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 www.world-budgerigar.org

NOTICE BOARD  -  APRIL 2012

The organisation held its 18th Annual Meeting in Canberra, the capital city of Australia, on 27th May 2011 by invitation from the Australian National Budgerigar Council (ANBC) through the Budgerigar Society of New South Wales, to coincide with their Annual National Show. Delegates from eleven countries attended the meeting making the meeting a truly international event attended by delegates from the five continents. The WBO has now held meetings outside Europe, both in the American Continent as well as in Australia. It is hoped that future meetings will be held in Asia as well as Africa, to enable the organisation to visit all the five continents. Delegates who attended the meeting represented the following countries: Australia, Canada, Eire, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, Turkey and United Kingdom.

 

The WBO Chairman, Gerd Bleicher, thanked the host National & State societies and in particular Warren Wilson, President of the ANBC and New South Wales B.S., for the invitation and for the generous gesture of sponsoring the delegates with two nights’ hotel accommodation, the array of gifts they received and the functions that they attended during this fantastic event, The Australian National. The Chairman also expressed a special welcome to the meeting for those who had travelled from far away, this time it applied to most!

The Chairman looked back to the 2008 National in Western Australia, when Warren Wilson proposed to the Secretary and himself to hold the 2011 WBO meeting in Canberra. This idea was put forward to the delegates at the 2008 WBO meeting and was accepted by them. He expressed great thanks to Mr. Wilson and warmly welcomed him to the meeting.

The WBO Secretary, Ghalib Al-Nasser, also thanked the host societies and reflected how wonderful it was to be holding our meeting in the home of the budgerigar; which has been responsible for the tremendous hobby that we all enjoy, and for the many friends we have made all over the world. He informed the meeting that three more new countries have affiliated to the WBO during the year, namely Hungary “Magyarországi Diszmadárbarátok Pannónia Országos Szövetsčge (MDPOSZ)” and Ukraine “Association of Birds and Small Pets’ Fanciers “Zoosvit”.

Since the meeting, two societies from Russia have also joined the WBO and so has another society in Pakistan. In January 2012 Romania “Asociatia Ornitologica Romana” joined our ranks and this brings our current strength to 42 affiliated societies from 32 countries spread over the 6 continents. We extend a warm welcome to the members in Hungary, Pakistan, Romania, Russia & Ukraine.

The Gould Award

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The WBO has created its own prestigious award called The Gould Award commencing from 2011; to be awarded for Meritorious Services to the World of Budgerigars in any field. The winner will receive a special Gould Medal as well as a Certificate to commemorate the win.

During 2011 six societies sent nominations for this award and they were from Australia for Harry Eady, Germany for Jo Mannes, Republic of Ireland for Warren Wilson, Italy for Roberto Bugli, South Africa for Rienhard Molkentin and United Kingdom for Jeff Attwood.

The Gould Award Committee agreed on the principal of voting and after five rounds of voting the eventual winner was Jo Mannes winning the very first Gould Award for 2012. Herr Mannes is responsible for revolutionising the modern day budgerigar from 1990 to its present day. The WBO extends warm congratulations to Jo Mannes for achieving this high honour and also to all the other worthy candidates.

Items that were also discussed at the 2011 meeting were:

WBO World Show

The WBO discussed in depth the feasibility of staging its own World Show to coincide with one country’s national show at the 2011 meeting in Australia. After much discussion it was agreed that the WBO awards and the scheme can start from 2016 as the WBO is already committed to meetings up to and including 2015.

The guidelines for such a show are:

1.   To coincide with the WBO Annual Delegates’ Meeting with venue and date to be decided by the WBO meeting upon the received invitation of a member society.

2.   To be organised with a minimum classification accepted by the WBO.

3.   To follow the WBO guidelines on showing and judging.

4.   To be judged by WBO International Judges only.

5.   To be awarded special and prestigious WBO patronage.

6.   To accept participation of birds and breeders from all WBO affiliated societies (open show).

7.   To accept to host any foreign delegate, in charge of the transport and care of his country/society birds with free accommodation based on number of birds benched.

8.   To accept the collaboration of the foreign delegates in the different tasks of the show organisation (feeding/watering of birds, stewarding etc ...).

Flecking

This subject was also introduced at the 2011 meeting as a discussion agenda item as it is a universal problem worldwide with different countries adopting different standards where judging is concerned. A full debate by the delegates took place with regard to this problem and how to eradicate it from shows.

It was acknowledged that all of our standards say that the “frontal and crown of the budgerigar should be clear and free from all markings”. However, judges and exhibitors have those birds on the show bench and some judges are tempted to put them forward and others will penalise them. It is acknowledged that there are many variations in flecking with marking over the eyes and over the crown.

Some countries have introduced photographs of degrees of flecking that is acceptable as a fault and above that should not be judged. Other countries have issued guidelines to their judges on how to penalise this fault and apply penalties.

After a long debate, it was agreed that the WBO should issue their own policy on this subject that “It is recommended that flecking should be considered as a major fault”. Each country will decide on how to deal with this major fault according to its own rules and regulations.

Judges Criteria

It is an established fact that there are many countries that have established Judges Training Schemes and criteria on how to become a judge, while some of the smaller and new societies do not have any scheme. It was agreed at the 2011 meeting that the WBO may assist in setting up criteria for such societies/countries who do not have any scheme for their members on how to progress to become judges in their own countries. The following criteria were adopted by the WBO:

Some items of WBO news for fanciers all over the World to know about are:

Future Meetings

The next WBO meeting will be held at 10.30 hrs on Saturday 22nd September 2012 in Avignon, southern France, to coincide with the Association Française De L’Ondulée (AFO) national show of 1000 entry strong.

The WBO is in a strong position in so far as future meetings till 2015 have already been planned with France in 2012, Italy in 2013, Turkey in 2014 and Great Britain in 2015.

Ring Specification, Colour Code and Sequence

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 RAL Code Year Year
Violet 249 U 4008 2009 2015
Orange 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.

Membership

The WBO currently is in a healthy position with 42 affiliated societies spread over 6 continents in 32 countries. They are:

•            Asia: Japan, Pakistan, Philippines

•            Australasia: Australia, New Zealand

•            Africa: South Africa

•           Europe: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Eire, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovensko, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom

•            North America: Canada, United States of America

•            South America: Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela

International Judges Panel

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.

Standardisation of Colours

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/m˛ 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 Badge

At the 2010 meeting, the WBO approved its own designed badge depicting the WBO logo of the Ideal Budgerigar superimposed on the world map. The cost to purchase this badge, from the secretary, is 3.00 GB pounds each, plus postage.

WBO Rosettes

Each member country/society receives four WBO rosettes each year, 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 2012 consists of Chairman Gerd Bleicher (Germany), Secretary Ghalib Al-Nasser (U.K.), Vice-Chairman Carlos Ramôa (Portugal) and Immediate Past Chairman Roger Carr (U.K.).

WBO Publicity and the Website

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.

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

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