The organisation held its 16th
annual meeting in the seaside resort of Lido de Jesolo,
WBO delegates and officials attending
the last WBO meeting in Jesolo, Italy together with COM Officials
(seated: Roger Carr [WBO Immediate Past Chairman], Gerd Bleicher [WBO Chairman],
Salvatore Cirmi [COM President] and Ghalib Al-Nasser [WBO Secretary])
The WBO Chairman Gerd Bleicher thanked Club AMICI for their wonderful hospitality and welcomed especially Sig. Salvatore Cirmi, President of the Confederation Ornitholgique Mondiale (COM), to the meeting and said that the WBO has built up a good relationship with COM as many of our member countries are also members of COM.
Sig. Cirmi officially opened the meeting by welcoming all delegates and made special presentations to members of the WBO Executive Committee. He drew a parallel between the goals of the WBO and COM. This close cooperation between the two organisations resulted in both using the same ring colour sequence throughout the world and COM adopting the WBO Colour Standards and Pictorial Ideal for the budgerigar. This is indeed a huge positive step forward for the budgerigar fancy all over the world. May this friendship and cooperation continue and further strengthen the good working relationship.
The WBO Secretary Ghalib Al-Nasser informed the meeting that three new societies have affiliated to the WBO during the year, namely Exhibition Budgerigar Society (Ireland); Northern Ireland Budgerigar, Zebra Finch & Foreign Bird Society; and Budgerigar Society of Spain.
The Secretary further informed the meeting of the result of the postal vote with regard to the proposed Rule Change re-disciplinary (Rule 3.vi) and the outcome was:
18 societies with a total
vote of 28 were FOR the new proposed rule (88% of the votes cast)
2 societies with a total
vote of 4 were AGAINST the new proposed rule (13% of the votes cast)
13 societies with 26 votes
did not cast their vote
As the proposal managed to attract the necessary 65%
majority of the votes cast it became effective immediately.
One important topic discussed at the meeting was the various Judging Methods that are used by different countries and whether they are judging by the comparison method or by the points system as adopted by COM. One of the topics for discussion at next year’s meeting will be on the qualifications required to become a judge in each country. A questionnaire is to be sent out to all member countries asking for information regarding methods of judging, age of birds and classification structure.
A proposition was put forward by two delegates requesting that a committee be set up to establish the criteria for a WBO Honorary Award to be known as the “Gould Award”. This was deferred to the Standards Committee to study the concept and come forward with suitable criteria.
Some items of WBO news for fanciers all over the World to know about are:
The next WBO meeting will be
held at 14.00 hrs on
The 2011 meeting will be held
in
The current ring specification for the budgerigar and colour sequence as adopted by both the WBO and the World Organisation, the Confederation Ornithologique Mondiale (COM) is listed below:
Minimum internal diameter
|
4.20 mm |
Maximum internal diameter |
4.40 mm |
Wall thickness
|
0.60 – 0.90 mm |
Ring height
|
3.85 – 4.00 mm |
Colour |
Pantone Code |
Year |
Year |
|
Violet |
249 U |
4008 |
2009 |
2015 |
1505 U |
2003 |
2010 |
2016 |
|
Dark Blue |
301 U |
5019 |
2011 |
2017 |
Red |
1797 U |
3002 |
2012 |
2018 |
Black |
2U2X |
8005 |
2013 |
2019 |
Pastel Green |
344 U (closest) |
6019 |
2014 |
2020 |
Member societies are strongly reminded that, when ordering rings from any ring manufacturer, to specify the exact WBO ring colour and the Pantone Code as well as the ring specification to avoid any misunderstanding by ring manufacturers.
The WBO currently enjoys membership from 34 affiliated
societies that are spread over 6 continents in 25 countries. They are:
•
•
•
• Europe: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Eire, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Holland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Slovensko, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland
•
•
A list of current judges who are on the WBO International Judges Panel is on the website and full addresses of each judge may be obtained from the secretary. The conditions relating to admittance to the WBO Judges Panel are as follows:
a. to be a current champion breeder and exhibitor of Budgerigars in their own country. Where a country/society has only “one” Status of Exhibitor, a breeder and exhibitor of long standing will be acceptable subject to “b” & “c” below.
b. be a fully qualified judge for a minimum of 5-years in their own country or in the country/society in which they qualified.
c. apply in writing to their National Society (or the society in which they qualified) to be placed on the list. The National Society will then be responsible for checking their qualifications and, if eligible, for passing names, addresses and telephone numbers to the WBO Secretary for inclusion on the list.
The WBO recommend that member
countries should consider inviting judges from overseas who are members of the WBO
International Judges Panel, as approved by the WBO, to judge at shows that are under their
jurisdiction. A full WBO International Judges List is available from the Secretary on
request.
The WBO has an A5 coloured card with the agreed Budgerigar Colour Guide depicting the 10 primary budgerigar colours using the Pantone Colour Codes. The cards used are of 250 mg/m² card print. The colours are only there as a guide with the understanding that the colours for the grey and grey green are those for the light factor.
Should any society wish to purchase these cards in quantity they can do so at a cost of €0.50 (euro) each + postage (minimum order is 10) from Gerd Bleicher at his home address: (Schramberger Str. 41, D-13467 Berlin, Germany. Tel: +49 30 40 44251, email: gerd.bleicher@dsv-ev.de).
WBO Rosettes
Each member country/society receives each year four WBO rosettes, as part of their affiliation, for Best Any Age, Best Any Age Opposite Sex, Best Young Bird & Best Young Bird Opposite Sex in Show to be awarded to four different birds at their national show. Names of winners and photos of the winning birds are then included on each year’s Rosette Winners file. Please visit the website for current & previous winners.
WBO Executive Committee
(E.C.)
An Executive Committee was
created in 2004 to run the affairs of the WBO between Council meetings. The E.C. for 2010
consists of Chairman Gerd Bleicher (
The WBO website is kept updated on a regular basis with many files of interest such as research articles, Pictorial Ideal, Colour Standards, Scale of Points, details of member organisations, ring specification etc. Photos of past WBO rosette winners around the World are also included on the website (click on each photo to enlarge it).
For further comments on any of the above items please do not hesitate to contact the Secretary and please keep visiting the WBO website for regular updates.