Abstract
San Antonio, Texas, a city of over one million people, manages to support two thriving bird clubs at a time when some groups have to struggle to stay viable. River City Bird Club (RCBC) and Alamo Exhibition Bird Club (AEBC) each perform services that compliment rather than compete with each other. They have members in common and promote and attend the other club's events - River City by selling birds at the AEBC marts and Alamo by attending the River City and Texas A & M accredited avian seminars to learn from their outstanding speakers.
The River City Bird Club
The River City Bird Club was founded in February of 1997 for the purpose of promoting a continuing program of education in the field of aviculture for it's members, member's clients, and the public in general.
The RCBC educational program includes such things as a monthly newsletter containing a variety of published articles by veterinarians and avian specialists. They also have a professional speaker at each of their monthly meetings and finally they present, in cooperation with the College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A & M University, an annual avian seminar. This event is a twoday affair, which includes a full day of classroom lectures supported by film and slides. These lectures are presented by the teaching staff from San Antonio, Texas, a city of over one million people, manages to support two thriving bird clubs at a time when some groups have to struggle to stay viable the vet school at Texas A & M and invited guest presenters from all over the country.
The second day consists of a variety of lab situations such as a "wet lab" with veterinarians teaching basic and intermediate avian first aid, techniques for tube feeding, crop lavage, emergency temporary fixes for damaged or broken wings and legs and much more. Labs are also available on computer generated record keeping for the aviculturist. This year a special lab has been added to include the many aviculture related research projects being conducted by the Schubot Exotic Bird Health Center at Texas A & M.
This seminar is the only fund raising project RCBC has. Of the funds generated, only those needed to maintain the club for the balance of the year are retained. The rest of the money generated is donated to educational and research causes. A portion is allocated for scholarship funding at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A & M. A portion is donated to The Schubot Exotic Bird Health Center, which is an endowed avian research facility, located on the campus of Texas A & M University. Finally a portion is donated to AFA to support the CITES program or, as was the case last year, the Spix's Macaw Project.
RCBC also encourages all of it's members to establish a close relationship with a practicing avian veterinarian and to suggest to all of their clients to do the same for the continued health and care of their newly purchased birds.
Members of RCBC are proud of the fact that they have set very high standards for themselves (and their birds). They have taken the position that they should regulate themselves and feel that if more aviculturists would do the same we could prevent (or at least forestall) the need for government intervention and/ or regulation.