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Hi there,
I am interested to find out how you were informed about
the NGS contacting us with regards to affiliation, mainly (and probably most
disturbingly) is because it is slightly inaccurate.
Firstly, we have not refused to affiliated at
all. The result of the communication between us was that we would see
where our club stood after our first show in Feb. We did not want to deal
with starting up the club and organising the first show as well as trying to
work out the finer details of affiliation at the same time.
Secondly, the NGS have also not _repeatedly_ offered
assistance, to my knowledge Julian/Jackie have only contacted myself once
regarding the matter (If you have contacted me again guys, I apologise - I get
so much spam it's hard to filter out the good mails!), I was planning on
contacting them again after the show if there was need to. E.g. if the
show only pulled 5 people then there isn't much point in going a full hog with
affiliation, whereas if we attracted a big crowd then of course it would be
beneficial to both the club and the fancy to be affiliated.
I have no quarrel with the NGS what-so-ever, in
fact I'm quite glad they're around, as it provides a lot of support for both new
gerbil owners and more experienced ones. We started the SWMGC not to
disrupt the fancy and try and knock the NGS from it's position as a national
recognised club, but as you say, to provide local shows. As of this time
we have less than 15 members (Paid anyway), of which only 5 have put forward
entries for the upcoming show. I'd be more than happy to address this
issue if the show provides a success and the members feel that we have something
to offer.
I hope this clears things up somewhat
:)
Tony Pottrell
I have been reading the recent debate on the mailing list situation and it has come to my attention that one of parties interested in running a new list for us is the co-founder of the SWMGC (Southwest and midland gerbil club) and this is the matter I would like to raise in this email, and would appreciate others views, especially those living in the UK. Firstly I would like to ask Tony why he though it necessary to set up a Gerbil Club in the UK which refuses to be affiliated to the National Gerbil Society. As the NGS is the nationally recognised body of 30 years standing for the care and promotion of gerbils as a pet in the UK, they have repeatedly offered to help this club and offered to award NGS patronage to their shows, offering help, judges etc only to be refused. My worry is that in such a minority hobby this could seriously split the fancy which I for one would not like to see happen. Could you tell me if you still have the same stance towards the NGS and if so why? I would welcome regional gerbil clubs as I think in the long run this could only benefit the fancy, this would be very similar to the set up in the hamster, rabbit and other fancies, more societies mean more members which can only be good for the respective animal, but these societies are sub divisions of the fancies and not independent of them. If you sincerely wish for the promotion of the gerbil in the South west regions surely it would be helpful to you to be affiliated to a nationally recognised body and not independent of it. These are just my views and not necessarily the views of the NGS and its members, although I am a member myself and live in the Northwest of England and I too would love to see a lot more shows on my doorstep, (I understand one of the reasons for setting up your club was to have more shows on your doorstep) but the only way to achieve this is to work within the NGS, which has many members all only too willing to 'lend a hand' in achieving this and other goals. When replying Tony, I would appreciate it if you could reply to the list and not myself personally, I feel this is a debate which is of interest to many people and it would be unfair for them not to read your response to the points I have raised. Thanks Eddie |
- SWMGC Ed Cope
- Tony P
