Pages and pages have been written lately about the future of the American Birding Association—some of it fairly pessimistic, some of it quite optimistic. Recent posts have tended toward the latter, which is reason for hope.I don't have a lot to add to the chorus of voices suggesting how to save the organization, but I do want to make one suggestion to the ABA as a whole, and especially to the incoming president/CEO: Please make it fun.
I've been an ABA member since the mid-1980s. Back then I was trying my level best to fit in with the more experienced birders I encountered. I knew then (and still know) what it's like as a bird watcher to feel not good enough to "hang" with the big dogs. That's a problem that's plagued the ABA almost since its inception: new bird enthusiasts not feeling comfortable joining because they felt inadequate in skill level and experience.
I've heard other things named as THE reason for the ABA's decline.
"It's just a club for listers!"
"Is it a conservation group or a birding group or both?"
"All that super-difficult bird ID stuff in Birding magazine is way over my head."
"The conferences are too expensive."
"It just doesn't matter like it once did."
"It's too serious!"
That last reason may be closer to the mark than any of the other ones.
In the fall of 2008, I participated in a facilitated visioning session for the ABA. The half-dozen of us in the session worked for an entire day discussing what the ABA had done in the past, what it was doing currently, and what it might do in the future to maintain and enhance its standing in the North American birding community. I thought (as did the facilitator, and most of my fellow volunteer participants) that we came up with some really great ideas and recommendations. Sadly nothing ever came of our work—at least not yet.
If all of our recommendations could be summarized in one central theme, it would be to make being a member of the American Birding Association an engagingly fun experience.
An enormous factor in being a bird watcher for most of us is the social connection we enjoy with others who share our interest. When I look at my actual, real-world friends, most of them are birders. When I look at my Facebook "friends," the same is true.
However, being connected hasn't always been so easy.
As a young birder in the 1970s, I had no clue that there were others my age who shared my interest in birds. It wasn't until I joined a local bird club that I connected with fellow bird watchers, albeit much older than I.
In 1978, my family started Bird Watcher's Digest. We reached out through the mail to bird clubs and newspaper columnists writing about birds and nature in order to find content and subscribers. The ABA was newly formed, too, but not yet a well-known entity.
In the fall of 1979, when I went to band hawks as a volunteer in Cape May, New Jersey, I found out that there were people who did bird stuff for a living! Five or so years later, I discovered the American Birding Association and I attended my first ABA convention in 1990 in Fort Collins, CO.
Today it's far easier to find and connect with others who share our special interest. The ABA, if it is to survive and grow, needs to facilitate these connections. And it needs to make sure that EVERYONE is invited, and that EVERYONE is having fun. Like the host of a really awesome party, where everyone is having such a blast that they never want to leave.
Think this is vacuous? Perhaps it is. But it's worked for me here at Bird Watcher's Digest, in the content we create, and in the events that we coordinate.
Certainly the ABA needs to promote responsible birding. It needs to publish important data. It needs to support the development of the birders of tomorrow. It needs to figure out how to run itself like a business with good financial decisions and an elimination of the conflicts among membership, staff, and board. It needs to figure out how accomplish all these things AND how to be relevant in a world where everyone can be connected all of the time.
Make it fun, and all of these challenges will be easier to overcome. People have so many choices for spending their time, attention, and money. We humans are social creatures. We tend to gravitate to things that make us feel good. As bird watchers we might even need a bit more "feel-good" stuff since we've only recently emerged from the socially stigmatized days of Miss Jane Hathaway. A fun ABA will attract more members, which will help the organization become more relevant, which will attract more members...
Here's hoping that the months and years ahead will see a lot of F-U-N put into everything the ABA does. I, for one, believe that the hobby of birding needs the happy sense of belonging that a healthy and engaged ABA can offer. And so I'm going to do what I can to help things move in that direction.