BBKA - A Manifesto for Change

[pargyle]

Has anyone else received the above document from their associations ? Put together by Ken Basterfield - some very sensible proposals. It has, apparently, gone out to all BBKA affiliated associations in readiness for the ADM (which was today). I received my copy by email today ...

Anyone who hasn't got it and would like to see it - PM me with your email address and I'll email it on as it's a Word Document and I'm not sure it should be publicly aired on here as it is concerns BBKA issues.

 

[pargyle]

Update:

Apparently, at the BBKA ADM yesterday the current Chairman, Doug Brown was replaced by John Hendrie (following a significant card vote in favour of John) who is a well recognised master beekeeper who is quite often seen on the speakers circuit.

The proposed increase in capitation was also rejected

 

[masterBK]

John has done some good work as secretary and later moderator of the BBKA exam board so I wish him well in his new role. He also plays a major role in the National honey show organisation.

 

[MuswellMetro]

John has done some good work as secretary and later moderator of the BBKA exam board so I wish him well in his new role. He also plays a major role in the National honey show organisation.

and BDI

 

[domino]

I read this and agree with 90% of it.

The first criticism pretty much sums up the problem:

The old ideas of service to members, first and foremost, have been subjugated by the incumbent leadership and replaced with ambitions to make the BBKA a grandly self-important environmental campaigning body, along the lines of Friends of the Earth, and funded wholly out of corporate and public sponsorship money.

 

[Beanwood]

I read this and agree with 90% of it.

The first criticism pretty much sums up the problem:

I agree - and I quite like the succinct summary - although it is of course not just being funded by sponsors and corporates, but by the members, who appear to be getting too little in return for my taste.

 

[Cussword]

It would be an excellent Association if was run the way suggested.

 

[Brian Bush]

I agree with 90+% of the manifesto for change. I asked our Chairman, who was a delegate, what he had thought of it and he said that this was the first he had heard of it. Further enquiries indicate that this was sent to all County Association Chairmen. This had not filtered down to local associations.
This may be indicative of the current BBKA hierarchy and structures and their attitude to change.
I firmly believe the BBK's focus should be on its members. It should support them and beekeeping as a whole and maintain its good lines of communication for informing and educating the public through the press.
Our local press jumps at the chance to provide an article on the association swarm line each year.
Over recent years there has been so much good press about pollinators I often get stopped in the village by people asking about the bees or to tell me about their experiences of my bees, they are always my bees, in their gardens.
I even find copies of bee related articles pinned to my allotment shed from unknown people.
Someone at he BBKA has done a good job as press officer in recent years. I do not, however, like to think of my subscription being used to promote the BBKA as environmental campaigners.
I wonder, did the BBKA have any delegates at the recent Climate Change beano in Paris? If so why? and at what expense?

 

[domino]

I do not, however, like to think of my subscription being used to promote the BBKA as environmental campaigners.

This is a key concern. The BBKA should be supporting beekeepers, there are many environmental charities who are better at campaigning on policy than the BBKA ever will be.

If they want a wider role they should partner with groups like buglife.

The BBKA doesn't have to be a 'big charity' it just needs to be a good one.

 

[BeeJayBee]

I agree with 90+% of the manifesto for change. I asked our Chairman, who was a delegate, what he had thought of it and he said that this was the first he had heard of it. Further enquiries indicate that this was sent to all County Association Chairmen. This had not filtered down to local associations.
This may be indicative of the current BBKA hierarchy and structures and their attitude to change.

I think it's more indicative of the way some county associations are run. Some are parochial, those at the top know what's best for the wider membership so don't even bother passing on information or asking their opinion.

I haven't heard anything about this document, not from the local association, our county delegates or our county organisation, but then our county doesn't even bother with a newsletter any more so communication is about zero. I don't even know who went to the BBKA ADM, nor what they might have been planning to say!

 

[pargyle]

I think the difficulty with the BBKA is that we beekeepers are not, generally, a very vociferous lot .. those few with the desire to dominate can easily get to the positions where they can heavily influence or dictate policy and practice. The silent majority are not, I believe, truly represented at County level and I suspect that, in many cases, are not even well represented at local branch level.

It's an association that was inaugurated principally for the benefit of beekeepers but it appears to me to have lost its way. The constitution sets out two overriding objectives:

3.1 to promote and further the craft of beekeeping;
3.2 to advance the education of the public in the importance of bees in the
environment.

(I suspect that 3.2 was a more recent amendment to the constitution or at least a re-wording although I am happy to be corrected).

The original institution was worded as follows:

"For the Encouragement, Improvement and Advancement of Bee Culture in the United Kingdom, particularly as a means of bettering the Condition of Cottagers and the Agricultural Labouring Classes, as well the advocacy of humanity to the industrious labourer – the Honey Bee.”"

Archaic language in places but the beginning and end hold as true today as they did in 1874. There is a humbleness in that original that I find quite appealing.

My major concerns are echoed in Ken Basterfield's document - like many I'm not sure I agree with everything in his manifesto but I do believe that, with 25,000 members, (and with membership still growing) the BBKA should be a beacon of excellence within beekeeping and I'm not sure that it comes near that.

For some years it has been run autocratically, to a greater extent, but the fragmented nature of the association structure does not lend itself to member consultation - although it is a consultation process that goes down to grass roots that is probably required if reform is going to be effected.

I am sure that the intentions of the current executive are, in their belief, to lead the association effectively - but there appears to be a lack of acceptance of failures and I have to say that if there is one overriding problem with the leadership of the BBKA it is this.

 

[Brian Bush]

The original institution was worded as follows:

"For the Encouragement, Improvement and Advancement of Bee Culture in the United Kingdom, particularly as a means of bettering the Condition of Cottagers and the Agricultural Labouring Classes, as well the advocacy of humanity to the industrious labourer – the Honey Bee.”"

.

I like this lofty aim of the institution at its conception. A few years ago I read an article, I believe it was by Robin Page, that said the issue with the British is that we are no longer proud to be peasants as our continental cousins are.
25000 members and growing! This is a large organisation. Is it not time the grassroots, we cottagers, and labouring classes, (peasants), exerted our rights from the grassroots upwards. I am certainly writing to my committee to ask what was discussed at the meeting and why we, as members, were not informed beforehand.
I did this a few years ago with a different association secretary and all members were sent details of all meetings so that delegates could know the feelings of members who they were representing. This process has now lapsed.
Incidentally, I wrote requesting this procedure after we hosted the County AGM and another delegate and myself were told to shut up by the County Chairman as there was to be no discussion of a couple of contentious topics. I had never experienced such 'high handed' treatment of a membership before and let it be known in no uncertain terms, on a one to one basis, at the tea break that I thought the Chairman's actions were those of an undemocratic, arrogant despot. The following year there was freer discussion from the floor at this and our local association AGM. Funnily enough in subsequent years the number of attendees actually rose.

 

[alldigging]

I think it's an inspiring read.

Has the BBKA lost it's way?

I'm fairly new to beekeeping so some of the stuff is all new to me - the ADM is a recent thing I've learned about but reading last years is very interesting.

http://www.-------------/members/events/adm
Minutes of 55th Annual Delegates Meeting of the British Beekeepers Association held on
Saturday 10 January 2015 at Chesford Grange Hotel, Kenilworth, CV8 2LD
are there and it's well worth a read through.


Some of the things recently that have made me look twice were the non-inclusion of Basic assessment results in the magazine. Perhaps not important to everyone but 1000 people who took and passed the assessment perhaps deserve their name in their magazine?
The discussion about this having a cost of £2000 was interesting, which got me reading the finances and there's something called the Magners project which was an app that people would make a bee-beard on their photo. This was supposed to bring money into the BBKA but it's not broken down anywhere and only generalised with other given money - yet there are costs attached to this project still. Intriguing - but I have no idea whether this app did inform the general public about bees at all...

Another thing was the set of royal mail stamps last year. Almost everyone on my FB friends list shared this news with me. (As they had the flow hive) but there was not a single honey bee on those stamps. To me that was a bit weird. I mean, it is the british bee keeping association, is it not? Does anyone keep bumble bees? I know they're used for pollinating in lieu of honey bees but I don't think anyone actually 'keeps' bumble bees in their garden - apart from maybe the nice swarm collectors who I've read about rescuing them. I would love to know the reason for not including a honey bee on the stamps. For me, an ideal set would have been the different varieties of Apis mellifera.

 

[Brian Bush]

. For me, an ideal set would have been the different varieties of Apis mellifera.

 

[pargyle]

I think it's an inspiring read.

Has the BBKA lost it's way?

The discussion about this having a cost of £2000 was interesting, which got me reading the finances and there's something called the Magners project which was an app that people would make a bee-beard on their photo. This was supposed to bring money into the BBKA but it's not broken down anywhere and only generalised with other given money - yet there are costs attached to this project still.

Another thing was the set of royal mail stamps last year. Almost everyone on my FB friends list shared this news with me. (As they had the flow hive) but there was not a single honey bee on those stamps. To me that was a bit weird. I mean, it is the british bee keeping association, is it not?

Unfortunately, most of the BBKA supposed money making ventures appear to end up as loss making disasters, subsidised by the ever increasing level of subscriptions ...and the losses hidden in the accounts of BBKA Enterprises. I think that BBKA marketing is often based on personal preferences and not on sound marketing principles .. a few quid spent on some professional marketing assistance and perhaps some focus groups within their target market might be a good start ?

 

[Worldsend]

Document was circulated to all association secretaries in Hampshire

 

[user 6228]

That the BBKA has 4 layers is daft in the modern world,
member, district, county, head office.
it should be able to cut out the county for purposes of organisation. Groups of districts can come together to do events, but for communication and finance purposes, the counties are essentially redundant in a world of facebook and email.
If the head office finds dealing with individual districts too much then they aren't fit for purpose.

 

[alldigging]

Does anyone have any ADM minutes from previous years?

 

[Brian Bush]

That the BBKA has 4 layers is daft in the modern world,
member, district, county, head office.
it should be able to cut out the county for purposes of organisation. Groups of districts can come together to do events, but for communication and finance purposes, the counties are essentially redundant in a world of facebook and email.
If the head office finds dealing with individual districts too much then they aren't fit for purpose.

I believe our county association to be a waste of time. Our component associations are all of roughly equal membership size and all do a good job at local level.
I have been told that one of the barriers to change at the BBKA is the large block vote of some county associations. I do not know the membership numbers of other associations but a couple of years ago in Buckinghamshire we were all around the 120 mark. If all associations had one or two votes, rather than, Yorkshire say, having a very large block vote it would be more difficult for a small number of officials to run the BBKA as an undemocratic cartel.
I do not know how many local associations there are but one vote per 100 members, 2 votes if you had between 150 and 200 members, 3 for 250 to 300 etc. you get my drift, would IMHO make the BBKA more representative of the grassroots beekeeper and allow change to be made.

 

[masterBK]

Yorkshire has over 20 branches and nearly 1500 members but only one delegate yet all associations including very small associations like Thanet Wye valley, Rutland etc with less than 100 members) have one delegate. The block vote is there to compensate for this. Would you rather have 23 Yorkshire delegates instead ? It would certainly be a lively meeting if that happened! The block vote is not used all the time only when Yorkshire BKA memebers feel strongly about some issue.