Recently I spent a week at BirdLife head office discussion a wide range of topics from BLP policy to initiatives that would develop a closer interactive relationship between BLP and BirdLife. These discussions were most fruitful.

One topic with relevance to BirdLife and BLP was that of membership privileges/permissions on both websites. I have been considering this issue for some months and I now need views from our members and from the Committee, as I suspect that there will be quite disparate opinions.

Every organisation requires substantial funding to operate and with government monies no longer forthcoming, particularly to any organisation that is linked to the environment, climate change or the survival of all species on this planet, membership subscriptions/donations/bequests are now the major life-blood for these organisations, including BirdLife and BLP.

Unfortunately, we also live in an era of entitlement and the number of times I see friends and colleagues sharing resources that were purchased by only one user is mind boggling. This entitlement has no justification nor empathy for the authors of these resources and deprives both individuals and organisations of critical operating funds.

BirdLife and BLP currently offer a range of free access to certain resources in the name of promoting conservation and as means of strategic marketing to attract new Members.

So here is my quandary. Attracting new members to BLP results in more funding for BLP and for servicing BirdLife initiatives. It also enhances BirdLife credibility and their ability to influence government decision by having a substantial membership base - it is a numbers game.

At present, if you are not a BLP Member you can't access BLP Newsletters (at least not in the last 2 year period) BUT you can access any of the image galleries. Where is the incentive to join BLP? - anyone interested in bird images can see them for free.

Perhaps it makes sense to view our Premier gallery (when activated) for free as we are encouraging the use of your images for conservation awareness and related applications. I think we should provide a sampler of Premier images for the general public and third parties to view but you have to subscribe to have full access to the Premier gallery.

The Bird ID gallery when activated will grow in time to be a major bird identification resource for everyone interested in birds. Why should it be free? - where is the incentive to become a BirdLife/BLP member and where do we access new funds for new initiatives and related activities - time is running out for our birds. My view is that the Bird ID gallery should also be restricted to BLP membership and that again we organise a sampler gallery of images to attract new members from public viewing.

These are my views as your new President - I would like to know your views on this topic.

NO DECISIONS HAVE BEEN MADE ON THIS TOPIC AND I HAVE NOT FORMERLY PUT THIS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE AGENDA - I AM GENUINELY ASKING FOR YOUR VIEWS.

Regards
Graham





marketing

I honestly don't know the answer to the quandry. However, the forthcoming member survey should provide a valuable insight into what motivated people to become members, assuming there will be questions that probe the topic. For me, it was the ability to post and share images and join a community of people with like interests. For others?

So, if the primary issue is how to make BLP (and BirdLife) as financially secure as possible, then it is critical to understand what could generate more memberships as well as maintaining existing ones. Of course, a restricted access model could also provide a means to generate revenue in other ways, eg pay per view or pay for website access etc. So the key question here is will reducing access increase membership, or somehow make another revenue stream a real going concern...
1. As mentioned, the survey will help understand member needs and motivations
2. Generating revenue via paid web access (or some other option) - we'd need to understand the competition: a) are free alternatives readily available? b) how much demand and desire will there be if we have something to sell here? c) will anyone be willing to actually pay? etc etc

My suspicion is that paid access (or similar) is not going to generate much money. On the downside, it may damage membership if a significant number of members feel access to many of there images is going to be restricted or blocked.

Glenn

It's not an easy decision, but a couple of things to maybe take into account:

Over the time BirdLife Photography and it's BOCA predecessor have been in existence, use of images by BirdLife staff for the magazine etc. has been minimal. Restricting access is not going to help that process.

It would be interesting to know if stats are available about where hits to the website come from. If there are a few from overseas, it might be worth considering that people do look there to see what birds we have and also to identify birds from photos they have taken here as tourists. If there are a few then it would be a pity to deny them access since they are unlikely to join.

BirdLife Australia policy seems to be to encourage supporters not just members, partly I imagine in the hope that they will join. Limiting access to the gallery would seem counter to this.

People will take the easy path - if they have to join, the majority won't!

Graham,
I don't see a problem with the current access to galleries. I think that people want to become members to be able to contribute and take part in the various activities.
Too many restrictions discourage people from bothering to find out what Birdlife Photography is all about.

I am not interested in being involved in competitions, but there are many who are. The photos which are judged to be the best need to be publicised as an example of the sort of work members are producing. Any interested people should be able to view these.

In fact it would be desirable for exhibitions to be mounted of some of the most interesting images. Not necessarily those which are judged the best.
I know, more work and more expense, but Birdlife spends money and effort in preaching to the converted, more needs to be done to show birds to non members.

regards,
Peter.

...
It would be interesting to know if stats are available about where hits to the website come from.
...

All sorts of stats are available

Quick summary of hits/month, by country: About 85-90% of hits are from Australia. The next two spots are usually US and China - up to 5% each. Others are almost always less than 1%.

Rob

Thanks, Rob. Overseas visitors don't seem to be something to really consider at this stage.