With the New Year just commencing I started wondering about ideas which had been brought up last year (and the year before) but which had ended in a bottomless wastepaper basket.
Attention was drawn to the glaring lack of publicity when Open Shows are being held. It seems many show organisers are quite happy with things as they are. When shows are held in school halls they never think of inviting the teachers or pupils. The fact that they could have a project on budgerigars or being introduced to the hobby of budgerigar keeping did not seem to count. Neither is publicity wanted to draw attention to the Show. Let those who live around the hall be ignorant of what is going on. Why be bothered we are quite as happy as we are.
Why go to the bother of getting posters and the trouble of putting them up. Let those who have heard of the Show find their own way to the hall. If they can’t find it - hard luck.
Then you have Prize Money. Oh! Who doesn’t like money! Some years ago it was thought that increasing Prize Money would attract more exhibitors. Is that true? The bulk was directed at Best in Show, etc. etc. and won in the main by Champ-ions. It would be far better if the money was spread out with the scale being balanced in favour of Juniors and Beginners and Novice exhibitors. Champions reap the benefit of their wins through sales. Who wants to go to a Junior or Beginner for stock? Very few people indeed, yet they are the future for the hobby.
Of course, when you refer to prizes you have to remember the C.C’s. (Challenge Certificates). These are eagerly sought after by exhibitors but unfortunately, not for all the same reasons. Those in the lower classes treasure them because they feel they have achieved something. But what of some Champions? Are they not after numbers? Why? Well, unless I am mistaken they are of great help when selling surplus. But don’t they differ in value? No. A C.C. is a C.C. immaterial whether it has been won in a strong class of Greens or Grey Greens or just in sparsely contested Rares.
A subject widely discussed was that of falling membership. This is not just a Budgerigar Fancy problem. It is a problem affecting most hobbies these days. Immaterial what excuses we come up with (lack of fertility, too expensive, hard work, etc) the basic truth is that we are getting too lazy. Who wants to bother about spending money on budgies, then having to clean up daily; the worry of management (and pests) when you can just sit at home watching the telly in comfort. Or you could go to the Pub or Club and have a merry time with the lads or somebody else’s wife. Oh that is far more entertaining. Watching and shouting at a football match is far better than spending hours in a noisy, dusty birdroom. The truth, as I have said, is that people just don’t seem to want to be involved in anything which needs a long time factor. They want things in an instant these days and that number is growing. That is why the budgie fancy is falling. It takes involvement and dedication. You need skill and patience and you have to be on your own.
Keeping, Breeding and Exhibiting Budgerigars is a challenge and it is too much for the majority. It is up to those already in the Fancy to get those people, now sitting on their backsides, involved in doing something responsible. We can only do that by pushing our hobby into the forefront. We must first of all attract attention to ourselves and then sell the benefits to be gained by being involved in a hobby. If you look at our Shows you will see there is plenty of room for far more people inside the Hall. It is up to those involved in organising and taking part in our Shows to realise that they must cast their eyes outside their four walls if they wish to survive. Publicity has to be a must in 1999 and one cannot overdo it.
Look what happened to the BS Club Show last year. It benefited from publicity. And our Open Shows must do likewise.
Now of course comes the million-dollar question: Who is going to do this extra work? Those who run our shows are usually small in numbers and work the skin off their hands. They will have to get help from somewhere and that has to start from creating in the first place, a strong club. Clubs will have to become attractive to those outside. Maybe it could even come to amalgamating two very different interests such as budgies and gardening. Budgie people are in the main interested in gardening and do plant flowers around their birdrooms. Maybe some gardeners would show an interest. Their numbers are also going down and a bird/flower show sounds attractive.
Finally, the BS (and maybe other national bodies in other parts of the world) will have to sit down and consider whether they should support all the shows in the show calendar. There is a general feeling in the U.K. that we have far too many shows either being held on the same day or in areas, which overlap each other. The organisers might disagree because their local show is their blue-eyed baby. Some have already fallen by the wayside due to falling support. It would be better if our national bodies stepped in and sorted them out in time.
© Gwyn Evans 1999
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