Bird clubs, speakers, program ideas

[Lynjupiter]

Thanks!
The club as a whole is putting together a how to care for your bird kit.
We are even talking about making a bird care video for members. Also we on the board are making rescues and reaching out to new members who don't know how to properly care for their birds and educating them. Plus we make boards on parrots, nutrition , cage size, poopology, bird safety that we display. My last meeting was on how to properly restrain and wing clip your bird.

The vets should be free but they are not. We had one that has never charged the club and has given the club a lot of support. Now due to life crisis and having to take care of his badly injured wife he is charging and the club gladly pays him. He gave us so much through out the years we don't mind giving back.
Lynda

Originally Posted by Franciscus

I have been a member of the Ottawa Parrot Club for about ten years and we have had all kinds of meetings. Some of the ones that did not cost the club were ones where members showed tricks they have taught their birds, movie nights (Paulie, Parrots-Look whose Talking,....) We had members show photos of aviaries they built, along with explanations how to. It may also be a good idea to have more experienced members put together a talk about "bird care basics" for new members. It may be of interest to people who have been living with birds for a long time too because they may learn something new, or perhaps a round table discussion could take place in which they could get involved. We have had a meeting in a park, with properly restrained parrots of course. Unfortunately I could not attend that one as I had to work that day. Toy making workshops are always popular as well. What we usually do is someone puts together kits for the club to sell at that meeting for folks to assemble at the meeting. You could also invite a local avian vet to come give a talk. In my opinion they should do that for free as they can get business out of it. The topic could be on how to recognise illness in parrots, or on one or more parrot disease.

[Freedomoflight]

My birdclub has a different "major"speaker come each year. This year it was Mark Bittner, last it was Mattie Sue Anthen. We also have roundtable disccusions. Each meeting focuses on a different species of bird. Also, we have elections for our boardmembers. we throw a christmas party each year, along with a summer picnic, we participate in local parades and events, and we throw an expo each year. I think one thing I like most about our club is that the birds are invited to come to the meetings, that way they can be socialized and we can get the opportunity to handle diff. species of birds.

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by Lynjupiter

Good ideas thanks,
We have many birds at the meeting so we fill in a lot of time at ach meeting looking and meeting various birds brought in.

Our next meeting is about Pet Trusts. Pet trusts are new and just became legal in Florida. So I am having a lawyer in who works in animal rescue and specalizes in setting up estates to care for pets.

We used to do a once a year outdoors thing where we had photography contests and cookout. But not enough people came.. We might try it again now we have new and younger members.

This is nice exchanging ideas and those of you in clubs in other states can bring ideas you see here to those in your club that sets up programming.
Lynda

That is one I wish my bird club would do. We can have Pet Bequests through the RSPCA and I have signed up for it, but I would prefer to have more control over who gets the birds and how their money is spent.