Abstract
The holiday season is upon us and the year has passed quickly by. Hopefully, everyone has had a year to reflect upon with a smile for all the successes they have experienced, the things they have learned, the knowledge they have shared, and the new friends in aviculture they have made.
With the new year upon us. I would like to urge you, fellow AFA members, to include in your new year's resolutions some that apply to aviculture. Resolve yourselves to try harder in 1987. To keep records of the birds you raise, their parentage, date of hatching, and any circumstances pertinent to their development. To learn as much as you can about the species with which you work, and to share that knowledge with others, either through personal comment, or through an article in our magazine, the Watchbird. Resolve to play a more active role in your bird club and to play a more active role in AFA. Your bird club can benefit from your help and l know AFA needs your support and active participation.
1987! We are looking at 1987 with the knowledge that the challenges to aviculture will be greater and, in some instances, more difficult than those we met in 1986. To meet them, we must become a more cohesive organization that provides more to the avicultural community in the form of education, research, and conservation. That goal can come to pass only through growth, and grow we will.
Growth is dependent upon the commitment of our officers, board of directors, and individual members. We must all work together toward the common goal. The emphasis is on work. As you know, we have asked for volunteers in the past, and we are still looking for them. We need to reach out into the community and to do so we need your help.
AFA is currently conducting a nationwide series of veterinary-taming training seminars to educate bird owners in the proper care and nutrition of their birds, as well as how to tame and train their bird or birds to be better pets. Many of these people have never heard of an avian veterinarian, a bird club, or the AFA and they frequently have no knowledge of how to properly care for their animals. We hope to change that so their birds will live longer, healthier, happier lives and their owners will get much greater enjoyment from them.
Each seminar lasts approximately three hours and features a veterinary lecture of approximately one hour, wherein the veterinarian discusses nutrition, first aid, and the recognition of symptoms of illness. The second lecture features a bird trainer, who instructs the audience on ways to tame and train their bird, including how to stop them from biting, and teaching them to talk.
We hope to conduct these seminars twice a year in all the major cities in the U.S. and need ten to fourteen volunteers in each area tO manage this educational program. You can help AFA conduct these seminars by contacting your regional vice-president listed in the front of the Watchbird, or by notifying me, and l will put you in contact with the appropriate people. Your participation will help the birds, your fellow bird enthusiasts, and the AFA.
l look forward to a great 1987 and wish each and every one of you a happy holiday and a prosperous new year! •