On Wed, 16 Aug 1995, Stuart MacKay wrote:
>
> Professional organisations such as SAS, PAS have their own newsletters to
> advertise trips so they have plenty of opportunities for publicity. Same goes
> for optics shops, tour companies, etc, etc.

But there are those of us out here who don't get all the newsletters
(heck, I just joined PAS last Thursday after three years in the area; OFO
was first, and WOS is next) and
who might want to know if a Seattle Audubon trip is going to a particular
place that we keep reading about. The point of posting the trips on OBOL
was for exactly that purpose: to let other people across the state know
what's going on and give people an opportunity to share their trips. The
problem here then becomes, what is local, as Stuart MacKay noted, given
the regional coverage of Tweeters--it reaches a far, more wide-ranging
audience than OBOL, for example (this is conjecture, but by people's
geographic signatures, one can make an assumption). I'd like to see
someone post Seattle Audubon's trips, for example; If they were going to
places like Grays Harbor, I'd be VERY tempted to go so I can learn to
navigate my way around such places.
Then there are small outfits like Greg Gillson's Bird Guide
service who will post trips occasionally. One shot announcement of
pelagic by people like this seems fine.
I'd note also the PAS only posts FREE field trips, not money
making ventures. Salem Audubon posted prices for contirbutions to a van
to cut down on wasteful gas expense on longer trips.

> Birders in general are a pretty afluent group.
Yes, BUT. I'm right now in that nebulous birder age group between 20 and
45 where studies have shown that membership in organizations goes down,
where the number of trips which can be taken goes down, where involvement
in organizations goes down. When my wife and I were in Pullman, when we
were both in school and trying to live on $20K a year for 4 years, Audubon
and Ornith. Society memberships became a luxury (indeed, I was appreciative
when the professor I did the Xmas
COunt with picked up the $5 tab one year--but paying to do a Christmas
Count is a whole different can of worms in itself). Many college students,
however, can get free internet access via the college campus,
and can enroll on our lists and engage us
intellectually. Posting trips for people like these is a service. If I
had this service in the time when I was in Pullman, it probably
would've helped my sanity more.
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Ray Korpi
rkorpi at clark.edu
Wrk: Clark College
Vancouver, WA
Hm: Portland, OR
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