Should the SBA membership be growing faster??

[gavin]

Just a bit of background from someone who sat on the Executive for two years but is off it now. There were voices raised (not many, but they were influential at the time) for a major hike in subscriptions. Other professional organisations have high subscriptions so we should have too was the argument, without any great thought as to what the money should be spent on. If Neonach's view is common (and I suspect that it is) then note should be taken of that.

Al, the webmaster, has been soldiering on bravely whilst making clear his intention to hand on the role to someone else. Now this and other positions are being advertised. Significant improvement in the web presence will only follow after enthusiastic new folk with specialist skills come on board. A word of warning here - sometimes organisations try too hard to modernise without properly understanding what they are doing. Look at the terrible mess the BBKA made of integrating their new web site with the old forum.

One delightful feature of this forum has been the interest it has generated in those far-flung places that the SBA was always struggling to reach. That reaching out to the membership right across the country is something that needs to be strengthened. The convention moves around the country but I have raised the possibility of there being other regional meetings, perhaps of the type that is designed for the local associations. For those who don't know, on the morning of the annual Council meeting (to decide SBA policy) there is a Local Association secretaries meeting at which local association secretaries and their guests from their associations debate topics raised. This is an excellent way of bringing about more local involvement, and the sharing of experience widely available in the country. Sometimes the discussion could be focussed better on the needs of local associations but this really depends on the chair on the day.

I really like the idea of a regional insert with the magazine. I get one with the Scottish Wildlife Trust magazine. This could be something for the local area representatives who - in my view - could be used better. A related point perhaps is that the Executive is large. It should make more use of technology to conduct its own business and I think that it would make more progress if it was slimmed down, perhaps for some of the regular meetings.

If the magazine was hived off somehow the association would be seriously weakened and would have to re-invent one, just as the BBKA is doing with its newsletter so it seems (no personal experience as I'm not a member). Bad move, thankfully highly unlikely.

On DL's points, I think that the SBA has made serious attempts to be democratic and seek the views of the membership although it is also driven to some extent by the views held by individuals on the Executive. I remember a good open debate and votes on the SBA's attitude to the evolving Scottish Honeybee Health Strategy - which came out with an overwhelming majority in favour of the compulsory registration DL mentioned (I was one of the few voting against). All such decisions come in the circumstances of the time and a year or two later the membership might think differently. Of course, if you don't go to the meetings you wouldn't get to take part! At the level of interest the forum attracts on a regular basis it will be a long time before this medium can be considered an alternative to in-person debates of that kind.

This isn't the thread to go off on a long tangent on global warming but there is good evidence already that Scotland's climate has more extremes of weather now that man is undoubtedly warming the planet with greenhouse gases. Maybe the shift in mean temperature has not been deleterious to bees, but the increasing extremes of wind and wet are.