I have always believed that the main reason for having the Twitch is to
raise funds and whenever asked have always recommended that the most
publicity and/or the top prize* should be for best fundraiser not the team
or person who saw most birds. (This is NOT because I have been demonstrably
better at raising funds than at seeing birds!) I think that teams' or
participants' efforts as fundraisers should be publicised as well as their
efforts at recording species, though recognize (from experience at the
organizing end) that you can't announce top fundraiser on the night of the
twitch since regrettably promises of sponsorship do not always turn out to
mean actual money. (*But actually I don't believe in prizes and think glory
is enough.)
I'm with you keith, but if you really put effort into fundraising it doesn't
matter where you are, since you can persuade your prospects to sponsor
specific local things ("will you give me $10 if I see 5 raptors?" when you
know it would be a terrible day when you did not see at least 6 and probably
8 or more.). I am almost (but not really) ashamed to say I have done "What
is your favourite bird? How about $5 if i see one?" After all it is all
reciprocal, they are sponsoring me in the twitch and I am sponsoring their
children in readathons, swimathons, 24 hour famines, head shavings for
leukemia etc.
I would say however that it is really important that the money is going to
be spent on something you can explain really needs help - it was a lot
easier to get good support for, say, the Red tailed Black Cocky in
Victoria than for unspecified projects - "we have several good conservation
projects" is just not the same.
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