View Poll Results: Is SBA membership keeping pace with the growth in beekeeping

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  • yes

    2 28.57%
  • no

    5 71.43%
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Thread: Should the SBA membership be growing faster??

  1. #1

    Default Should the SBA membership be growing faster??

    Beekeeping is experiencing tremendous growth but is the SBA growing at the same rate ??

  2. #2
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    Hi DR,
    In our association we have had a large number of new beekeepers over the last few years. This is after an agressive advertising campaign by the committee as it was thought the currrent members were getting on a bit. Although we are now getting newer and younger members we are also turning over a large number of people even though we have been able to supply bees to every new member who has requested them, organised various training courses and every new member has been appointed a mentor. Our association should looking why this is happening. The people who join the SBA seem to be the ones who have been a beekeeper for a number of years.
    One possible solution would be for the SBA to provide support material on why you should join the SBA (I don't just mean a pile of membership forms) to the Area reps who visit each association to sell the SBA

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jimbo View Post
    One possible solution would be for the SBA to provide support material on why you should join the SBA (I don't just mean a pile of membership forms) to the Area reps who visit each association to sell the SBA
    That could be an interesting trip for the north area rep

  4. #4

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    Do you think all local association members should automatically become SBA members?

    What proportion of local association members actually subscribe to the SBA?

    Does anyone feel as I do that the magazine although improved is still way behind the likes of Beecraft.

    Should the magazine be available as a full colour online version which might attract members.

    If there was a lively market in bees advertised in the magazine would more people join

    How about discounted purchases with tokens printed in the magazine

    Should the SBA abandon printing its own magazine and approach Beecraft who are now independent and have them print a Scottish edition?

    When the SBA print surveys do the members get enough opportunities to participate??
    I can remember several where the only people polled were in local associations does that make sense ??

    If the SBA had a breeding program which could meet the members needs for queens would that encourage people to subscribe.

    Does the SBA sometimes just use the members numerical presence to claim support for stances they adopt without consultation?
    I mean here things like the SBA submission to the Scottish Government consultation on bee planning where they cited one of the problem factors as "global warming" ????
    Anyone in Scotland noticed global warming ?? I haven't

    Taking Jon's point a few years ago I looked at the SBA membership figures and there was definite signs of a revolving door syndrome where members joined and the left the following year that points to a fairly serious problem would it be a good idea to ask them why ??
    Last edited by The Drone Ranger; 09-08-2011 at 10:40 PM.

  5. #5
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    Sometimes less is more when it comes to asking people questions.

    Any organisation that covers a rather tricky craft, where the difficulties surface a year or two later, is going to lose a proportion of the new members.

    There has been endless debate on changing the magazine and folk come back to the value for money of the current arrangement. Go down the BBKA route and it will cost people twice as much, plus you lose the ability of the organisation to communicate adequately with the members.

    SBA and consultation. This generally happens at the Council meeting in the autumn. Can you think of a better way? I think that there is an aspiration to revisit the organisation's stance on GM crops and the alignment the SBA has made with anti-GM campaigning groups at the next one. There should be a period of debate on such things with the membership beforehand. Will it happen in the magazine, or on here, or both?

    Isn't global warming a big problem? Our mean temperature has gone up a degree C or two and that will just accelerate. That might be OK for Scotland but not for humanity.

    Breeding programmes will never come from the SBA. That's one for localism.

    The SBA used to run on the same lines as the English BBKA but abandoned it decades ago. Much better this way. Yes, you have fewer members but they are committed rather than cajoled.

    A Scottish edition of BeeCraft would be daft. Might as well make the SBA the Scottish branch of the BBKA.

    I think that the voluntary nature of the SBA office bearers is a good thing. We're 1/10 the size of the English equivalent but that must reflect the numbers of beekeepers in the two places. Having Suits in charge, as the BBKA does, doesn't make for better governance or greater attention to the membership.

    OK, your premise above made some assumptions but I'm short of data so haven't voted. What size is the membership? Has the recent proportional increase been similar to the BBKA's? What allowance do we make for the greater commitment it takes to be an SBA member?2

  6. #6

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    Well said Drone Ranger. A lot of good questions in there. Would be interesting to hear the answers from the membership as I for one would like to see a more active SBA.

  7. #7
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    I know that the new man at the top, Phil, is looking for ideas so anything you can suggest will be listened to carefully. If you are lucky he may even come on here and discuss it.

  8. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by gavin View Post
    Sometimes less is more when it comes to asking people questions.

    2
    Not really Gavin I'm trying to simulate a debate on what we the SBA membership think.
    I wasn't expecting you as admin to have to answer a series of questions ?

    what are other organisations doing lets hear from them as well

    You are not seriously suggesting that global warming is affecting bees in Scotland are you??
    That's what the SBA told the Scottish Government

    They also called for compulsory registration of beekeepers in Scotland that's a long way on from asking Local assoc. members to join the SBA
    Last edited by The Drone Ranger; 10-08-2011 at 03:16 PM. Reason: add a bit

  9. #9
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    For those like me who are not within a local association area, direct membership is not an extra but an only. I am not currently a member, despite the fact that I wish to join and have a metaphorical blank membership form filed in my metaphorical pending tray ready to convert into physical fact. The reason is that if I join now I would pay full annual subscription for only 3 months membership. I can scarcely afford membership at all, but certainly I have to wait until January. And for other folk such a wait might actually lead to them changing their mind. Indeed I might myself, if only because of new pressures on finances.

    I have no experience of associations, but I do wonder if in many cases they might be quite content with attracting their own membership, and have little interest in promoting membership of SBA. Perhaps they might be incentivized?

    I believe SBA needs to modernize, by as far as practicable changing to a virtual organization, with electronic news and magazines (electronic download for members only, and old editions available to all) , and making much more use of mediums like this forum. Certainly its own website could be a great deal more attractive and easier to get around.

    As far as print magazines, there is a well-established model in newspapers with regional editions (or with regional inserts); or the magazines of professional institutions which in many cases have been externalized but on terms which give the institution an 'official' institution segment. Beecraft could be used in this way. However I believe that could end up giving an impression of a small and weak SBA.

    Like others, I would myself prefer a smaller tighter organisation of the committed and experienced volunteer rather than a mass membership organisation. Yes that does have implications for finances, but that reinforces the need to use electronic media to best effect.

    I would suggest that SBA could source and organize knowledge and expertise and seek grants to support the work of local associations. However the actual delivery of for example of bee-raising programmes, workshops or visits - anything practical and involving people really meeting and working together - should happen at a local level. That said, there must be others like me who are outwith the reach of local assocations, and I think SBA could have a role to play in nurturing these isolated beekeepers, who may offer great potential in terms of bio-security, or stimulating newcomers to beekeeping in that area and the possible formation of new local associations.

    All of which you can dismiss if you wish, me not yet being a member either of an association or SBA!

  10. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by Neonach View Post

    All of which you can dismiss if you wish, me not yet being a member either of an association or SBA!
    Quite the opposite its people like yourself that the SBA needs to recruit so what you think is very very important.

    As for smaller and more committed I'm not sure about that because the SBA is a charity who's stated aims include this which I have copied from the constitution and rules

    3.2 A Brief History
    3.2.1 The Founding of the Scottish Beekeepers’ Association
    (Condensed from Mrs. Una A. Robertson’s article “Bees, Books and Beekeepers” in “The Scottish Beekeeper”, June 1993.)
    The Minutes say: ‘THE SCOTTISH BEEKEEPERS’ ASSOCIATION was founded on the 25th.May 1912, to unite the beekeepers of Scotland, for their mutual benefit, in a national confederation and to promote, by the concerted action of its members, the extension and general advancement of bee-keeping throughout the land.

    That to me implies the widest possible membership


    In addition they stated to local associations


    3.4.3 New Members
    Every member of your Local Association should be encouraged to become a Full Member of the SBA.

    We are moving toward the Centenary of the SBA but are we moving further away from its founding principles ??

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