On the Michigan Pigeon Email List, we recently (well, maybe a month or so ago) had a long, drawn-out discussion of the relevance of the NPA to today's pigeon fancier. Another fancier made some excellent points and one of the better points he made was that if a fancier feels that the NPA has become somewhat irrelevant (as I do) then that fancier should come up with ways to improve the NPA and suggest those improvements. It's a good point; far easier to point out flaws than to figure out ways to fix them. So, in that spirit, I've been considering how the NPA might be changed to make it a relevant and important organization again. I'll be posting a series of articles each addressing some strategy or tactic to make the NPA relevant again.
One of the things that Willi Riechert, one of the candidates in the 2007 election for the NPA presidency, said he would do is to reach out to youth organizations to get more youth involved with pigeons. I'm paraphrasing a bit on what he said but that seemed to be the gist of his idea. Anyone who knows me knows that this is a matter of great importance to me--getting young people involved in our hobby.
Over the past couple of weeks, I've been to two county fairs here in Michigan and I've heard about a third one. The Oakland County fair is moving in a good direction as regards a pigeon exhibit. They've gotten steadily more pigeons entered over the past three years and for the past two years, they've had separate pigeon judges that actually are pigeon judges (as opposed to poultry judges simply doing double duty). The Monroe County fair is in the same place that the Oakland County fair was a few years ago; that is, a few pigeons entered and no special cooping for the pigeons and no special pigeon judge. I heard from another pigeon fancier who is also a 4-H resource leader that the Ingham County fair is also pretty much in the same shape as the Monroe County fair; that is a few pigeons judged by a poultry judge.
This seems to me to be an opportunity just waiting for the NPA. We could put together a list of pigeon fanciers willing to volunteer as judges for these various county fairs. Granted not every fair will get a pigeon judge of vast experience but even a pigeon fancier with a few years of experience knows better what he or she is looking at than does a poultry judge. The point is to give the kids that are showing the birds some helpful advice about how to improve their stock. Also, just knowing that there are other pigeon fanciers around will help to improve the morale of these kids. Talking to some of them they seem to feel that keeping pigeons is some very oddball, niche hobby that very few people pursue. If they were to see that there are other people who also like pigeons, it would be a great boost and encouragement to them.
Once we have a list of pigeon fanciers willing to act as volunteer judges, the next step would be to organize judging workshops. This would get those volunteers that are willing but possibly not knowledgeable enough the training that they need. Experienced judges could work with these new volunteers to disseminate the needed knowledge.
Of course, the NPA would also have to contact the various county fair boards to make them aware that this volunteer help is available. Some county fairs might decline the help but usually when you offer volunteer help, most organizations are glad to have it.
Finally, the NPA could sponsor a best pigeon trophy for each of these county fairs. It wouldn't cost that much and it would encourage kids that might not otherwise consider pigeons to think about raising them. Again, it'd be up to the various county fair boards but again I doubt many of them will turn down the offer of a prize that's likely to encourage more entries--especially when it's offered for free.
Of course, the NPA could put a stipulation on the trophy that no unbanded pigeon could win (to keep people from simply rounding up commons and entering them in the show) and that the prize is only awarded with a minimum number of pigeons and fanciers. But the principle is still the same.
I'd suggest that this be coordinated in each state served by the NPA on a state-by-state basis. Each state representative could coordinate the judging lists and the judging workshops as well as getting the trophies for the various county fair boards and getting the needed rule changes started with each county fair.
Taken to every county fair in the country, this could start a real resurgence of young people interested in keeping pigeons. Even if it goes nowhere (which is not unlikely) it's a step. And this is certainly something that is more in the bailiwick of the NPA than any other pigeon club; showing pigeons is what we do.
