Should the SBA membership be growing faster??

[Mellifera Crofter]

... Yes, some things could be improved. Try to help the process then, don't walk away. These things take time.

... but the webmaster left the organisation in frustration I think, and took the website down as he did so ...

Yup. I now understand how that webmaster must have felt. I tried to help and believe that I could have, but eventually left in dismay. I’m now sadder but wiser.
Kitta

[Easy beesy]

There's been a lot of comparison between Beecraft and the Scottish magazine on here, but should it not be between the beekeepers news as that is the mag distributed as part of the BBKA membership? Until recently this too was b&w on cheap(er) paper. It has recently been revamped - for the better in my opinion. The anatomy inserts are my particular favourite. I help with our new beekeepers and often find the articles useful to show/ discuss with new beeks especially when weather is inclement. I have yet to receive my first copy of Scottish mag so I'll reserve my judgement til I've tried it. BTW subscription to either BBKA or SBA is still cheaper than regularly buying most 'hobby' type magazines on the market and you get the benefit of insurance - a bargain IMHO.

[Trog]

. BTW subscription to either BBKA or SBA is still cheaper than regularly buying most 'hobby' type magazines on the market and you get the benefit of insurance - a bargain IMHO.

Hear, hear! (And you get the unseen benefits of the SBA fighting for hobby beekeepers throughout Scotland ..)

[Phil McAnespie]

I am sure that Gavin will be delighted that at long last one of the exec is on the forum. As I have said before, for me it is not lack of interest but lack of time. From my point of view, if someone would email me about a thread which you would like an exec opinion on, I would be delighted to try and reply as soon as possible.

I appreciate that it is not possible to be all things to all people and the SBA is no exception. I was drawing an analogy on Saturday that I saw the SBA in a similar vein to the Church. It is a body of people and these people meet together at local churches (L/A Associations). The buildings are called churches but in fact the church is this body of people who meet in this building.

I understand that some people will possibly not appreciate the analogy however it answers some of the previous comments that the SBA exec seem to pay more attention to L/A rather than the members.
I do believe that our members are the most important part of our organisation. I also take on board the point that we should really let people know why we are important as an organisation and what we offer.
For a simple example I have already looked at the situation of the Bee a Beekeeper Leaflet and we are getting this revamped to reflect the modern day image we should be portraying so that those who are interested in beekeeping can see what we are about.
So get in touch with me and let me know what is important to you as a member and what you feel that the SBA should be portraying to others.

In respect of the magazine, it is true that it uses a fair proportion of the subscription and I appreciate that if we had more advertising then that would not be the case. However when the copy numbers are relatively small it is difficult to get advertisers to pay good money. They are looking for a return and that is where the larger volume magazines have the benefit.
I also agree that it would be great to have an A4 magazine full of colour but again the cost is prohibitive and there are other magazines which fulfill this function. The other advantage that these magazines have is that they are able to get a lot of good copy.

This brings me on to a subject where all you beekeepers could be really helpful. Many of you will have some considerable experience in beekeeping or are able to write an interesting article. How about doing this for the SBA magazine and flooding our editor with good up to date copy. It is very easy to criticise the SBA about the magazine but have you actually tried to engender interesting copy for it.
The editor has to try very hard to get good copy every month and I know that he would be delighted to receive so much more from all our members. If there are beekeeping subjects which you find interesting or feel that we should cover better then write about it. If you can’t do it why not suggest to someone you know can and get them to submit an article.
I have already asked some other members personally to do this and I trust that someone here will rise to the challenge.

As far as the SBA is concerned I informed those present at the meeting on Saturday that the exec were going to have a meeting in March to look at the way forward. I asked then that if people had sensible suggestions as to where we as an organisation should be going to get in touch with me. I am not really interested in people trying to beat a political or GM drum. I agree that some of these matters are important but what I am really looking for are ideas to put the SBA on the map and give it a higher profile.
The BBKA came up with the idea of the Adopt a Hive Scheme and although they have to pay a lot for a company to run it, they are taking in a fair amount of cash for the organisation. This cash they can use for many different purposes.
This is only one example of what can be done by people coming up with ideas and I am sure that someone out there must have equally good ideas.


As far as the SBA is concerned Gavin gave a very fair summation of some of the work done by it and facilities organised for it’s members. If all these facilities are of no interest to you and you just wish to keep and work with your bees then it is difficult to suggest how the SBA facilities can interest you.
However I think that being honest with yourself is one of the finest attributes someone can possess.

If you can look at all the work that the SBA does on behalf of it’s members including not only the magazine, insurance, education etc but regular meetings with the Scottish Government and the Bee Health Strategy, meetings with the Food Standard Agency, regular meetings with other National Associations at CONBA, meetings with the National Diploma of Beekeeping members and arranging education programmes by them, meetings with the EU at Brussels etc etc and still feel that we as an organisation are not working for our members then being honest with yourself is not one of your finest attribute.