NOTICE BOARD
APRIL 2004

Delegates from 13 societies representing 12 countries attended the WBO meeting last November, which was held in Cham, Switzerland to coincide with the Swiss BS Club Show. It was a credit to the Swiss BS for organising the meeting and special thanks are extended to all their members for the warm hospitality. Delegates attending were from Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Eire, France, Germany, Holland, Israel, South Africa, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States of America.

Many topics of interest were discussed and decisions/policies were formed for affiliated societies to approve, which are summarised below:

Membership and Annual Subscription Fee

Delegates approved the recommendation from the chairman & secretary/treasurer that there should be no increase in the subscription rate for 2004/5 depending on membership.

Two new organisations have joined the WBO. They are Vereinigung Ziergeflügel und Exotenzüchter E.V. (VZE) from Germany and Bird Industry Research & Development Society Incorporated (BIRDS Inc.) from the Philippines. We extend a warm welcome to those societies and their members.

Research Articles

Two more research articles were submitted by the secretary to all the organisations during 2003. An article by Dr. Colin Walker on Stress and another on Avian Gastric Yeast by Dr. David Phalen. All research articles can now be found on the WBO website.

WBO Constitution

A proposal was submitted to look at the format of the membership if more than 2 societies within one country wish to join the WBO. It was agreed that a sub-committee consisting of the delegates from Canada, Germany and Holland together with the chairman and secretary look deeper into this proposal as well as the officers of the organisation and report back to the next meeting.

Artificial Insemination

After a long debate on the subject with arguments put for and against, the WBO Policy on AI is:

The WBO do not recommend the use of AI, as they consider the objectives of the Organisation are best served by natural breeding.

WBO Model

The WBO have now a 3-dimensional budgerigar Model, which was approved by most delegates attending the last meeting. This new Model, made in Switzerland, was based on computer images generated from alterations made to the Danish Model presented at the 2002 Meeting. A sub-committee consisting of delegates from Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and Great Britain together with the chairman and secretary spent a complete day in February 2003 to look at the changes and alterations made to the Danish Model. This was then emailed to all delegates around the World for their comments. The various stages of the new model making were emailed to the sub-committee for their comments and alterations were made until the sub-committee approved the final product.

A new CD-ROM of the model using a process of digitalisation with the chance to rotate the bird and be viewed from all angles, with the facility of zooming, is now available from member societies. The copyright of the CD will be with the WBO.

WBO Handbook

The meeting gave approval to the secretary to complete the compilation of the organisation’s first Handbook. This will be issued to the delegates during this year. The WBO is indebted to Warren Wilson and his organisation, Budgerigar Rare & Specialist Exhibitors of Australasia, for their kind generosity in sponsoring the cost of printing the Handbook.

Standardisation of Colours

A field study was carried out in 7 member countries (Australia, Belgium, Germany, South Africa, Switzerland, UK and the U.S.A.) involving many fanciers, to establish a WBO Budgerigar Colour Guide for the basic budgerigar primary colours using the Pantone Colour Chart.

It was agreed that the WBO Budgerigar Colour Guide (using Pantone charts) should be as follows:

Next Meeting

The next WBO meeting will be held on Friday 10^th September 2004 in Antwerp, Belgium and hosted by the Belgium Budgerigar Society (BGC). Antwerp has an International Airport.

The meeting is to coincide with the Dutch Budgerigar Society National Show and they will be arranging free transport on the Sunday from the hotel to their show venue in Hapert, near Eindhoven.

The WBO are also looking forward to their meeting in 2005 in Las Vegas, U.S.A. where the Budgerigar Association of America (BAA) will be hosting the meeting in conjunction with their World Congress.

WBO Judges Panel

A list of the WBO judges is now on the WBO website (names and telephone numbers only). Any society wishing to have the complete list (with addresses) are asked to contact the secretary. Societies are asked to keep updating the secretary with any changes to their society’s judges list.

Election of Chairman

For the first time in the organisation’s 10 years history there was a ballot to elect the chairman for a two-year term. Marcel Buhler (delegate from Swiss BS) was nominated to stand against the current chairman Roger Carr (U.K.). Ballot forms were sent in February to delegates representing the 24 affiliated societies. The closing date for the return of the ballot forms to an Independent Body was 28^th March. The results were that Roger Carr was elected for a further 2 years.

For further comments on any of the above items please do not hesitate to contact me and please keep visiting the website for regular updates.

Ghalib Al-Nasser
Secretary/Treasurer
ghalib.alnasser@gmail.com