Incompetence of the BBKA

[MuswellMetro]

I am absolutely appalled at the standard of knowledge and compentance of the BBKA trustees,

They approached us ,"can you run the BBKA stand at Edible Garden Show in London, its movig from Stoneleigh , we have all the props .this this and this"...all turned out to be massive structures used on a 200m2 PLUS square open stand in the main hall at Stoneleigh# yes it will all fit just get a few trees in tubs and flowers for the wheel barrow and add a hive, tools etc, looks wonderful , it a lovely Beehive emblem about 5m tall, it been like extracting juice from a stone trying to get the simple info from them, sizes, location, who will arrange collection, how to put together etc

what they had booked at the london show was a small stand of normal dimension 8mx4m ( which they got free,) Until i checked they expected all the items to be collected by us at our expenses from stoneligh (150mls one way) and none of the structure would have fitted in the stand, yet when i said we wont pick up or five of us come to meet you for an hours meeting on a friday afternoon (why not was the reply) they said ok we will deliver and intended to dump thes 5m beehive and all the stuff on us and for us to put it up on a thursday with no support and no expenses not even a sandwich,

The large beehive looks like it needs a forklift truck to lift it ,see photo , how do you get that in a 5mx7m stand ,see the type of stand in the distance

they also sugested 12 beekepers per session with 8 or 10 on at any one time.as you get two or three punters waiting to talk....so 10 beepekers with 3 people each is 40 people in a area of 35m2s so less than 1 sq per person without any of their very large equipement....idiots, I have pulled out as they can't run a P up in a brewery

How did they organise the Hampton Court Show, surely they gained expertise from that or was that a shamble too

 

[pargyle]

I am absolutely appalled at the standard of knowledge and compentance of the BBKA trustees,
....

How did they organise the Hampton Court Show, surely they gained expertise from that or was that a shamble too

I saw them at Hampton Court ... all contained in a modest size marquee surrounded by a 'bee' garden with a couple of hives in there. Mainly displays on tables and free standing display boards inside the marquee from memory.

 

[MuswellMetro]

I saw them at Hampton Court ... all contained in a modest size marquee surrounded by a 'bee' garden with a couple of hives in there. Mainly displays on tables and free standing display boards inside the marquee from memory.

i expect it was dumped on a local BKA just as they tried to dump this on us, they asked if we could pay for things to be delivered at the expenses for our memebers~ our county asset is minimul £1000, they could not understnad why we had so little funds and could not buy 72 x £8 travels cards nor hire a large van for a 300 mile trip to pick up the items, i wish i was still in bedfrodshire BKA as they ain't BBKA affiliated

 

[alanf]

It appears to be the usual commercial show format, much as for the Ideal Home (which is competing with it the same weekend) or plenty of others. The headliners are TV gardeners and cooks, booked to demonstrate or lecture. The cash comes in to pay them and for facilities hire from entrance money (£12 advance adult, £16 on the door) and sales space hired to commercial operators - magazines, seed firms, the marketing arms of the manufacturers you see in garden centres. The "dressing" is charities and NGOs like National Trust, RSPB, Wildlife Trusts and BBKA who get a free pitch to promote their message to set against lending their credibility to the event.

From a beekeeping POV it's the weekend of the module exams, two weeks before Harper Adams. And that's all late March which, weather permitting can get a bit busy, with beginners courses (or the follow ups) and all the rest. Locally, it's still school term time so anyone involved with education will be occupied.

As for most of these events, it's a choice of doing a proper job - and as a minimum that's plenty of banners, literature and a good staffing level or giving it a miss. What could come from it would be national or regional level PR, and (from some BBKA perspectives) a chance to push the adoption and friends brands. Strategy which I'm aware does not meet with universal members' approval. Locally, there's less to gain, is selling some honey possible? Not enough to expect a single local association to subsidise a presence at what is billed as a national event.

 

[MuswellMetro]

two weeks before Harper Adams. And that's all late March which, weather permitting can get a bit busy, with beginners courses (or the follow ups) and all the rest. Locally, it's still school term time so anyone involved with education will be occupied.

A~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Locally, there's less to gain, is selling some honey possible? Not enough to expect a single local association to subsidise a presence at what is billed as a national event.

No we could not have sold Honey,as the BBKA would need to pay extra for the stand

Agree totally with your comments, it was also put to the Federation to run though, BBKA said Ealing &D and Twickenham &D are ten minutes drive away why can't they help

hmmm 10miles in 10 minutes via North circular, hanger lane gyratory and Henly's corner, it takes me 90 minutes on a Friday rush hour to do that journey and longer if a morning Rush hour

Likewise they said they might pay tube fares but no idea it would take over an hour to do the same journey by Tube and cost £8:50 off peak and £11 peak tube fare if needed to get members there for 9:00am~~~we can't pay that, and can't pay for Event prices for coffee or Sandwiches

Until after we turned them down we did not find out about the need to handle money and that each volunteer would have a target set to sign up Joe Public for BBKA Adopt a Bees Hive and have limited time to look around, now that hasn't gone done well with the volunteers

I still think they are under the impression the site they are going to get is the same as the Hampton court setup size, whereas the actual site they have been allocted is not a lot gbigger than the size of my living room

 

[chutalot]

hmmm 10miles in 10 minutes via North circular, hanger lane gyratory and Henly's corner, it takes me 90 minutes on a Friday rush hour to do that journey and longer if a morning Rush hour

Likewise they said they might pay tube fares but no idea it would take over an hour to do the same journey by Tube and cost £8:50 off peak and £11 peak tube fare if needed to get members there for 9:00am~~~we can't pay that, and can't pay for Event prices for coffee or Sandwiches

Surprising I would have thought that some of the trustees would have known that! Or was it the Office staff?

Until after we turned them down we did not find out about the need to handle money and that each volunteer would have a target set to sign up Joe Public for BBKA Adopt a Bees Hive and have limited time to look around, now that hasn't gone done well with the volunteers

Never heard of setting volunteers targets before. And how does the 'adopt a beehive scheme work'? How much of the £30 annual fee goes to the 'adopt a beehive beekeeper'?

 

[Hivemaker.]

How much of the £30 annual fee goes to the 'adopt a beehive beekeeper'?

Is there actually such a thing as an adopted hive.

 

[chutalot]

Is there actually such a thing as an adopted hive.

I suspect not! However, the notes on the BBKa website state:-

You will get seasonal updates from your local Adopted beekeeper and learn all about the joys and challenges of their beehives. You will also receive a welcome pack full off bee goodies including:

•A jar of honey or honey mustard
•A pack of pollinator-friendly Habitat Aid wildflower seeds
•A pocket guide to the honey bee
•A lip balm from Burt’s Bees

I am not aware of any Beekepers in our area who is an 'Apopted beekeeper' - so I don't know what sort of 'seasonal updates' would be produced.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

It appears to be the usual commercial show format, much as for the Ideal Home (which is competing with it the same weekend) or plenty of others. The headliners are TV gardeners and cooks, booked to demonstrate or lecture. The cash comes in to pay them and for facilities hire from entrance money (£12 advance adult, £16 on the door) and sales space hired to commercial operators - magazines, seed firms, the marketing arms of the manufacturers you see in garden centres. The "dressing" is charities and NGOs like National Trust, RSPB, Wildlife Trusts and BBKA who get a free pitch to promote their message to set against lending their credibility to the event.

From a beekeeping POV it's the weekend of the module exams, two weeks before Harper Adams. And that's all late March which, weather permitting can get a bit busy, with beginners courses (or the follow ups) and all the rest. Locally, it's still school term time so anyone involved with education will be occupied.

As for most of these events, it's a choice of doing a proper job - and as a minimum that's plenty of banners, literature and a good staffing level or giving it a miss. What could come from it would be national or regional level PR, and (from some BBKA perspectives) a chance to push the adoption and friends brands. Strategy which I'm aware does not meet with universal members' approval. Locally, there's less to gain, is selling some honey possible? Not enough to expect a single local association to subsidise a presence at what is billed as a national event.

I am also a member of the Icelandic Horse Society of Great Britain and have on a few occasions volunteered to help with show stands. We had a 16 foot display trailer which we took to the showgrounds and opened up. It contained wall posters, a video with a large screen and lots of promotional material. In addition we had four 12 foot gates to make a square pen for a petting horse to do a few hours look at me and fall in love duty.
Usually we also had a riding team with horses to demonstrate the additional "special gaits" of the Icelandic horse. There are lots of bits of youtube video for anyone curious about "the tolt" or "flying pace"
No rocket science involved but we were usually well received by everyone. a similar approach but with laptop, projector and screen might be the way to go now. I have "done" a local livery yards own show with a laptop and a power point I made up. Surely this could be an option with beekeeping?

 

[HaroldC]

Our local association has attends a few local shows. We turn up with an observation hive with bees - an empty beehive - some boards with pictures - leaflets and honey to sell. The shows generally have a suggested donation - but we generally are able to negotiate - something like 50p per jar of honey sold up to a maximum.

Whether we go or not is generally dependant on whether we can get enough volunteers or not and whether the likely attendees are going to be interested in finding out about beekeeping.

I am surprised that the BBKA have agreed to attend this event without first finding out whether there would be enough volunteers to man the stand. Setting targets for number of 'adopt a hive' packages to be 'sold' by volunteers does seem a bit strange. Sounds like the sort of thing you would do if you were employing casual staff to man the stand.

 

[Worldsend]

Could we run a stand with a laptop and con people into signing up to be virtual beekeepers ?