At 09:53 02/12/96 +1100, Tony wrote:
>
>1. There are not enough members
>
>In my opinion 5000 members for any birding organisation in Australia is
>extremely low. Having said that it is clear that this is not so easy to
>resolve. I have always been quite surprised even shocked at the number
>of birders that I know that are not members of the RAOU. How many more
>must there be? The interest is there, it would appear to be a marketing
>problem! I would lay odds that not many of you have met a non birder for
>example that has heard of the RAOU?
I quite agree!!
Another problem is the dissipation of limited funds when it comes to
research and conservation. Take the recent Twitchathons. While most other
Australians were out there busting guts to raise money for woodland birds (I
think), we Queenslanders were locked into raising money for Coxen's
Fig-parrot. Both worthy causes BUT I bet both causes suffer in that monies
are diverted into too many pies.
>Wingspan could be sold in newsagents?
There already is a WINGSPAN on the newsagents' shelves - deals with
aircraft!!
>Advice should be sought from a professional marketing manager?
Didn't they come up with Birds Australia?
>More activity via the Internet.
I'll be in that!
>Offer some sort of program for students?
More competitions. The Twitchs appear popular so how about a sort of BIRDER
OF THE YEAR competition; an on-running annual event based on the number of
species recorded in one given year. There could be handicaps for
regions/species.
>2. There are far too many organisations
Been my beef for longer than I care to remenber AND with retirement only a
decade or so away I'll soon be at that point where I'll need to give careful
consideration to my dollars. Someone is gonna miss out.
>I would for one would gladly pay more to be a member of just one or two per
>year. Perhaps some of these could merge?
And in the process we (those concerned for the welfare, scientific and
conservation of birds) would probably see more pennies (sorry, cents... or
should that read sense?) going into the one coffer allowing for the maximum
channelization of financial resources.
Julian
...............................................................................
Julian Bielewicz
12 Florence Street
Kippa Ring, Q. 4021
Australia
Tel: +61 7 3283 4921
Fax: +61 7 3889 4272
email:
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