On behalf of the BirdLife Photography Committee I would like to welcome our members back from travel over the Christmas-New Year period and the month of January.
The first photo competition for the 2017 year has commenced – ‘Ducks and Pigmy Geese’ – and even though the weather has been oppressive across much of Australia, particularly the excessive heat, I am impressed by the number of photos submitted to date.
Last year was an incredibly busy year for both myself and the committee as we worked through many initiatives that the committee might say ‘I inflicted upon them’, the launch of our new website as well as the many issues that arose throughout the year. It was a year in which I travelled in almost every month and overseas twice. This meant an obvious hiatus in terms of my ability to post on the Forum but not in terms of conducting BLP business. It sometimes meant going to extraordinary length to conduct committee meetings and other business; on one occasion, I recall walking for a kilometre into a Western Australian wheat-field in the dark to climb a rocky outcrop, hotspot my iphone to my laptop and run a 2.5h Skype meeting. I kept a diary last year documenting the hours and days spent on BLP business and to the 16th December the results were a mean of 6.1 days and 33.7h per week for 2016, with a peak week reaching greater than 49h. It is a similar situation for other committee members.
As from this post today this situation for the committee will change dramatically. On Monday, I am asking the committee to reduce their workloads by indicating where they require assistance from the membership. As I have written on numerous occasions, BirdLife Photography is a Special Interest Group run by members in a voluntary capacity for the entire membership and as such the workloads for the committee MUST be dispersed amongst the membership so that every member, including the committee, has an opportunity to engage in their passion for bird photography and by so doing, making BirdLife Photography the ‘go to’ bird photography site in Australia. With the current work-load it is no surprise to me that committee members do not have the time to engage in our photo competitions, something I intend to change in 2017. As you know, I have regularly asked for assistance over the last two years and a few hands have been raised but not for some of the key roles. As an example, the Premier Bird Image Gallery initiative needs a co-ordinator for the species lists mail-outs and consolidation of the results, which are then emailed to Rob Parker for image upload to the PBIG. This has stalled in 2016 because I am stretched to the limit. I’m certainly not dismissive of the reasons given by those who responded – regular travel and a potential perceived (by the membership) conflict of interest, but the truth is that these issues also apply to the committee, who to date have managed these roles.
During the next week, I will post a list of essential roles that you as members need to step into. I will leave it to you to discuss amongst yourselves and propose a member who is prepared to step into the role. Should there be no candidates, forthcoming, an ‘S’ will be listed against the role/initiative and it is ‘SUSPENDED’ until the advertised role is filled.
This is in addition to a call for nominations for committee positions 2017, which will be sent out in the coming days ahead of the AGM. The additional roles I refer to above do not need to be filled by new committee nominations. BLP has at present 7 active committee members and an eighth member on sick leave. One committee member will most likely move to one of the ‘non-committee’ roles as mentioned above, after the AGM. For 2017, Skype meetings with an executive of 6 committee positions is more than sufficient to conduct BLP business. Of course, you are not precluded from nominating for a committee position but if you have limited time available, I would prefer you spending the 36 hours (normally devoted to committee meetings) on one of the ‘non-committee’ roles.
When you consider whether you might contribute – consider this. Apart from finalising the 2016 awards, finalising the design and production of our custom 2016 medals and associated awards for presentation at the AGM, the ongoing preparations for DPITB (now in its eighth month), preparing the AGM reports, preparation of four workshops and one seminar, compiling research articles and writing a review on the scientific impact of call playback for release pre-DPITB, requests for articles and images from BirdLife Australia for various projects, developing a national bird photography competition and the regular tasks of running BLP, I have also had to deal with the following since the 15th December. I admit that this is an unusual year but here is the list – remove and store the belongings from my younger daughter’s residence and relocate her to Canada. My wife – Annette – had arranged to travel with my daughter and help her settle in and find accommodation. My wife who retired as the Principal of Windsor HS at the end of 2015, was offered a 3-year contract as the Executive Principal at Wilcannia Central School on the 14th December and so we re-packed my daughter’s belongings and the bulk of our house for relocation to Wilcannia before my wife went to Canada. I continued packing and storing whilst Annette was overseas. Annette returned on the 1st February, stayed in Sydney overnight and then flew to Broken Hill the next morning and then by rental car to Wilcannia. We have an allocated house and all she had until yesterday, when our goods arrived, was a frypan, camp mat and a bag of clothes – no fridge! On top of this I have been in hospital undergoing DSAEK surgery, in an attempt, to save a failing corneal transplant in my left eye. Some people think it is like a cataract operation – it is a little more complex and invasive and I will not know if it has been successful for another 6 months or longer - the visual implications are profound especially for an existing corneal transplant where vision is already compromised - something I have lived with since I was 20. The corneal transplant is because I have keratoconus. Fortunately, my right eye is less severe and this has enabled me to live a normal life – a career in science, sport and of course photography. If my right eye had been like the left I would have been legally blind and using a white cane. So now you know why I haven’t been on the Forum since December, which was my plan in late November last year.
Before you dismiss considering taking up the challenge of taking on a BLP role and replying that you don’t have the time to be involved – you do – if I can, you can – and we are fortunate to have so many capable and talented members. I will not be asking you to spend an unrealistic amount of time in these roles; it is a matter of sharing the workload. Further, you will find these roles enjoyable. When Mary Wheeler stepped into the Competition Co-ordinators role it was an initial learning curve and now she enjoys the role.
If know-one steps up to these roles I will be making personalised calls to those members who are the key users of our website. NO UPTAKE FROM THE MEMBERSHIP results in a string of big ‘S’s appearing on the website – initiative SUSPENDED.
Like my committee colleagues, I intend to spend more time photographing birds and experiencing wild places; I also want to utilise my expertise by writing articles and tutorials for the Newsletter and more time critiquing photos, which is something I also do every month for one of my camera clubs. I have been criticised for not having more of my photographs on the website – there is only one way I can do this – it comes down to more available time. After running three bird photography workshops last year, I receive regular invitations to run these workshops in other regions and it is something I enjoy doing and will now make more time to do so – there is no financial gain, no status attached, for me it is all about the rewards of seeing others enjoying their photography and developing their photographic skills.
If you think about why you are a member of BL AUS and BLP, it is because of your love of nature, a passion for photography and a commitment to promoting bird conservation through the medium of photography. My role in BLP is one of strategic and operational leadership and by working with BirdLife Australia as a cohesive team within their strategic framework, ensure that we effectively utilise our resources to promote the public appreciation and understanding of our native birdlife; your role is personal empowerment by taking an active operational role in BLP activities/events/initiatives, which provide a range of educational resources in the art and technique of bird photography and bird ID for our members, and by doing so, you assist the BirdLife network achieve its important conservation outcomes.
OUR FUTURE IS NOW IN YOUR HANDS.
