NOTICE BOARD  -  April 2017
Report by Ghalib Al-Nasser

The organisation held its 23^rd Annual Meeting in Lisbon, Portugal on 2^nd December 2016 by invitation from the Portuguese Federation FONP. The WBO also staged its fourth WBO World Championship Show at this event. There were 17 delegates from 11 countries attending the meeting representing the following countries: Australia, Belgium, Eire, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom.

WBO Delegates At The 2016 Meeting

The new WBO Chairman, Carlos Ramôa, thanked the delegates for attending and he was honoured to have received the nomination for the position of Chairman from 6 countries and that his first meeting as Chairman was held in his own country Portugal. All delegates received generous gifts from the Portuguese Federation which were much appreciated by the delegates.

The Chairman, on behalf of the WBO delegates, made a special presentation in the shape of a globe to Gerd Bleicher, Immediate Past Chairman, whose term of office ended on 31^st March 2017 after 10 years.

The WBO Secretary, Ghalib Al-Nasser, also thanked the host society and informed the meeting that our current membership is strong with 44 affiliated societies from 33 countries spread over the 6 continents. However, he was pleased to see the German AZ society back in the WBO and two new countries, Bahrain & India, joined the WBO early in 2016. He was saddened to report that Russia has not renewed their affiliation to the WBO and Venezuela was unable to re-join due to the economical and political situation in that country. He has also been informed that the Japanese society will cease to operate as from 2017.

On a positive note both Kuwait and Lebanon have joined our ranks in January 2017 and Egypt in April 2017.

The Gould Award

The WBO Gould Award was created back in 2011 to be awarded for Meritorious Services to the World of Budgerigars in any field; this prestigious award in the form of a specially designed certificate and a special Gould Medal to commemorate the win, have been awarded so far to Jo Mannes from Germany in 2012, Warren Wilson from Australia in 2013, Ghalib Al-Nasser from United Kingdom in 2014 and Gerd Bleicher from Germany in 2015.

During 2016 two societies sent nominations for this award for two candidates and they were from U.K. (BS) for Gren Norris (U.K.) and from Germany (DSV) for Roy Aplin (U.K.).

The winner was Gren Norris and the award was given as an acknowledgement of the work that Gren has done over 61 years in the hobby in promoting the exhibition budgerigar and promoting the specialist and rare varieties together with his vast knowledge in the field of budgerigars and helping newcomers along the way. The presentation was made to Gren by the new Chairman Carlos Ramôa at the 2016 WBO meeting. Nominations for this award close on 31^st December each year and need to be sent to the Secretary in writing on the society’s official headed paper with biographical notes of the candidate not exceeding 200 words.

Gren Norris with his Gould Award

Vice Chairman

As this post was vacant there were two nominations received at the WBO meeting for Grant Findlay (U.K.) and Marcel Bühler (Switzerland) which resulted in Grant winning the secret paper ballot election by 24 votes to 16 votes.

The New WBO Executive Committee

WBO World Championship Show

The concept of this show was initially agreed upon in 2010 when the WBO meeting was held in Portugal with the guidelines further laid down at the 2011 meeting held in Australia and the very first official WBO World Championship Show took place in Forli, Italy in October 2013. The Portuguese Budgerigar Society (SPO) held the WBO 4^th Championship show in conjunction with their 10^th show held in Santarém. The judge was Henry George from Australia for the “exhibition” budgerigars and Rui Teixeira for the colour budgerigars.

The show received a total entry of 289 from 30 exhibitors of which 10 were overseas coming from Hungary, Italy, Spain & United Kingdom. With 5 countries participating in this event it was truly an international show.

Major Winners

Best of Colour Awards (receiving WBO rosettes):

* exhibitor from Hungary         ** exhibitors from Spain          Rest of the winners are from Portugal

Tibor Gyerko, Jose Brazio, Carlos Ramoa, Henry George, Rui Teixeira

French Moult / PBFD Problems

Over the past few years at WBO meetings many topics of importance facing fanciers all over the world have been tabled and discussed by the delegates such as flecking, French Moult, feather problems and the issue of long flights/long tails. The subject of French Moult/PBFD, which affects birds universally, was tabled again with delegates giving opinions about what is happening in their countries. All delegates present agreed that the WBO should take the lead regardless of the limited funds available and it was agreed for the WBO Executive Committee to investigate this and come with the Way Forward at the next meeting.

Judges Criteria

At the 2011 WBO meeting it was agreed to create a Judges Criteria to assist the smaller and newer countries/societies that do not have a proper Judges Training Scheme to assist their members on how to become judges in their own countries.  The following criteria was adopted by the WBO:

-           5 years breeder of budgerigars

-           Test approved by WBO

-           Test through management of WBO or an appointed person from WBO

-           5 years judge in national organization before applying to the WBO Judges Panel

Since this scheme commenced, three fanciers have taken a judging test laid down by the WBO and under WBO supervision consisting of practical, written and colour identification tests and passed. These are  Ahmad Raza Sahi from Pakistan (passed in December 2012), Björn Johansson from Sweden (passed in October 2013) and Maarten Heylen from Belgium (passed in May 2015).

In September 2015 three more judges from Pakistan sat the WBO Judges Test and passed and I am pleased to report that Amir Malik, Hannad Shaker & Waseem Anwar are now qualified judges in their own country.

Their societies will be able to ask the WBO to add them on the WBO International Judges Panel after completion of 5 years as judges in their own countries.

Future Meetings

The next WBO meeting will be held on 10^th November 2017 in Budapest, Hungary, to coincide with the national society MDPOSZ National Show. The MDPOSZ will also be hosting the 5^th WBO World Championship Show at this event.

The WBO is in a strong position in so far as future meetings to coincide with national shows till 2022 have already been planned with South Africa on 27^th July 2018. The German society AZ will host the meeting in 2019 in Karlsruhe late August to celebrate the WBO 25^th Anniversary. The Budgerigar Society (U.K.) will host the WBO meeting in 2020 in Stoke on Trent on 5^th-7^th June to celebrate their 95^th Anniversary. Future meetings are planned in Rome, Italy in 2021 and Belgium in August 2022.

Ring Specification, Colour Code and Sequence

The current ring specification for the budgerigar and colour sequence as adopted by both the WBO and the Confederation Ornithologique Mondiale (COM), is listed below:

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 44 affiliated societies spread over 6 continents in 34 countries. They are:

•           Asia/Middle East: Bahrain, India, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, Philippines

•           Australasia: Australia, New Zealand

•           Africa: Egypt, South Africa

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

•           North America: Canada, United States of America

•           South America: Argentina, Brazil

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 recommends 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.

Affiliation Fee

The new affiliation fees to member societies which became effective as from 1^st April 2016 are:

Number of Members             Annual Fee (Ł)                       No. of Votes

5000 or above                         400                              10

3000 to 4999                           320                              8

1000 to 2999                           200                              6

500 to 999                               105                              4

Less than 500                         40                                2

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 Badge

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 2017 consists of Chairman Carlos Ramôa (Portugal), Secretary Ghalib Al-Nasser (U.K.), Vice-Chairman Grant Findlay (U.K.) and Immediate Past Chairman Gerd Bleicher (Germany).

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