| Author: Bob Rowland | Title: Establishing Standards |
| Date: 2003-09-30 23:03:37 | Uploaded by: webmaster |
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I would like to respond to the email that Rodolfo Rodriguez just put up talking about our sport:
Let me begin by saying that our sport is not friendly by the nature of it!!
This is because many want to be and/or expect to be a winner at just about any cost. These people whether we are racing for money, trophies or just how many prizes can be won will still try to be at the top of the list.
In any other sport such as soccer, baseball, bowling, etc., there are teams that compete rather than man against his competitors. So until any club can advance and grow new membership, we need to find a way that has some other team activities involved along with the individual honors. Whether this is for money or just to wear a crown for the next week at shipping or whatever, there are still those that will never win anything and those that work extra hard to be on the top.
When I raced in Wisconsin, we had a team competition each week where all the names were thrown into the hat and 2 names were picked out and they were one team. This continued on until all the names had been teamed up and this process was done each week so your team partner was generally changing every week.
There were many times I drew a poorer loft as a partner and I remember how I felt I did not have a chance but many times, it was my partner that held me up and then I had to eat a little crow. This made for fun and even if a loft was not so good, someone had to win. So fun is how you determine to have a good time. Remeber, every person like to be a winner every now and then so if it took a partner to help them be on top, they still seemed to enjoy it.
Another thing we did was to have a situation where each loft could race for what we referred to as an automatic pool and this amounted to having a minimum entry of 10 birds even if you only shipped 5 or 6. For each bird shipped you paid $1 for each entry and these totals were added up and were paid back as prizes at 10 to 1. Now you only had to pay for 10 so if you shipped more, then you marked an "A" by the pigeons you were declaring or you could pay for all of them.
For each bird that was entered into this pool, a $10 prize was given back until the money ran out. Now this could also be done with other things involved if one does not wish to compete for money. What then needs to be done is to have your club determine how they wish to play this game such as a point system or ????
In my club, we could not get in after the races started so those waiting for it to be a day when they were favored was eliminated. Also, they could quit at any time but they could not get back in. There were a few that grumbled but in the end, it was successful and you were either in or out. Nobody was forced to compete but if your pigeons got hot, you could not get in late.
There are many twists to any one of several ideas to make our sport more fun and this still should not keep people out that prefer not to play for prizes. They can just race for position only and leave the other games to those that wish to play.
Another great detriment to our sport is the type of environment we allow to be established!! If you allow foul language, then those coming to the club with a possible interest in the pigeons may retreat quickly if the environment is that of a cess pool. We need to establish the club with rules that must be obeyed that make for a family friendly experience. I like to take my granddaughter to the club for shipping and there are those that should not eat with the same mouth they talk from. So keeping the adventure friendly and free of fowl language and innuendoes that may be sexist, racist, etc., will go a long way to promote a good club environment.
Try having picnics when clocks are brought in and do things in your area for free if you want new exposure. At the present time there are people working to have a grand release of pigeons for the 9/11 memorial services and this can be done by every club in any part of the country if they just make an attempt. It only takes a little effort and certainly each club must have some people that would enjoy this exposure for their club.
Weddings or funerals could be done and they don't have to be with just white pigeons. I have many friends from all races and religions so why do the pigeons have to be only white? A few black ones for our friends of Black Race or Reds for Native Americans or just about any other color can be released together as we are trying to have a good world even though there are those that hate others because of their color or religion. Most trouble makers don't even know what type of individual those other people are.
We all have to live together so why not open your doors to all people and accept them providing they abide by a set of standards for behavior? If these people are told they are not acting properly and that their membership could be withdrawn for blatant acts of behavior, perhaps our sport could have grown and others, including wives, would enjoy going to the club and pigeon activities.
Where I now live, we have many people that have become close friends and they not only are pigeon members but have also become social friends too. Should some of them have bad attitudes, letting them see that they will not be accepted may change their attitude and if not, what have we lost? We are all too concerned about losing a member but have we thought that one member may have cost our club several new people because of that persons individual behavior. It only takes one new person that is inquiring about our sport to see a fiasco and they walk away and go fishing or golfing or some other activity.
In conclusion, it is up to us to provide and maintain an atmosphere of decent human beings and from this, we won't be losing potential new members because they are not accepting of the activities at your(our) club. It is our responsibility to assure our club and our future by being honorable people that have left their ego home while they are in public. They can still work hard to win races and prizes and awards. This is a personal goal that you won't change from some people but it should be the rule that when you win, BE GRACIOUS and try to help those less fortunate than yourself.
Hope this helps someone:
Bob Rowland
SpringHill, FLorida
USA
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