# Warren deserves his award.



## re lee (Jan 4, 2003)

I do not post many threads. But after recieving The A U update and reading Warrens article On his club and combine. I think He did a good job writing on what effects Many clubs . But the key thing he is really trying to do something, to bring back his club and HELP new comers into the sport of racing pigeons. To this He deserves this thread as an award Thanks for the great job you are doing Warren. And You are a credit to the sport.


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## Lin Hansen (Jan 9, 2004)

Robert,

Any chance of posting Warren's article or a link to his article here at Pigeon Talk?

Thanks Warren for all you do....

Linda


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## mr squeaks (Apr 14, 2005)

Not to be left out...we, too, think 

*CONGRATULATIONS, WARREN!!*

are in order...

_*Sh, Squeaks, Dom & Gimie*_


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

mr squeaks said:


> Not to be left out...we, too, think
> *CONGRATULATIONS, WARREN!!*
> 
> are in order...


DITTO that.

I would LOVE to see that article too.

Robert, thank you for sharing.


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## learning (May 19, 2006)

*Fyi...*

Going along with this train of thought, I decided to post the text to an article that I wrote that was published in this month's Racing Pigeon Digest. It chronicles Warren's participation in a recent fundraising project we had at my club this spring. It is another example of Warren's commitment to promoting the sport.

Thought you might enjoy,

Dan

Thinking Outside The Box

I need to preface everything that follows with the fact that I have been away from the sport of racing pigeons for 30 years so I realize that the views stated in this article may be flawed somewhat by the ravages of time (sort of like my memory, eyesight and a few other things we won’t mention here!). I have only been back in the sport for two years but in that short time I have noticed some things about the sport that trouble me. I know that there are certainly many exceptions, but it seems that we are, at least to some degree, guilty of partaking in activities that seem counterproductive to our long term goals. 

I think we all realize that our sport is on the decline and yet our actions seem to feed this trend. On the one hand we bemoan the sad state of our sport with its declining numbers and lack of growth, yet on the other hand, we often do little to encourage the opposite. We are quick to note the lack of interest of young people today in anything other than X-Box and Nintendo, yet do little to actively change these attitudes. As a 20+ year educator, I truly believe that today’s youth varies little, at its core, from the youth of our childhood. They just have a much greater and immediate access to things which stimulate them. This doesn’t make them inherently different than we were as kids. It just means that our job as educators presents more challenges than it used to.

Another area that puzzles me is the fact that our sport seems to attract people who are either by nature cynical or have become that way through their activity in the sport. It seems to me that many of us are initially skeptical of anything new, or that we see as a challenge to long held beliefs. I guess this grows out of the competitiveness of the activity but it is often seen as a turn-off to people interested in joining our ranks. We present potential new flyers with club meetings that are often weighed down with bickering and back biting. Why would someone choose to become involved in an activity which seems to bring out the worst in people? This is especially true for young people. A parent is certainly not going to support their child in an activity which seems to be so heavily burdened by such negativity.

Now, before you throw down this magazine in disgust and start cursing me as a stirrer up of ill will, hear me out. This article is not one of negative disgust at the current state of affairs within our ranks but one of positive encouragement. Allow me to share with you a story that unfolded over the last few months and got me thinking about what can be achieved if we just start thinking beyond the bounds of what is comfortable.

I am a member of a new club in the Atlanta, Georgia area. Like every club we are scraping for every penny we can get to support our fledgling activities. We decided to have an auction to help raise these much needed funds. All of the members were encouraged to contact breeders and flyers they knew that might be willing to donate birds in support of our efforts. One of our members, (O.K. , I admit it, it was me…you probably would have figured it out eventually anyway!) contacted a good friend to see if they would be interested in helping out. His name is Warren Smith of Smith Family Lofts in York, Pennsylvania. Warren has become somewhat of a household name of late with his success in the Flamingo International Challenge in Florida over the last couple of years. He was equal first in the 2006, 350 and first outright in the 2007, 350. My initial contact with him was disappointing in that he expressed that his young bird output this year was not as high as he had hoped and he really didn’t have any extra birds he could spare. I could tell in his voice that he was genuinely upset that he could not help us out but I thanked him anyway and I thought that was that.

A couple of days later he e-mailed me with a hair brained proposition that he said might work out or might be an absolute flop, but he was willing to give it a try if we were. This is what he proposed. He was planning on sending a team of birds to the AU Convention Race this year and had already committed to this. He proposed that instead of shipping the birds directly to the convention race, he send them to us. We could then put them in our auction with the understanding that immediately following the auction they would go on to the convention race. The birds would then fly as his team just like any other birds would, with one big exception. Warren agreed to split any winnings these birds might earn 50/50 with the winning bidder and at the end of the race they would be shipped back the winning bidder in Georgia. 
Now, stop for a second and realize what he has done. He is paying all of the entry fees for these birds, he is paying all the shipping involved and on top of that splitting any winnings! Sounds like a pretty good deal, doesn’t it?! Well, there is a catch. The AU convention race rules state that the top 25 birds must go to auction at the convention. Well, to help with this little snag, Warren agreed to commit up to 110% of the winnings that bird or birds won to buy them back to insure they get back to the winning bidder here in Georgia. Now, that is his own money, and he agreed to this in writing in the form of a contract that he signed.

Now, how did all this work out? Well, the convention race isn’t until the fall but I can tell you how it went in our auction. Warren sent his three bird team as promised and they were saved for the end of the auction. These three birds each brought more than twice what any other bird in the auction went for. They were easily the highest priced birds in the auction. So, from a club point of view, this hair brained idea was a huge success. Will the birds do well in the convention race? Only time will tell. My point here is that it took someone thinking outside the box to make this happen.

I wish that we all could be as resourceful and creative as Warren proved to be in this instance. Perhaps if we all strived to find innovative ways of making things work, those club meetings full of argument and negativity could be turned into meetings of camaraderie and support. Those people being turned off to our sport due to negativity and cynicism could be welcomed with encouragement and enthusiasm. Those awkward conversations trying to justify our sport to a skeptical public could be turned into genuine, proactive information being shared to an inquisitive, yet ignorant neighbor. The amount of impact each one of us can have on the future well being of pigeon racing is limitless. We just have to be willing to gently, patiently tear down the barriers that have held us back for all these years. The time of keeping to ourselves and coveting our little secret, that is pigeon racing, is at an end. It is time to be proactive. It is time share the wonderful world pigeons with a public that has been left to draw its own conclusions based on its own limited and flawed perceptions. In short, it is time to start thinking outside the box.

If we don’t…who will?

Dan H. Detweiler
North Atlanta Racing Pigeon Club


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## Maggie-NC (Jun 22, 2005)

Warren, congratulations on these two outstanding endorsements. 

Dan, that was a wonderful article.


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

Nice article Dan...........and you did a wonderful thing Warren. The sport sure could use more like you. Sometimes it's like beating your head against a brick wall with some of these flyers. All they think about is how many birds they can send to a race and how many races they can win and everything else about the sport be damned. 
I actually found the article in the Digest after I saw this thread. I got it a week or so ago, but hadn't sat down to read it yet.
Job well done...........both of you.


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## bloodlines_365 (Jan 15, 2008)

thats really nice warren.... good thinking!! small thougth like this can make a diff... as a CHESS blits player i always used that concept (think outside the box) and as a pigeon lover and HANDYMAN..... i think i did my part ......i built and fix any pigeon loft for FREE to anybody who migth be interested in pigeons. in my neigborhood i already built 6 pigeon loft with their own design for free and around my friends i fix and built each and every loft they have and explain it to them how fun it is to have pigeon as hobby... if each and everyone of us do small things like this we can make a big diff...


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

Well done Warren and Dan! Kudos to you both. Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Robert!

Terry


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## Guest (May 23, 2008)

wooohooooo way to go Warren  keep up the good work , keep that iron horse(pigeon) going strong


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## SmithFamilyLoft (Nov 22, 2004)

re lee said:


> I do not post many threads. But after recieving The A U update and reading Warrens article On his club and combine. I think He did a good job writing on what effects Many clubs . But the key thing he is really trying to do something, to bring back his club and HELP new comers into the sport of racing pigeons. To this He deserves this thread as an award Thanks for the great job you are doing Warren. And You are a credit to the sport.


....I really do feel humbled by your very kind words. Thank you.


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## SmithFamilyLoft (Nov 22, 2004)

Lin Hansen said:


> Robert,
> 
> Any chance of posting Warren's article or a link to his article here at Pigeon Talk?
> 
> ...


 Thank you Linda, and Dan and everyone else for your encouraging comments. Val at the pigeon place, was kind enough to place both these articles on my web site under NEWS. I see there is a bit of a typo, since the article on sport promotion appeared in the Racing Pigeon Digest and the AU newsletter. Also Dan's "Outside the Box" article is also listed on here.
See: http://www.smithfamilyloft.com/News.html


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## SmithFamilyLoft (Nov 22, 2004)

re lee said:


> I do not post many threads. But after recieving The A U update and reading Warrens article On his club and combine. I think He did a good job writing on what effects Many clubs . But the key thing he is really trying to do something, to bring back his club and HELP new comers into the sport of racing pigeons. To this He deserves this thread as an award Thanks for the great job you are doing Warren. And You are a credit to the sport.


 For those interested, I have posted an update on my web site for the York Racing Pigeon Club. http://www.smithfamilyloft.com/YorkUpdate.html

This is a follow up to the article which was published in the Racing Pigeon Digest, and the American Racing Pigeon Union quarterly newsletter. 

The main point of this most recent article, or at least what I was trying to communicate, is that working to promote our sport and hobby, can be just as gratifying as winning a diploma, and in at least my personal experience, even more so. 

Whether this particular piece gets published, we will just have to wait and see. I did want to share it with our readers here, and on my web site, because some of the member's whose pictures were sent with the article, are also to be congratulated for their efforts.

YRPC Update
By Warren Smith


As a follow up to the previously published article, I would like to share with readers a small sampling of what has transpired since my last report. First of all, the York RPC enjoyed a tremendously successful 2008 YB season, with four brand new members successfully completing our rigorous training program, and then actually competing with veterans in Combine competition with the United Pigeon Combine. For those not familiar with the UPC, we are an eight club, 135 member Combine in south central Pa. and Maryland, flying over the Blue Ridge Mountains, and home of the likes of Fred Smeltzer and 720 fame, and a cadre of professional One Loft Race veterans. These guys are tough, serious competitors. 

Not all of our new members made it to Combine competition, as getting a team of YB’s to the first Combine race station proved especially challenging this past season, not only for our novice beginners, but for a high percentage of veteran fliers throughout our combine. 

What made this accomplishment especially delightful for our new members, is that on a number of occasions, they beat some of us veteran professionals ! And I know perhaps in the backs of minds of some readers, the idea of helping a future potential competitor, may cause some of you to refrain, or pause for a moment, before extending that helping hand. It’s a natural reaction, I’ve been there myself.

I can now say from personal experience, that our 13 year old junior member Dan Cook did beat me in the 2008 season, and with one of my own birds ! And there were other occasions, where these brand new members also beat me on race day with one of my own birds, and as counterintuitive as it may seem, these were some of the most enjoyable moments in my pigeon racing career ! 

You see, I discovered one of the best feelings you will ever have in this sport, is helping some new member or junior member experience a small slice of racing success. It has it’s own set of rewards, which can be a cherished moment, which will last for the lifetime of the new member. 

In January we held a banquet in which to enjoy and share some camaraderie. In years past, when winning that piece of paper was the paramount issue on everyone‘s mind, it was quite common to have a large number of No Shows, so the practice of a Club banquet had fallen by the way side. In this case, we had a near 100% participation, in fact only one of our members was unable to make it because of work obligations. That in itself, was a major accomplishment, and a testimony to our growing success. 

At this banquet, I announced that our 13 year old junior member Dan Cook, a full time student who is employed delivering newspapers, had made an admirable decision to invest in a Life Membership with the AU. Dan and his parents, Dave and Peggy Cook, expressed their appreciation of the efforts that the YRPC had undertaken to get him involved in a very wholesome and positive hobby. 

Dan’s decision to give something back to this sport, by becoming a Life Member, was an inspiration to all of us, and sometimes inspiration is contagious, so another one of our new members, Dr. James Gilhool, also signed up to become a Life Member. I have included some pictures of our banquet, of Dan Cook, and the three of us, representing the YRPC members who are now AU Life Members. 

As we all prepared to leave for home from the banquet that evening, it dawned on all of us, that we were all part of something bigger then ourselves. We had together created a climate of fun and good sportsmanship, where winning is important, but it is not the most important thing. It is insuring that everyone has an opportunity to enjoy themselves and this sport. And I think I can speak for everyone, when I say when we left that night, we all very much felt like Winners !

So if you want to add a new level of excitement, and inject some fun into your club, then take a little risk, and dare to introduce a massive infusion of new blood into your club. Adopt a protégé or two, and have club members do the same. Don’t be afraid that a new guy or a junior member may beat you on race day with one of your own birds. You may have to endure a bit of good natured ribbing from some of your veteran pigeon buddies, but trust me, when you see and experience the exuberant overflow of excitement from a new member and especially a junior member, win that all important first Diploma, you will feel a sense of joy, pride, and an abundance of good feelings which can only come from helping a new member enjoy this wonderful sport. 

In conclusion, another positive development which is taking place, which I personally had not felt before, is a sense of esprit de corps and team. While everyone is of course attempting to be the club winner, much attention is being paid to our Club’s ranking within the United Pigeon Combine race results. This spirit of cooperation, and teamwork, has fostered an atmosphere of a willingness to help other members improve their game, and in doing so, everyone shares in the success of that weeks winner. With such powerful forces working on our behalf, I anticipate another positive year of growth and development, as we build upon our success.


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## SmithFamilyLoft (Nov 22, 2004)

*YRPC Banquet Rocks !*

A few more pictures.....of our YRPC banquet. I don't think we did half bad, when you consider at the end of the 2007 season there were only two of us left. And how many pigeon banquets or social events do you have with near 100% participation of it's membership ? We all had a great time !  Now a summer BBQ is already being talked about...but with hamburgers of course.


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## Kal-El (Oct 10, 2008)

I too read that article. Congratulations Warren! Although, I don't know you personally, I can tell that you've done so much to help elevate this sport's integrity. Your insights and advices are very helpful from those that are new to the sport or even those that have had pigeons for many years. I know I will be asking more questions in the future. Again, congratulations!


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## SmithFamilyLoft (Nov 22, 2004)

Kal-El said:


> I too read that article. Congratulations Warren! Although, I don't know you personally, I can tell that you've done so much to help elevate this sport's integrity. Your insights and advices are very helpful from those that are new to the sport or even those that have had pigeons for many years. I know I will be asking more questions in the future. Again, congratulations!


Thank you Kal-El for your kind words.

I guess what surprises me the most over all this attention, is why other fanciers chose to miss out on this aspect of our hobby. For most of us it is a hobby, and yet you would think it would be more fun if it was shared by others. 

I got a call the other month from a gentleman by the name of Bill Halter. I suspect in time you may here more about his story. Anyway he called to express his appreciation for my orginal article and said he was inspired by it. I shared with him that I appreciated his inspiration, but it really was not all that difficult for one person to make a difference, if they set their mind to it.

A week or so ago, I got another call from him. Without a Combine, without a club, and just himself, he went out and started a brand new AU club. He signed up 8 brand new Jr. members and four adults, and will follow our idea of the "100 Mile Club". All of his YB's he produces this year will go to start these lofts, and next year they must all contribute YB's for the next wave of new members, and so on and so forth. 

Now, here is a guy in his 70's with no local help, no club or combine structure. And he himself, was able to found a whole new club, with 8 Jr. members no less. And you know what he said ? He never has had so much fun with pigeons as he has this year !

Can you imagine, what would happen to this sport, if this year just 2 or 3% of the fanciers in the USA would follow Bill Halter's example this year ? 5% or 10% !!

In the mean time, as older fanciers die off, and the costs are borne by a smaller number of fanciers to fly pigeons, what is the typical response ? Instead of helping to grow the sport, and grow our way out of some of these challenges, many want to complain about the extra dime or quarter for a pigeon band, or the extra 20 cents a week in dues, to support some of this growth. It's the old story, if you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem. 

Instead of asking, what has my club, combine, or National organization done for me lately...the real question should be, what have you done to promote and support these organizations ? For 95%+, the answer is...not to much. 

But, what I have found, is attempting to shame the 95%, who for the most part do little other then complain, does not work. Rolling up my sleeves, and working with the 5% who are willing to do something, well like many other things in this country....that is when positive things begin to happen !


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