|
|
|
LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE
NOVICE!
FOR IF WE DON’T, THE
CANARY FANCY WILL CONTINUE TO DECLINE!
©2007
NATIONAL BIRD DESIGNS, INC. & DONALD PEREZ
BY DONALD PEREZ
My intention
with writing this article is to bring to the attention of every officer, board
of director and member of every canary club in America to address how they
intend to continually promote and acknowledge the novice canary aficionado.
Ladies and
gentlemen, we must move in a positive direction as relates to the solicitation
and promotion of the novice in the canary fancy or the fancy as we once knew it,
will continue on its path of non-existence!
Let me begin
with a bit of some very recent history, if I may. The first Friday of May, a
well-publicized meeting took place hosted by a local Chicagoland bird club which
was founded in 1939. The name of
the club is NIROC which is the acronym for the National Institute of Red Orange
Canaries, was obviously formed to promote and improve upon the Colorbred Canary.
As it evolved, it encompassed all other canaries which were those breeds
of Type and Song. I mention this
because most all-variety bird clubs formed in this country from day-one were
founded by a majority of canary fanciers above all other breeds of our
avian-friends.
A debut
multimedia presentation took place at this NIROC meeting on The History of the
Canary – Part One. There really
was no point in holding a meeting and I’ll tell you why in a bit. The presentation indeed took place and was a success.
A success in all aspects except that there were only 8 people in
attendance! There were two NIROC
Board Members as well as myself and 5 other people, all canary fanciers of which
2 were a husband and wife who were brand new members to the club.
The third
Friday in May, another well-publicized meeting took place hosted by another
local Chicagoland bird club which also happens to be one of the oldest clubs in
the entire country, founded in 1938! The
name of the club is GCCBC which is the acronym for Greater Chicago Cage-Bird
Club.
It too was founded with the majority of the founders being canary fanciers above all other breeds of birds. In fact, some of these same founders were instrumental in the founding and formation of our most prestigious bird club in North America named the National Cage Bird Club, way back when!
The second
performance of the very same multimedia presentation took place at this meeting
at the request and invitation by this club’s kind president.
I must state here that 99.98% of those in attendance at this meeting were
NOT canary fanciers or exhibitors of canaries. There must have been by rough count, about 60+ people in the
meeting hall.
Bob Wild,
the president of the club is a major player in the canary fancy having won many
Kellogg Trophies at the NCBS and many other awards for his high-quality canaries
over the years. He was presiding at
this meeting as was one other canary fancier.
This other canary fancier’s name is Bob Ziegler. Bob’s parents had
won 18 Kellogg Trophies, if I remember correctly, as has he for their lovely
canaries. Bob Ziegler is also on
the Board of Directors of the GCCBC.
At this
meeting, prior to my giving my canary presentation there was a request by the
president of the club asking if there were any first-time visitors in the
meeting hall. One gentleman stood
up and presented himself as a ‘newbie’ who was interested in canaries.
He was asked how he came by knowing of the club and replied that he did a
GOOGLE search on the Internet for canary clubs in the Chicago area and so there
he was! He came to learn and then
to decide what kind of canaries he wanted to get started with. It seems, in this
writer’s opinion that both these clubs have ‘evolved’ with the times.
GCCBC has
evolved from what was a large contingent of serious canary breeders and
exhibitors to now many pet, companion and ‘second-home’ bird owners with a
huge following of bird rescue care-givers.
That’s great and I applaud the hard work that goes into keeping a club
going during these times. However,
we need more to be done for the canary enthusiast or they will just stay away.
NIROC was
always getting smaller and smaller beginning when its president at the helm
retired to Arizona and it now has less than 50 members.
Its current president recently resigned due to health issues and its
vice-president is rarely at meetings which were getting less and less members
showing up. The June meeting was
cancelled when only 3 people showed up; a Board member and 2 canary fanciers!
No sense in renting a meeting hall for that!
The point to
writing this is to get canary fanciers thinking what they can do to attract the
novice canary fancier to the fold. If
this is happening in my ‘back yard’, what’s happening in the rest of the
country? Pretty much the same thing
from what I hear!
The hard workers who have over the years set up the show staging and acted as show officials, secretaries, stewards and the such are getting old or passing on to that bird lover sanctuary in the sky and we need new blood to carry on some of these responsibilities. How do we attract them and once we get them in the fold, how do we keep them on it as active and participating members?
|
|
|
WE
ACKNOWLEDGE AND ENCOURAGE THE NOVICE!!!
THAT’S HOW!!
Let me
add one last story about the novice shown in the photos accompanying this
article. This novice had joined the Gloster Clubs here in America last year as
well as both our local Chicago bird clubs. He had also built up the courage to
exhibit for the first time at the National just last fall.
This novice
Gloster breeder exhibited in what was his second event in less than 2 weeks and
was competing against what was to suppose to be some of the finest Gloster
exhibitors and champions in North America with a strong contingent in from
Canada as well. This brave novice
who was a member of all these clubs including the NCBS had a sweet Consort that
not only won as the Second Best consort in Show but also Sixth Best Gloster in
Show and also Best Novice Gloster in Show.
The pathetic thing was that neither he or his winning Gloster was
recognized by ANY Gloster club with an award, certificate, mention or even a
handshake for having bred, banded and exhibited the Best Novice Gloster at the
National other than from one club?
That’s
right! To this day as I type this
article, the ONLY club that recognized this novice was the United Gloster Club
who’s Secretary/Treasurer, Barbara Rosario had sent him a couple of
certificates in the mail! He is
also shown on their website presentation of the 2006 NCBS Gloster Winners for
the world to applaud!
This article
is not written to chastise any club but to get club officers, board directors
and members of the fancy to wholeheartedly begin recognizing the novice and
encouraging them to breed, band and exhibit canaries!
Get them involved in activities; I assure you that you will not regret
it!
This novice
I mention in this article along with his 3 brothers all have and breed canaries
and guess what, none of them showed up at either of these two club meetings
where I conducted these canary presentations nor have they shown up prior!
I wonder why!
From the
local to the national level, more attention MUST be given to soliciting to and
making the novice welcome. More
encouragement, acknowledgement, recognition and awards must be dedicated to the
novice. More write-ups should be
done in club newsletters about the novice members and their achievements in
their clubs.
The sooner
we ALL begin to address the value of the novice in the canary fancy, the sooner
we can see an increase in the numbers of canary aficionados, breeders and
exhibitors here in North America!
Come on folks; let’s hear it for
the novice!!!
To that end, I have recently accepted the position of Interim-president of NIROC and will do all I can to get this club back up to what it once was with a special focus on the novice being the first item on my agenda. National Bird Designs, Inc. will also be making available to interested clubs, NBD – AVI-CULTURE plaques for Best Novice in Show; please e-mail me at: information@avi-culture.com for full qualifying details!
Donald Perez
THE HOUSE OF CRESTS
www.houseofcrests.com
www.glostercanary.com
PH: 847.338.5660
