Texas Bee Club Stresses Education and Youth Involvement

摘要

Would you like to grow your bee club by leaps and bounds and bring in whole new families in one fell swoop? The largest bee club in Texas, CCHBA (Collin County Hobby Beekeepers Association), devised a plan in 2003, which they have been refining ever since, that has done just that for their club.Today, CCHBA has an attendance at monthly meetings of 175-200, with enough young people attending with their parents and siblings to catch the attention of visitors. The club meets in a rented auditorium with plenty of space in a local community college,and has the services of the college's AV crew.They rent an additional smaller room when needed to give a 3-meeting course in "Beekeeping 101" to visitors, repeated every quarter. "Visitors can easily fall through the cracks when they can't understand the unfamiliar language of beekeeping," Talbert observed. "These three sessions help them to understand some of that language, and keep them comingback. We charge $5 a person per session to cover the cost of the extra room, and we have enough visitors that we haven't lost money yet."The program that has made the biggest difference in the club's growth from a relatively small group to a large one full of infectious enthusiasm for bees and beekeeping has been their "Youth Scholarship Program," started in 2003 by several visionary older members, including John Talbert with whom I spoke.