blp shabash 430x45
Inspiring and Supporting Photographers of Australian Birds

Welcome, Guest
Username: Password: Remember me
When posting a new topic, please ensure that you select the correct category for your post in the top drop-down box of the edit window. The default entry is the first category shown on the All Categories page; this is unlikely to be the category that you want. The Category drop-down box will be present if you click the New Topic tab in the Forum menu; if you are viewing a particular category of the Forum and you use the New Topic button in the Category Header section, the drop-down box will not be present, and your new post topic will automatically appear in the category that you are viewing.
News about BirdLife Photography.
  • Page:
  • 1
  • 2

TOPIC:

A new name and format for DPITB 7 years 1 month ago #948

  • Bruce Terrill
  • Bruce Terrill's Avatar
  • Offline
  • Elite Member
  • Elite Member
  • Posts: 266
  • Thank you received: 47
Hi Graham,
I appreciate your words and certainly have no issue with you personally my only concern, as you said, was the harshness of the words. Apology accepted with no malice. . .
Graham, when I first joined BL-A, I was keen as mustard and being a Raptor rehabilitator I was keen to also join the ARA and paid my fees very quickly. Well the ARA just as quickly, accepted my membership fees and I have never heard from them since, no welcoming package, nothing. They are a bloody disgrace and after talking to three other people who have had exactly the same result, I publicly question their integrity and also BL-A's for continuing to support this group! Where I am going with this is quite simple, when it comes time to renew my membership with BL-A and BLA-P I will gladly donate my ARA renewal to BLA-P and any other monies that I can find laying around. As a matter of fact, I have just found the ideal recipient of all my small change that gets thrown into a large tin at the front door. . .
I would have no problem with an annual increase in membership fees for the Photography group, lets face it, those that can afford thousands of dollars on huge lenses should be able to find, and not complain about, an extra 20-30 dollars a year to help bolster our group?
AND, before everyone jumps in and starts shooting me down, please just add your own comments and treat the writer with the dignity that you, yourself, would expect. And while you're thinking, have a quick thought as to what you do with all your small change and ask yourself why you couldn't also put it into a tin for 'YOUR' group??
Kindest regards,
Bruce

Please Log in to join the conversation.

A new name and format for DPITB 7 years 1 month ago #949

  • Graham Cam
  • Graham Cam's Avatar Topic Author
  • Offline
  • Senior Member
  • Senior Member
  • Posts: 40
  • Thank you received: 38
Hi Richard,

The BLP committee is elected to make decisions on behalf of the membership - this is our role and will continue to be our role. My role as President is to show leadership, which is always paramount in my mind. Before the Forum I sought input from the membership on the many initiatives that I have introduced during the last two years. I have taken member views into consideration, as has the committee, but at the end of the day with many viewpoints it has been my role to make a decision and move forward with business.

I and the committee try to make the right decision every time and never have we made a decision that 'feathers our own nests' (excuse the pun), in fact more often than not the new initiative creates much work for us and often excludes the committee from participating in the new venture. Our decision in this instance was not a unilateral decision it was a unanimous decision made by 7 independent elected committee members.

Nonetheless, I give an undertaking that should the committee (not just me) have evidence to show that there is a significant membership groundswell for another name for the congress (DPITB will no longer be used) then we will reconsider our decision. There is no imperative that it should be the BirdLife Photography Tom Oliver Congress, but a fitting legacy for Tom and what we stand for - a passion for teaching bird photography. So long as the new name has the words 'BirdLife Photography' in the title I have no particular preference and as I pointed out previously any name requires marketing.

DPITB may have appeared as having a market awareness but as one of the current DPITB organisers rightly pointed out to me recently, when we advertised through BirdLife Australia a substantial number of BL members had no knowledge of DPITB.

No decision will be made at the AGM but the committee is certainly open to views being heard throughout the event in Geelong, including the AGM. Why I say no decision will be made is that less than 10% of members will attend the AGM. If there was a significant ground swell for rethinking the name in coming months, then t is clear that the full membership should decide.

Therefore the process, would be an email to all members asking for expression of interests for names; the committee would also submit its preference(s). There should then be a period to discuss the pros and cons of each. A full membership vote would then be taken through some entity such as Survey Monkey (this would be designed with Fiona Blandford at BL Head Office). The name with the highest vote accepted. If this process went ahead, there would need to be a volunteer from our membership who would liaise with the committee but take full responsibility and oversight of the complete process.

Regards
Graham










and then having that governmemt ask the people Not all decisions will be favoured by the members
The following user(s) said Thank You: Paul Jensen

Please Log in to join the conversation.

A new name and format for DPITB 7 years 1 month ago #950

  • Glenn Pure
  • Glenn Pure's Avatar
  • Offline
  • Moderator
  • Moderator
  • Posts: 249
  • Thank you received: 199
Regarding the idea Bruce put forward of making a donation, I (and I think the rest of the committee) would never discourage any members or others from doing that. Having said that, our financial position is good and, unless donations were many and large (so that businesses or people could be hired to do things for us), I think it unlikely it could provide relief where it is most needed: the various tasks and activities that we undertake on a volunteer basis for members. So, I'd encourage everyone to think more about volunteering time, even if only a small amount, to spread the load and make it possible to do what we do even better or even enable us to consider new initiatives that might be valuable to members. So please head Graham's recent and future requests by volunteering for tasks that he or the committee may advertise.

And if you do have some funds spare, by all means donate. But also consider ways you could spend it to improve your photos (training, books, software etc) as ultimately we aim to have the 'go to' site for Australian bird photos and we can all contribute to that by learning and increasing the standard of what we are able to contribute to the image databases.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Bruce Terrill

Please Log in to join the conversation.

A new name and format for DPITB 7 years 1 month ago #951

  • Bruce Terrill
  • Bruce Terrill's Avatar
  • Offline
  • Elite Member
  • Elite Member
  • Posts: 266
  • Thank you received: 47
Hi Everyone,
This is my personal opinion on the renaming of DPITB to The Tom Oliver Congress.
Personally I hate putting an individual on a pedestal unless everyone, photographers and Twitchers together, know who the individual is. If the 'naming rights' were for our group only, then I could understand the promoting of an individual's name to the position of naming rights, but as Graham said, when the results of the BL survey came in very few members had any knowledge of what DPITB stood for. Well my question is how in hell is this going to change by changing its name to Tom Oliver etc.?
When you think of well known legacies, you think of bronze statuettes of Rod Laver, Glenn McGrath, John Newcombe, all these legacies are well known within and without the cicle of participation for which they hold notoriety. If we want to talk about legacies, I think that it would be more prudent to pay homage to our earlier 'Forefathers' from PhotoBOCA, these are the blokes who worked tirelessly out of their own pockets to set up a fantastic group that was eventually able to be carried forward into BLA and I certainly won't go into politics here as to the result of the merging of the two groups.
Therefore, I believe that there are more gentleman with the entitlement to be given 'naming rights' to this new "Congress" name than just Tom Oliver. . .
I also believe that including an individuals name into the title of 'Our' new congress belittles the work carried out by other founding individuals and this, an individuals name, also introduces more confusion as to what this new Congress is about seeing as there was apparent confusion into the acronym DPITB.
Therefore, in my humble opinion, a more suitable name would be simple and to the point, along the lines of National Bird Photography Conference or similar?
Richard Smart's idea of a vote at DPITB this year as already been 'vetoed' but I can state here and now, if there was a vote as to the naming of our Congress/Conference, I would strongly vote against it and I suggest that other members get off their bums and take this opportunity to let The Committee know what your feelings are on this matter and I also suggest that when it comes to 'Important' decision making that The Committee consults with its membership rather than making decisions which, I feel, should be presented to the membership for consultation before voting on. . .
Without prejudice,
Bruce Terrill

Please Log in to join the conversation.

A new name and format for DPITB 7 years 1 month ago #952

  • Ian Wilson
  • Ian Wilson's Avatar
  • Offline
  • Platinum Member
  • Platinum Member
  • Posts: 430
  • Thank you received: 495
Hi Graham,
Glad that you are prepared to reconsider the unanimous decision of the Committee to name our national conference the Tom Oliver Congress, good call. I agree it would be unreasonable to allow less than 10% of members at the AGM to make any important decisions... except to elect the new Committee. The President? -, well he's elected by the Committee behind closed doors and we usually find out the result weeks later in the Newsletter.
Ian
The following user(s) said Thank You: Bruce Terrill

Please Log in to join the conversation.

  • Page:
  • 1
  • 2

CONTACT US

The easiest way to contact us is by emailing us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Our People page, in the About Us section, contains email links to each of the committee members.