IFBR
THE INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIP OF BIRDWATCHING ROTARIANS
The Birdwatching
Fellowship commenced in 1991, with its presence at the Mexico convention. It
is now one of more than 120 Global Networking Groups within Rotary.
The initiator of the Fellowship was PP Dick Tafel of North Bay, Ontario,
Canada. In June of 2002 he was superseded as president by Mike Lakin
of Botswana, Africa. The third President was PDG Steve Leonard of
Indiana USA who served in that role for six years up until June 2013 when he
was succeeded by PDG Julie West from District 6630 in North East Ihio, USA.
Julie's e-mail address is – jwest @ameritech.net
In 1991 the tradition commenced of holding field trips during the convention to seek out local birds. Over the years these trips have taken place the day immediately after the international convention in order not to interfere with any of the scheduled events of the convention. With the aid of local leaders, such trips customarily locate about fifty local species. Between 20 to 30 Rotarians and spouses usually take part in these events.
The first lengthier trip occurred after the Singapore convention in 1999 and travelled through much of central Malaysia, for seven days.
In May of 2001, a fifteen-day trip was organised through Southern Africa, including Kruger National Park and much of Swaziland and Botswana. Much of the transportation and accommodation in Africa was through the assistance of local Rotarians.
The fellowship has financially assisted environmental projects in Bolivia, India, and South Africa.
English Newsletters are emailed to all members once or twice yearly. The publisher is Susan Leonard of Fishers, Indiana, U.S.A.. The full membership list is up-dated annually and sent to all members.
There are now over 150 members in 20 countries.