Last month I was invited to attend the Budgerigar Research (BRA) Show in San Pedro, California and whilst entries were slightly down on last year the Show was an outstanding success.
There is no doubt in my mind that the hospitality extended to everyone at-tending, whether exhibitor or not, plays a most important part in the success of this Show. On the Friday evening all are invited to the Hospitality Room where a Bar, Coffee and Tea facilities and an extensive buffet are avail-able free of charge. At lunchtime on Saturday a really sumptuous buffet is available, again free of charge. It would take half a page to describe what was on the tables and this was enjoyed eaten outside in a 90 degree temperature.
The evening Banquet would have made any bridal pair happy. It was magnificent. Again I am told the Club contributed 10 dollars towards the cost of each guest.
Each year the BRA Club invites an overseas Judge to officiate at their Show. This year it was the turn of George Jenkins from Worcester. The Club pays all expenses each year for the Judge and his wife.
You can ask how on earth a Club like the BRA can do this. It is all through hard work fund-raising. The club members contribute birds to-wards their raffle (which is really more of an auction) and a generous sup-porter clears any out-standing debt.
Entrance to the show hall is also free, but there is no prize money, but trophies are handed to each winner.
I believe that other American Shows also operate on similar lines but it would be unheard of to do anything similar in the U.K. People, it seems, prefer prize money, but it goes into only a few pockets whilst the Americans spread the cake out to one and all.
With a smaller number of birds on the show-bench, the Americans can enjoy the judging and eagerly await the Judges comments on their birds. I like the system because it helps exhibitors Ñ especially the Novices and Juniors.
The Best Bird in Show was a Skyblue cock exhibited by Peter Sanchez who had travelled all the way down from San Francisco to stage his birds. Incidentally, this Best in Show was a brother to the Skyblue cock Peter exhibited and won the All-American Show in San Diego a fortnight earlier. Congratulations
With the BS Club Show now on our doorsteps the organisers tell me they anticipate a really memorable event. Whilst it is too early to refer to entries it seems that hotel bookings are excellent. This is good news but it is also a hint for those who have not al-ready booked their rooms to do so without delay.
The opportunity for up and coming breeders has never been so good. In recent years many Specials have been won by people whom we had hardly heard of and this is good for the hobby. Today, big studs do not dominate the show scene in the U.K. because the number of such studs has dropped dramatically. There was a time when several exhibitors had no trouble at all in staging thirty or more exhibits. But that is a very rare thing to see these days. Studs are smaller and it is my belief that top prize
© Gwyn Evans 1999
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