Bds

dieseldan

Well-Known Member
If the British Deer Society is the one national organisation that has deer at is core why does it not evolve to embrace stalkers in the changing political landscape?

Will it go the same way as the NRA?

If their are members of the BDS on this site I absolutely implore you to lobby the BDS to change the way they function and to become member based for the good of deer and deer stalkers.

If not the wind of change will blow them away.

The RSPB goes from strength to strength why not the BDS?

What are the member numbers?

No dummies no agenda this is 2010 and we need a voice.
 
dan

When you state "the RSPB goes from strength to strength why not the BDS", the answer IMHO is simple - deer management involves killing deer. How many 'ordinary' people will sign up to that??

If you check the BDS website http://www.bds.org.uk/about_the_bds.html they have 6,000 susbcribing members. They are not a stalking organisation, although they have a lot of stalkers as members, mostly I would guess because stalkers have deer welfare at heart. It is an interesting question as to whether - if it became exclusively stalking focused - they would gain or lose members. My own guess is the latter.

If you look at the DMQ website (http://www.dmq.org.uk/) you'll see that, currently, there are 15.478 people registered for DSC1, of which 14,348 have completed it. Leaving aside all the arguments of DSC1/DSC2, if you really want the BDS to embrace stalkers, you might be better off lobbying all those DSC1 holders to join BDS ;)

willie_gunn
willie_gunn
 
As Willie Gunn, said the B.D.S. is not a stalking organisation its for people who have an interested in Deer, in what ever form.
In fact over the years I think it has become less stalker orientated, when I first joined 30 odd years ago they had a membership
category for stalkers this was dropped sometime in the 80s

Some of the area groups are quite stalking orientated, some areas no longer have a group due to lack of interest, or more probably the time involved for people to run them.

The B.D.S. is far from perfect, but its all we have, don't know how you can change that

Starting a new organisation has been suggested by some, would it get enough support, are there enough stalkers who would join to give it enough clout, we are awash with shooting organisations clamouring for our subscription fees is there room for another one, I have my doubts.

These are my thoughts on it I would be interested to see what others think.
 
Colin why not join the BDS and you become the voice, you know what you want to say ,Ive been a member for 30 years, Ive seen people come and go those that have tried to change things always seem to go first, the people at the top don't want our ideas, when Sir this and that come up with the idea its a different ball game .

Then they'll tell you there a charity but only for" Deer " Ive yet to find out just where the money is actually use in that field of thought, most certainly not in Scotland but were a third world country.

When it comes down to branch level your back with the men so to speak, were all on the wave length your on ,the implementation of anything other than branch level has nothing to do with the members, its been tried before you've got to have some sort of name to yourself first .
 
The BDS is there for everyone, its up to us to use it. I am involved with the SWS Branch and can say from experience we try our best to make sure Stalking gets a positive voice in SWS. The SWS Branch organise 7 range Days, at least 1 Best Practice activity day, Dogs for Deer, Taxidermy, Advanced Marksmanship course, Re-loading, Firearm Licensing officer briefing to name but a few. The BDS is there for us so lets use it.

The membership is poor and every year we try to attract new members by providing what the membership ask for or what feedback we get from Game fairs etc, but still the same old faces keep turning up with the odd new face. Join today or attend a SWS BDS organised event and support the good work done by this organisation.

Regards Dalkur
 
I follow your argument Dan and believe there is some virtue in what you say. I am, however, more of the opinion that working together under the auspices of an umbrella organisation is a far more robust way of defending all aspects of shooting sports rather than every discipline having to fight its own corner. The absence of any real interest in a national branch of the BDS over here led to the formation of BASC's Deer Stalker Network Wales (link). To be honest, not much has come of this either, but we live in hope. Would something along these lines on a UK wide basis tick any of the boxes for you?
 
We might be awash with organisation and some might say the BDS is there to be used. But unless they change there (were not for deerstalkers policy) no one will really believe they are there as a stand up organisation for the deerstalker. We have more deerstalker now than ever before in our history and we have more trained deerstalkers than ever. IMHO We need an organisation that stands up just for the deerstalker and has no other interests to take aways its attention.All the other organisations have more important things to deal with why deerstalkers give then there hard earned cash i have no idea.
 
Echoing what Dalkur has posted:

I am part of the NW BDS branch and an active committee member.

We organise the following; 3 branch shoots per year plus we have an active team participating in two Interbranch Shoots per year (One against NE england, SW Scotland and SE Scotland), the other an Interbranch shoot against Yorkshire and NE England.

We also run various other activities that have included; Dogs for deer training, visits arranged to various deer park / estates, visits to Border Barrels, PRS, Stalkers Evenings, guest speakers, DSC Preparation, visits with Royal Forestry Society, deer watching on various "ground".

We also represent the BDS at branch level at various local shows.


All this takes time and effort to arrange on a voluntary basis.

We ask members what thay want us (the committee) to arrange and we deliver.

Yet (and again this is representative across numerous branches) we get a 5% - 10% turnout at events.



Stalkers are very well represented in the NW branch.



The BDS are pro deer management, pro training / education and pay quite a tidy sum each year into research for deer related matters, all this funded from membership fees, donations and charity.


They get my vote.
 
redmist

Fine...but other than the branch shoots, the dog days, the interesting visits, the stalker's evenings, the guest speakers, the DSC preparation, the deer watching.....oh, and the research.....what has the BDS ever done for stalkers??

With apologies to anyone who is a Life of Brian fan :) ;)

willie_gunn (wishing he lived in the North West)
 
I joined the BDS when i did the DSC1, and they put me in the Midland branch. The DSC1 course could not have been better. Very informative and interesting lecturers in all the aspects of the course.

Because they meet closer to me i asked to be moved to the West branch. I asked to go on a butchery course, my name was entered, but then i heard nothing. I asked and asked and asked about meetings, get togethers, courses and heard next to nothing. Ocassionally I got an email telling me of forthcoming events, they never transpired. In the end I wrote to headquarters and resigned. I was sad to do so as i was so impressed by messers, Bagnowic, Cannon and Bowers who ran the DSC1, no one could do it better. But the rest of it was a sad joke.

So now I pay my dues to BASC and get the £10,000,000 insurance, which you do not get with the BDS as standard. I hope the BDS improves, and that one day it will become the vibrant organisation it should be. Until then I will stick with the BASC, for all its faults, it still represents my interests better than any other organisation.

ft
 
Echoing what Dalkur has posted:

I am part of the NW BDS branch and an active committee member.

We organise the following; 3 branch shoots per year plus we have an active team participating in two Interbranch Shoots per year (One against NE england, SW Scotland and SE Scotland), the other an Interbranch shoot against Yorkshire and NE England.

We also run various other activities that have included; Dogs for deer training, visits arranged to various deer park / estates, visits to Border Barrels, PRS, Stalkers Evenings, guest speakers, DSC Preparation, visits with Royal Forestry Society, deer watching on various "ground".

We also represent the BDS at branch level at various local shows.


All this takes time and effort to arrange on a voluntary basis.

We ask members what thay want us (the committee) to arrange and we deliver.

Yet (and again this is representative across numerous branches) we get a 5% - 10% turnout at events.



Stalkers are very well represented in the NW branch.



The BDS are pro deer management, pro training / education and pay quite a tidy sum each year into research for deer related matters, all this funded from membership fees, donations and charity.


They get my vote.

Spot on, as with most things, you get out what you put in. If you think that something can be done better and you are willing to put in the time, commitment and effort required then please do. If you can't be bothered or don't have the time, commitment or effort then thats fine but don't stand outside the tent peeing in. Some people on here think that they are deer messiahs but are really just very naughty boys! JC
 
Will someone take the time to write up what is missing from the existing groups. Or do we need a new group to go head to head with the FC only, everything else seems to be available.
Jim
 
We don't need a new group, we do need to shake the dead wood out of the tops in BASC, IF WE COULD JUST ACHIEVE THIS MUCH, THE REST WOULD FOLLOW, bye the bye, I have been a member of BDS too.
 
Finnbear i think your wrong mate we need a new group that is as plain as the nose on your face, one that will go head to head with the deer sector!!! not slip into bed with them at the first sign of a £££ or 2. Lets keep spooning away from deer stalking.
 
I have written this before some appear unable to read,or are unwiiling to do anything but winge.
It is no good just knocking any organisation if you have no intention of getting involved and being constructive it helps no one.
Let your wishes be known go to local meetings and tell commitee members what you want from the organisation that is the best way to bring about change.
I if you dont vote you cannot complain that the wrong party got in.
If you dont get out of bed you cannot shoot deer.
If you dont tell people what you want you aint going to get it.
BASC have done nothing for me stalking wise after all they are born out of wildfowling and are now a moneymaking org.
 
The fact still remains, if shooters as a whole get themselves into little sub groups.... EXTINCTION awaits...... ask yourself why plainsgame move around in big groups?, I think it may have something to do with strength in numbers? O.K. odd ones get picked off, but the group survives to proliferate, do the birdwatchers separate into those groups who only have interests in raptors or ground nesting types? Of course not! they stick together & are therefore sticking it to us! WAKE UP fer Chrissake!
 
Ok so what group would you say will take Deerstalking forward and who are willing to take on the government, Please dont say the BDS they are a charity and that stops them fighting the fight they can only have an opinion. Please dont say BASC because they are the reason we are in this state DSC /DMQ /LEGISLATION.£££.Your right in what you say Finnbear but the groups we have dont want to help the deerstalker they want to fill there pockets.
 
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