The end of DPITB as we now know it!

From the 13th March, 2017, the name Digital Photography in the Bush (DPITB) ceases to exist.
The DPITB event will be known as THE TOM OLIVER CONGRESS. The congress will remain a biannual event with the next one scheduled for some time in 2019; the time and venue to be decided by the 2017 committee and a newly appointed congress organising committee.
This year’s DPITB was organised by three and then two committee members – Julie Sarna and Graham Cam, a reduction to two committee members due to Ian Boyd’s illness. Thankyou Ian for your assistance in the critical early planning stages.
The wonderful selection of bird outings is due the sterling efforts of Jill Wilson and Ian Smissen.

We now seek expressions of interest for 3 BLP members to volunteer their services for the 2019 congress committee from February 2018 and until the all tasks for the next event have been completed, which means at least until February 2019. Some of the roles are: venue selection; congress theme and content; sourcing speakers/workshop presenters; planning bird outings to accompany the main event. The various roles will be assigned by the organising committee.

For a while now I've been thinking that the name of our sort-of-biennial conference needs to be changed. Why? I've been organising WTP outings for the forthcoming conference in Geelong and have had to negotiate with Melbourne Water and a number of individuals for whom the title 'Digital Photography in the Bush' is meaningless as it gives very little idea who we are or what we are about. In my communications I have had to add explanations which, with a more explicit name, would be obvious.

I am very disappointed with the proposal to call our biennial event the Tom Oliver Congress. This is totally opaque to outsiders (and even to new members within our group).

I'd like to see the name changed to National Bird Photography Conference or Birdlife Australia National Bird Photography Conference. This is very specific and describes exactly what we are on about.

No need for the word "digital' - all photography now is digital, unlike when the concept was initiated.

If we don't do this another group may well set up with exactly this title in competition to BLP. Our group has an established event and needs to stake out the territory to ensure this continues as a BA activity. And we need to register the name as a business name.

Thank you Jill for your thoughts - sincerely appreciated.

The first comment is that I am no stranger to the issues and ramifications that arise through the process of change.
The name Digital Photography in the Bush has raised a few eyebrows for some time now including those at BL Head Office; Why 'in the bush' when most events are held in cities or large regional centres and as you rightly point out Jill the word 'digital' was probably relevant but is no longer.
So a name change has been on the cards for some time.
I assumed members would realise that the full name would include Birdlife Photography and I should have been more precise that the full name is THE BIRDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY TOM OLIVER CONGRESS and the short name when talking amongst ourselves would be the Tom Oliver Congress.

If members don't know who Tom was they should be ashamed of themselves, but then our membership survey showed that a large number of our members don't visit our website or if they do they never navigate its wealth of information. Outside of BLP, the general public will not have a clue about either DPITB or THE Tom Oliver Congress or any other name for that matter - this is what marketing is about, especially over for us the next two years. Clearly the name suggests it is something to do with photography and birds and I hope most people know what the word 'congress' means.

I speak regularly with a large number of people across Australia about bird conservation, bird research projects and photography and except for the occasional and pleasant surprise, almost no-one outside of affiliated groups has heard of BirdLife Australia and if the name 'rings a bell' that person is unable to tell me exactly what BirdLife Australia stands for or does. i find myself constantly marketing BirdLife , which is one of my roles. So exposure and marketing is a big issue.

Why Tom Oliver, well several present and past committee members have spoken highly of Tom and his love of teaching bird photography. Di Oliver made a generous bequest to BLP and it is our only bequest. The Tom Oliver Award is one of our main awards and takes a prominent position as a major teaching award. There are other names we can identify who have and continue to contribute significantly to BLP but I think it is a fitting legacy to Tom and what BLP stands for.

I dont see considerable difference between The BirdLife Photography Tom Oliver Congress and the ones you suggest - they all have merit and all will require marketing. Whilst we love our parent and being part of the BirdLife family, 'BirdLife Photography' is our trade mark as a special interest group of BirdLife Australia. We have our own committee, the elected members of which take on a strategic and operational role in BLP and in the case of the current and past DPITB, the full financial risk, concept and organisational workload for such events falls to the committee and people like yourself, to whom we are most grateful.

The name change was discussed at length at committee level and was not a rushed decision; there was a unanimous vote by the committee for the new name and I stand by our decision.

Kind regards
Graham

I think that this is an issue that should be taken to the AGM and not decided unilaterally by the Committee. There is a great deal of difference between naming an award after Tom Oliver, and naming the biennial Conference.

Mr Graham Cam,
Graham,
If you think that your role of President of BLA-P entitles you to openly insult the membership and suggest that I "should be ashamed of myself" for not knowing who Tom Oliver is then I believe that you have overstepped your role as President. I respectfully ask for an apology as right now I am not, and never will be ashamed of myself and you certainly do not have the right to suggest otherwise?
As for your membership survey suggesting that a large number of members don't visit our website or if they do they don't navigate its wealth of information, in my humble opinion "Our website" is one of the most complicated, jumbled websites that I have come across and to support my comment I would ask why it is necessary to devote a whole Sunday morning seminar at the upcoming DPITB to "Seminar: Navigating the BirdLife Photography Website. Rob Parker" ? Surely if it was a well presented and well setout website more members might find it easier to browse 'our' website and 'navigate its wealth of information' ??
Unless you are prepared to apologise for these insulting remarks, I will be resigning as a member of BLA-P.
Bruce Terrill

Dear Bruce I unreservedly apologise for using the word ‘ashamed’ – far too harsh and would be interpreted by many as insulting, which was not my intention. One often uses this term in face-to-face good-humoured conversation but as the written word I agree that it is unacceptable.

The Forum is meant to be an informal site for suggestions and discussions and not meant be overly-formal. Our People section does not have titles or committee profiles (which it should – note to self) and the only other place titles have been used recently is the DPITB Program – so I would necessarily expect you to know I am Dr Graham Cam.

I asked Rob Parker to run through the new website highlighting the wealth of information available and how to efficiently access this information, especially for our new members. Why – because we a totally internet based organisation, except for two days every 2 years and we therefore rely on members to read information, which some do and some do not and the latter requires our valuable time to rectify issues that arise all too often – particularly for our competition co-ordinator.

Every website on the planet has issues and unless it has a very simple function it requires those using the website to understand and drill through its functionality. Rob Parker and Dave Torr upgraded the website to Joomla 3 and a new look last year. Between the two of them they have spent many hundreds of hours undertaking this task and then many hours working with the committee and members to fine-tune functionality. Yes, there are still revisions that are desirable and we continue to work through these in a timely manner. The bottom-line is that our website was developed for free. As part of our joint venture with BL for an annual photography competition, we sought quotes for a simple dedicated website for the event and it would cost at least $10-15K; a website with as much functionality as ours would be greater than $25K. This was not an option for our new website as it would take all our accrued funds and we would need to consider a subscription increase in the range of $30- $50 pa., which I might add is in keeping with memberships to most photographic clubs/groups. Food for thought.

Members please remember that we receive no remuneration for the hours we volunteer 365/24/7 and as indicated above Dave Torr has not invoiced BLP for his professional time. The BirdLife Australia website is even more complex in my view than ours - BL is aware of this and they have plans for an upgrade but this takes time and money and even with a much larger budget and salaried staff this task has not been completed.

Neither, am I saying that there are not more improvements to make. Drilling through four levels to access the committee nomination form could certainly be done better – note to self! We regularly resolve issues identified members as well as taking on board better ways to organise the website. Many of the tutorials/ information packages that were available on the last website have been removed as they require major revision for the new website. If Rob had a member stepping forward who has a fundamental knowledge of website design to assist as Rob’s deputy, I suspect Rob would be able to complete these other tasks much quicker.

My comment re: not knowing who Tom Oliver was relates to it being one of the headers on the home page and the layers beneath detailing the man and the award. When I joined BLP in 2014 I drilled through the website to view the resources available to members, particularly the digital library and the competitions, what was the strategic mission and operational plan and who was the President so that I could discuss my involvement in greater detail. For organisations/groups that have face-to-face meetings I don’t spend a great deal of time on their websites, but for groups like us our website and all our resources are who we are and what we stand for and my personal view is that when we send out our welcome package, new members take the time to work through our website.

Trust I have answered your other concerns.

Regards
Graham