View from the Reddings - Stewart Wardrop

[willie reynolds]

View from the Reddings – April 2012.

Ladies and Gents – a series of short updates ahead of the forthcoming Racing Season!

First the normal Reminders!

1/. Vaccinate your Pigeons – alternative Vaccines are now available to overcome the recent shortages!

2/. Wing Stamp (or address ring) EVERY PIGEON.

3/. Report Strays and assist with repatriating Strays – especially so when you are talking to a member of the public!

4/. Drug Testing – there will be spot checks carried out during the season.

Council – February and March.

My first AGM – what an experience – talk about baptism of fire!

One conclusion however I did take from the meetings – our communication with our members and clubs needs some improving! (there’s an understatement if ever I’ve written one!)

From personal experience I now know that sitting here in my “ivory tower” we cannot expect everyone to read the BHW or the RP and know what is going on. From talking to many fanciers some key messages (Raptor Alliance/Membership decline/press and publicity etc) are simply not being explained – even within our sport, let alone getting messages out to the general public.

How we improve this? – it really needs some thinking about!

The Future - A rough first draft of the business plan choices facing the RPRA was presented. Hopefully during the summer each region will be debating the future direction and shape they want to see the RPRA take in coming years.

Working with Steve, the editor of the BHW, we will be working on a similar draft business plan for the BHW with the aim of presenting it at the October Council meeting. That way Council will have the two constituent draft plans and hopefully we will start making some strategic decisions to shape the future of the sport and the RPRA.

I’m certainly looking forward to the Regions input and feedback and what I’m sure will be healthy Council debate in October.




Raptor Alliance Update.

1/. Wednesday 4th April 2012 - DEFRA

We had two DEFRA Governmental “Wild bird policy advisors” visit two lofts – this was at their request following the meeting held at DEFRA HQ in Bristol recently.


Photo – Mr Keevils loft and DEFRA team.

The First loft visited was in South Wales – arranged by the WHPU President Mr Colin Clarke - we took the two advisors to see Mr A. Keevil’s loft – so that they could hear first-hand what effect Raptor predation was having.

They were “treated” to a few grizzly recent examples of what Sparrowhawks do to Racing Pigeons – all in Mr Keevil’s front room!

Mr Keevil also presented a petition that he had collected just the weekend before that highlighted the scale of Raptor attacks (over 300 kills!) within the local area – 60% of which were by Sparrowhawks.

This is the sort of action we require from every member in every Club in every Union in every part of the UK and Eire!

Many thanks to Mr Keevil who was extremely professional, persuasive and well prepared (especially as he had just celebrated his 80th birthday the day before) and to Mrs Keevil who looked after us all splendidly - the Coffee, tea and home-made Welsh cakes offered were amazing.


Photo – RPRA ONE LOFT – Jeremy Davies and the DEFRA team.

The second loft visited was the RPRA One loft at Tewkesbury where the Advisors were shown a more “commercially” orientated Pigeon loft where three people’s lively hoods and families depend on the success of the venture.

They were also able to judge and see the scale of this type of Pigeon Racing. Jeremy clearly outlined the effect that hawk predation was having on his ability to race and train.

In conclusion neither of the advisors had seen or visited Pigeon lofts previously – their perceptions were changed and they have agreed to continue working with us by providing help and guidance as we ask for it.

The “Wild Bird Policy” advisors are in direct contact with both the Government and the other “interested” bodies such as Natural England and the other National managing bodies.

They will be hugely helpful and influential – their knowledge and understand of Pigeon Racing has just improved markedly!





2/. Raptor Alliance - Natural England.

We have written formally to Natural England HQ in Sheffield asking for an initial meeting to discuss the issuing of WML A08 licenses with the aim being to get advice from Natural England BEFORE we embark on the required investigative work necessary to be able to submit any license application in the future.

We are trying to identify the potential hurdles at the beginning of the process – rather than fall over them at the end!

3/. Raptor Alliance - Press activity.

At the Telford meeting early in March the Alliance agreed that much greater focus needs to be placed upon Pigeon Racing Publicity. Consensus was that very few of the public understand or know anything about Pigeon racing let alone have any perception at all about the effect of Raptor Predation.

This situation has now changed and a Professional Press Agency – Avalanche Media - has been appointed – starting first week of April – for an initial 3 month period.

Regular reviews will be held between the agency and the Raptor Alliance to make sure we can react quickly and for the first time offer “proactive” press coverage – and also to make sure we get of “pound of flesh”.

In conjunction with this new press activity we are trying to pull all relevant Press related information together.

The information we require is listed below - and this is where you can all help.

(a). Known people of influence who may support the Raptor Alliance or more general Pigeon Racing cause – i.e. celebrities ; sportsmen/women ; politicians ; mayor or mayoress ; etc. –

Please indicate whether they will actively help and support!

We need a list of names and contact details – plus a description of why they are famous!

(b).Racing organisation contacts – of the primary National racing events - who is who – name position; short one paragraph biography on the key officials plus contact details.

(c). Events calendar from each organisation – when what and where – with some details as to what the event is etc.

We will collate them and publish the summaries for everyone to use !

(d). Photo’s – any good ones of funny or odd ones would be appreciated – just need permission from the copyright owner!

If any organisation or individual can provide any information to help with the above please email me on - stewartwardrop@rpra.org

There will be a page added to the new RPRA website which is being trialled at the moment (watch the BHW and RP for details of when it goes live!) named “Raptor Alliance” which will include updates and links to all the constituent Unions
Websites.

More on this as we progress – but we are doing something different – we will be looking for all the Unions and members to assist with this work – you will be asked to help out and make it work!

4/. Raptor Alliance – Challenges.

As I’m sure you are aware this campaign will be a marathon not a sprint and we will have many hurdles to overcome. By working together – members of each Union and the Unions – we will have a chance of getting change to happen.

It’s been really positive that working with our RPRA team (David Higgins, Jim Hooper) along with Colin Clark (President of the WHPU) and Lee Fribbins (Confederation Secretary and owner of the RP) we are starting to see some really positive moves being made. Their contacts are proving very useful and valuable – many of which are experts in their fields and are now being put to use in working on some of the challenges that face us!

One thing we can be certain of – if we sit back and do nothing – nothing will change!

Bletchley Park – Royal Visit.

On the 28th March we had the honour of the Duke of York visiting our Pigeons in War exhibit at Bletchley Park. He unveiled a Plaque , carved by Mr Neville Walbridge to commemorate “Royal Blue” a Dickens medal winning Pigeon bred at the Royal Loft Sandringham. The Duke also “surprised” us all and especially Mr Colin Hill, who looks after our exhibit at Bletchley Park - with a very special gift!


Phot0 – Prince Andrew arriving at Bletchley Park

The full story(s) and accompanying pictures will be published in the BHW over the coming weeks. We are waiting the official photographs!


Regional Meeting.

On Saturday 17th March I was invited to attend the West Midland Regional Meeting where I gave a short presentation on the challenges facing our sport and a personal view on how we could tackle some of them. Very many thanks to Mr Graham Field , Mrs Ann Covington and the members for giving me a very warm welcome.

Prior to business commencing we made presentations on behalf of the RPRA and the West Midlands Region to Mr & Mrs John & Ann Edwards in recognition of their many years of service at both Regional and Council level.

I have personally witnessed the hard work both Mr & Mrs Edwards have put in ranging from the Region through to manning either the MDU at the three counties show or the RPRA Stand at Blackpool and marking nights at the RPRA One loft. Only through such great efforts as this has the sport survived – they will be missed.


Photo - Mr & Mrs Edwards with Mr Graham Field.


Photo - Mr Edwards and Stewart Wardrop.







Retirements.

On Friday 30th March two long serving RPRA staff retired. Mrs Gill Purser - who had completed 37 years of service and Mrs Sheila Gissing – who had completed 23 years of service.60 years of service in total. We will miss them both!

We held an “open house” lunch and Reddings House was packed with people who wanted to come and wish the “dynamic duo” all the best for the future!



Photo - The RPRA President – Mr David Higgins with Gill and Sheila.

We had Councillors, RPRA members, the President and his wife, past General Manager , past employees and even the ex postman all turn up to say “congratulations” and wish them both a happy retirement.

Needless to say there was many a tear in people’s eyes!

Many thanks to all the Staff who helped out with providing the lunch on the day and a big thank you to all the Regions, The RPRA and the Reddings Staff who so generously contributed towards the retirement cheques given to both the ladies.




Photo - Stewart Wardrop, Gill Purser , Sheila Gissing and David Higgins.

PS – Would you believe Sheila “popped” in to see us all on the Tuesday after she retired! Hopefully next time she will bring some of her famous cakes!



The Reddings.

Our staff is now much smaller than in previous years and we will experience a few gaps in our knowledge as a result of losing experience staff such as Gill and Sheila – please bear with us!

We are continuing to change the way we work at the Reddings and will in the next few weeks complete the “move around” of offices. With a smaller staff we are bringing the complete staff (with the exception of Finance) into the working areas on the ground floor. The flexibility of all our staff will need to increase and we will be training all the staff in all the priority systems over the coming months.

In April – every member of the RPRA team will be trained on how to use the stray system – me included!

We will be using the move around to sort out historic issues with the phone system and also to clear the Reddings of many years accumulated rubbish.

The new website is being populated with up to date information as we speak and will be going live before the end of April. We gave the RPRA Councillors a method to log onto the new site and many of the comments we’ve received back have been actioned. One thing it has done is get many of the councillors looking at the website – a good move in the right direction, as they picked up that quite a lot of information on the old website was out of date and had been for some time!

Staff at the Reddings are adding and updating information with assistance from the website providers.

A few staff changes need listing and clarifying following the recent retirements.

(Finance manager)- Suzie Mitten / Tracey Griffen.

Tracey will start to take over from Suzie during the spring and summer as Suzie retires at the end of November.

(RPRA Office Manager) – Julia Field.

Julia will be managing all the remaining staff (with the exception of the Finance team and my secretary – Dorothy Hadley).

Julia will be ably assisted by the two department supervisors -

Karen James (Rings/Strays/Membership enquiries)
Donna Russell (Liberations/distances/loft locations).



Mobile Display Unit (MDU) schedule.

It’s going to be a busy spring and summer as we are trying to get free places at many more County shows.

The ones listed below are either confirmed or simply awaiting final confirmation – I will be towing the MDU to and from the various venues.

Regional secretaries have been contacted asking them to ask for willing volunteers to man the MDU at the show listed below – free car parking and entry tickets are provided for all volunteers!

To have local fanciers on the stall is a must! – Ideally with Pigeons in a basket for a small release - always goes down very well with the public.


2012 MDU schedule.

Venue Date

EAST ANGLIA GAME FAIR, Norwich
28 - 29 April
CFE – Ledston 23 - 24 May
SHROPSHIRE COUNTY FAIR
(West Midlands Show Ground)
26 May
3 COUNTIES – Malvern
15/16/17 June
Great Yorkshire Show, Harrogate
10/11/12 July
CLA - Grantham, Leics
20/21/22 July
BAKEWELL SHOW, Bakewell.
01 / 02 Aug
LONGFORD SHOW – Gloucester
12 Aug

ONE LOFT FINAL RACE – Tewkesbury

26
Aug
DORSET COUNTY SHOW - Dorchester
01 - 02 Sept
CFE – Lee Valley, London
26 - 27 Sept



One loft Programme.

The loft extension is complete – ahead of time and under budget! We also got quite a few of “free of charge extras” added on to improve the existing loft – like levelling up the bottom section of the original loft that had sunk over 6” over its length – all thanks to Jeremy’s powers of persuasion with the builders!

Birdage as of Wednesday 4th April was just over 1200 with a few last minute stragglers arriving in the next few days. Well done all the owners – normally we are waiting weeks for the last few to turn up!

I’m going to tow the trailer for most of the yearling races this year and will be attempting via mobile internet to get the liberations onto the new website within a few minutes of release – as a “you tube” clip!

We have had a lot of interest regarding filming the final one loft race and can be sure that there will be both film and written press coverage on the 26th August.

There will be a big “Wardrop” party attending the final race this year as my Dad has entered two birds – called “Billy’s Lad” and “Billy’s lass” – and of course my kids all think that Granddad’s Billy (my dad is a William) birds are going to win first and second prizes!

The wife is already making a list of new handbags to buy!!!


Photo - Back of new loft extension – Tewkesbury - April 2012.

Queens Diamond Jubilee Race Preparations.

The race programmes have nearly all been agreed and published.

Please support these Races especially as there are some great prizes to be awarded – including a Gold Medal and of the course the Tranter loft.

Summary and a personal message.

Thank you for all the help, support and encouragement I’ve received over the past 10 months – little did I realise just how much fun I would have when I joined in May last year!

Everyone tells me that is gets a bit quieter once everyone is racing but take it from me the spring and summer already look every bit as being manic as all the previous months have been. If not more so – if that’s at all possible!

It’s hopefully worth it though as I do feel we are making some progress albeit very slowly.

I’ve been fortunate to be kept on track by brilliant staff at both the Reddings and the BHW along with very timely advice and guidance from the VP’s – Les, Richard and Brian.

My last word of praise however must go to your President David Higgins – a great boss and tireless worker on behalf of the whole of the RPRA and the sport of Pigeon Racing.

Finally – to all the RPRA members – on behalf of the whole of the RPRA and BHW staff – My best wishes for a great, successful and memorable 2012 season.

Regards

Stewart.