Spring Meetup 2023 – Avifauna

On Sunday 21st May 2023, we had our first Spring Meetup. This is an example of a specific way in which we are meeting the needs raised by our members during a workshop as part of our members’ conference in 2022. During this workshop, it became clear that our members would like, among other things, more opportunities for contact with each other.

We decided to meet at the bird park Avifauna partly because this was one of the options for our Family Day. Initially, around 30 people from both the Netherlands and Germany signed up, although around half of those registered to join us, unfortunately, dropped out due to illness. It wasn’t only children and their parents who came along to the meetup, but also a few grandparents.

We started with a welcome with coffee, tea, soft drinks and cake. This was done so people could arrive in a relaxed way and get to know each other or catch up. At 10am we had an organised tour that lasted about an hour. After the tour, everyone could explore the park at their own pace. At around 12:30, we tucked into an enormous lunch buffet that was ready for us in a private room. This was once again a brilliant opportunity to talk to each other. After lunch, everyone could enjoy some more time in the park.

The great thing about this meetup was that due to the relatively small number of people, we were able to talk at greater length with everyone.