Sport Promotion
At the York Racing Pigeon Club
By Warren Smith
I want to share a perspective on sport promotion, that some readers may find
helpful in building their own local organization. In order to appreciate our
club’s transformation in terms of attitude and methods, I want to share our
story from a historical perspective, as to why we developed a pro-growth
philosophy, by providing some background information involving my personal
experiences with our club, the York Racing Pigeon Club, and our combine the
United Pigeon Combine or UPC.
Much of our club’s early history was undocumented, and thus was lost when
members passed away over the last five decades. As a young teenager in 1965,
I remember reading the combine race results and noting that in those days
the YRPC was a powerhouse with many dozens of members, and the veterans in
my club back then, the Red Rose Pigeon Club in Lancaster, Pa., felt that the
much larger YRPC was a very tough competitor indeed!
When I returned with much enthusiasm to our sport in 2002 after a long
absence, I found much had changed. The YRPC was now associated with the UPC,
which was a newer and much smaller combine, and the former YRPC powerhouse
had been reduced in size to barely the required minimum number of members.
My original club, the Red Rose Pigeon Club, had passed away along with many
of its elderly members.
What strikes me to this day, was the lack of enthusiasm and perhaps even
indifference that I met, when I sought out this much smaller YRPC to join
and start flying pigeons again. Only one gentleman by the name of Lewis
Burns, showed any interest in my return to racing. I recall that one of the
members who is no longer with this club, was concerned that Lew might be
providing me “too much help.” Fortunately for me and the future of our club,
Lew’s attitude was “I’m not here to compete against new or junior members,
I’m here to build giants!” It did not take a rocket scientist to figure out,
I had stumbled into a small old boy’s club, that for the most part feared
competition, and thus newcomers were just barely tolerated.
Over the next several years, when attending combine meetings and seeing
people from other clubs, it was obvious to me that the overwhelming majority
of fanciers within these surrounding communities consisted of mainly older
guys, mainly middle or upper class, with a high proportion who were retired,
and most had pigeons for many decades, if not their whole lives. Newer
fanciers like myself, were seldom seen or heard from.
There are many fanciers which are nice enough guys, which make up the
members of these various clubs, as part of this UPC. But too often what I
was exposed to at these various meetings, were the disagreements. There is
always the subject of the direction of the race course, which no matter
which direction is taken, will always be viewed as favoring some clubs over
others. When winning that piece of paper on race day becomes the over riding
obsession of the individual member, then the interests of any individual
club, is to insure that some other club does not gain more influence over
the combine.
With this situation, not much interest in sport development will occur at
the combine level. If one of these individual clubs were to say, double its
membership, the “balance of power” could be shifted, and this would cause
concern among the various clubs. This situation results in no cooperation
among the various local organizations. A prime example of this was a Pet
Expo that was undertaken by several AU members in the area, and was assisted
by the AU with staff, advertising, and displays. The local club which is the
largest in the combine, chose not to participate, or to assist in any
manner. The result was a successful event in which over 10,000 walked by our
display booth, but had there been cooperation within the various clubs in
the area, perhaps much more could have been accomplished.
With this back drop, our small recently chartered AU club stands alone
inside a combine where all the other clubs are affiliated with another
national group. And from a historical standpoint, until very recently,
except for the affiliation with the AU, and the Pet Expo, no promotional
activity has ever been conducted at our club level, or in any other club in
the area, that I am aware of.
If by some accident, some person would be interested in pigeons, it would
almost have to be by dumb luck that they would stumble across any of us in
south central Pennsylvania. If that were to happen, the prevailing attitude
might just be what I encountered just a few years ago, “Don’t give too much
assistance.” This prevailing attitude is not of course shared by all, but
neither has there been any sort of organized help or assistance.
This attitude from my perspective, has been extended to mostly everybody,
does not matter if the person was new and green, or a Junior member, or a
new club wanting to join our Combine. The attitude is and has been one of
exclusion, new members are not appreciated, and clubs need not apply.
From this history and personal experience, it became evident to me, that the
major challenge to the survival of our sport, and particularly my own club,
is with the fanciers themselves. It is not building codes, zoning
regulations, or the fact that the kids now days prefer to play video games.
It is us, the guys who belong to our clubs and combines, we are the very
reason for the decline or lack luster growth in our sport. And anyone who
has spent any time or effort trying to introduce any progressive new
promotion ideas to this sport by way of their club or combine, certainly
must understand and appreciate, that introducing the concept of change to a
group of mostly older, well to do, veteran fanciers, can be a very difficult
and daunting task.
Having said all that, I must confess, that my actions and behavior over this
historical time frame was less than stellar. I myself personally have been
as much the problem as anyone. I wanted to win, and I wanted my viewpoint
heard. So a change inside my own head has needed to occur, a little
humility, a willingness to accept another’s viewpoint, and a willingness to
help even my “competitors,” are some of the things I must continue to work
on.
This realization was recently driven home, when four of our six flying
active members voted with their feet at the conclusion of the 2007 YB season
to fly with other affiliated local clubs, rather than face the challenges,
uncertainties, and disadvantages that a very small club will have.
So at the end of our 2007 YB season, our club was faced with having only two
members pledging to fly in the Combine during the 2008 season, myself and my
partner/affiliate/loft manager Lew Burns. We looked at our options, #1 allow
the club to fold and follow the others into other clubs, or #2 skip local
area races altogether and focus on the One Loft events where we have enjoyed
success.
The other option #3, which we chose, was to reinvent ourselves and our club.
We saw that this presented our remaining members a grand opportunity to put
into place some of the progressive ideas, which were put forth in the past,
but were never acted upon, or fully embraced. Our club, like perhaps others,
had been held hostage by a minority of veteran members who had been infected
with “It Can’t Be Done” syndrome. Now, for perhaps the very first time, all
the members of the YRPC were all on the same page, in terms of doing
something to bring about change.