I think Tony's proposals for a "restricted" twitchathon has merit in that
it could encourage more participation by your average member of the bird
clubs. However, I would suggest that the facility for this already
partially exists in the form of the Champaign Twicthathon which is
generally much more relaxed.
The number of teams entering the Twichathon in NSW does appear to be
declining. The crux of the issue, as I see it, is promotion. I think many
(not all) birdwatchers see it as a fairly elite exercise that should be
entered only if your team has a real chance of winning. The Twichathon
needs to be more actively promoted with an emphasis on getting more teams
made up of "average" birdo's. This might entail introducing a completely
non-competitive category. I really do think that most birdo's appreciate
the value of the fund raising (and this is the REAL purpose of the
Twitchathon after all) and would welcome a chance to become involved if the
perceived elitism was removed.
Having said that, the Main Race should remain. There is sufficient
interest in this to warrant its continuation and these teams do raise a
significant amount of money. At the end of the day even those who wouldn't
dream of entering the twitchathon are interested in what can be achieved by
those more competitive birdo's. Lets face it, everyone is interested in
how many birds are seen at the end of a days field outing.
David Geering
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