Minutes Regional Groups 25 May 2007
Mt Gambier

Present . Grahame Rogers (BASQ – Chair), Andrew Ley (BANN – Minutes), Eric Anderson (BASQ), Gil Porter (BASQ), Doris Graham (BA-Vic), Rob Davis (BAWA), Alison Russell-French (BA President), Graeme Hamilton (BA CEO), Tania Paschen (Communications consultant). Observers (PM only) Wayne Bigg (Birds SE), Andrew Black (Birds SA).

1. Apologies. Allan Briggs (BA Capricornia), Tony Grice (BANQ), Ian Hume (BASNA) Eric Woehler (BA Tas).

2. Minutes from the meeting of 17 November 2006 were accepted. It was agreed that business arising was covered by the agenda.

3. Finance. It was pointed out that the latest subs rebate cheque is late being distributed to groups. Membership has increased marginally but while there is a steady flow of new members many existing members do not renew, perhaps because of a negative response to some BA actions (sale of Newhaven? moving national office to rented premises?).

RD reported on Eyre BO: the observatory would like financial support as for Broome; while few bird watchers actually visit Eyre and courses are poorly attended and often cancelled there is a 1.5 year waiting list for volunteer warden positions.

4. Regional conservation issues. It was observed that RACC should be setting a strategic approach to conservation but is not. GH stressed the importance of the IBA project; also that BA lacks funding for atlassing, which is the core activity. ARF mentioned the lack of reporting and distribution of information from completed projects; EA said that Wingspan should publicise conservation projects and include a RG update section.

** ACTION GR will circulate a spreadsheet of conservation priorities to groups.

Policy and procedures manual. A preamble has been produced and gained the approval of the meeting. A section on badging and branding and the revised generic group rules are still to come. Some groups will continue to use their local logo plus the Emu logo, but hopefully the Emu will prevail in time. The manual should mention the need to promptly acknowledge registrations for congress and members day.

** ACTION NO to prepare a draft policy on badging and branding.

** ACTION GH to prepare the revision of the generic rules and have it vetted by Phillips Fox then circulate the new rules for comment.

** ACTION RGs to submit ideas for rule changes to GH.

** ACTION Completed draft of the p&p manual to go to Governance Committee by end August.

** ACTION Papers for future RG meetings should go to ARF.

** ACTION RG conservation committees should be known as ‘sub-committees’ in the p&p manual and elsewhere.

5. Congress and members day. Tas have suggested combining these but the meeting decided that timing issues would preclude this (since congress is usually in spring and the AGM must be at the end of May).

A number of options were canvassed and it was agreed that the following model be distributed to groups for comment:
Congress and campout rotates around the regions as now.
The AGM, RG meeting and council meeting be at the end of May (as now, because this fits in with the timing of BA’s financial year) and rotate between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane to minimize traveling for participants. This weekend to include field trips and reports on projects and other BA activities.
RGs organize local members days and encourage councilors to attend.

** ACTION The above model to be distributed to groups for comment by end August.

6. Websites. The BA website is being redeveloped at an initial cost of $25000. The design will allow all BA components to have their websites in the same place. A test site will be available at end July, existing content will be migrated in August and tested, and the site will go live in September-October.

The site will include a password-protected extranet.

7. Space in Wingspan. DG suggested one-sixth of a page per issue be devoted to advertising of Eyre BO and Broome BO courses. The question was also raised (again, see 4. above) as to whether there should be a RG section.

** RESOLUTION This meeting requests council to consider that each edition of Wingspan allocates space to RGs, observatories, SIGs, and reserves for advertising, promoting and informing about important activities.

8. Communications.Tania Paschen gave a comprehensive outline on the sections of her BA-wide communications report that relate particularly to RGs. Her suggestions included:
- There should be a designated person in NO with responsibility for communications with regions.
- Regions should seek to use the website and extranet more than they do.
- Guidelines should be developed for regions to talk to media; each region should have a designated media person; this person should be trained; difficult matters can still be referred to the President or CEO.
- Relations between regions and the NO membership section should be formalized.
- NO should provide national content for inclusion in regional newsletters.
- Flow of information between regions and NO (in both directions) should be formalized.
- The BA e-mail list should be kept up-to-date, possibly by providing an ‘update details’ page on the website.
- There should be an induction kit for new RG office-holders.
- Regions should be informed of council proceedings.
- Displays, film clips, etc should be provided by NO to regions for publicity use.

On the scientific side of BA’s activities Tania suggested: Results of projects should be reported to members. There should more often be information in Wingspan on projects and regional activities.

It was observed that some forms used by volunteers (eg the atlas habitat form) are difficult to fill in and people did not know how to complain.

9. Recruitment. A ‘family and friends’ campaign is to start this year; the joining-up brochure is to be printed in regional variants when the website is functioning (for consistency of design); BAWA reported that they run bird walks, workshops, etc and use these to recruit members; BIBY is now national with a good web presence on the Australian Museum site and community involvement in this project could lead to more members.

10. Calendar Is on the website but few use it.

11. RAMSAR. The question arose as to whether BA should be respresented at the RAMSAR meeting in Korea in 2008.

** OPINION The meeting was in favour of BA being represented at RAMSAR in 2008.

12. OH&S. BASQ have been trialling a risk assessment form at their outings and find it satisfactory. It was suggested that the form could contain more information, including on the possible spread of weeds including phytophthera, and some information on birdwatching ethics. It was noted that CVA run free workshops on risk assessment.

13. Relations with other bird organizations. Andrew Black suggested a MoU between BA and Birds SA along the lines of the one between BA and BOCA.

** RESOLUTION The meeting supports the establishment of a MoU between BA and Birds SA and recommends that council approach Birds SA to formulate a MoU.

14. Emails to members. It was noted that NO offers a facility to e-mail the BA membership or subsets thereof. Privacy considerations must be considered if doing this.

15. Status of the nest record scheme. The NR scheme is a current BA project; the database is being assessed to see what might be got from it (eg climate change trends). There have been no comprehensive publications from the data so far.

16. Logos and Stickers. RD requested that NO provide funding for logos for observatory vehicles; RD also suggested that BA should provide (free!) BA stickers to all members on the grounds that having these on vehicles is easy publicity for the organization. Some meeting participants expressed surprise at the general lack of BA identity.

** ACTION NO will provide BA stickers to all members.

17. Port Phillip Bay dredging (DG report).. The question was raised as to whether BA knew about a proposal to unchoke the Barmah choke.

18. BA’s land-clearing statement Progress was questioned.was questioned since this was a high priority at the previous RG meeting but there had been no progress.

** RESOLUTION The meeting expressed its concern at the lack of progress on BA’s land-clearing statement and wished to remind council of the need for such a statement.

19. Macquarie Island. Some participants expressed their dismay at the on-going degradation of Macquarie Island caused by rabbits, rats and mice and the buck-passing by state and federal politicians. RD suggested that BA approach WWF to formulate a joint action.

** ACTION BA to approach WWF to formulate a joint approach regarding the feral animal problem on Macquarie Island.

20. Gwydir Wetlands. The recent clearing in the Gwydir wetlands was raised. It was observed that state and federal authorities appear to have the matter in hand.

21. Australian Bird Education Centre (Sydney) is to be discussed by council.

22. The document ‘BA Blueprint for the Next Decade’ was discussed.

** ACTION RGs to comment on the ‘Blueprint for the Next Decade’ document by end June; comments to be sent direct to ARF.

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