeating the trouble it gave our customers this year."

Gene Myers is a Missouri Department of Conservation agent in Cape Girardeau County.