birding-aus

twitchathon

To: "kbrandwood" <>, "birdingaus" <>
Subject: twitchathon
From: "Margaret Cameron" <>
Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:23:03 +1000
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.




<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU