March 2023 Meeting

IPSWICH B.S. Woman in the Fancy
The society got together for the March meeting which was well attended with 18 members
present. The chairman, Ghalib Al-Nasser, was unable to attend due to feeling unwell and the
society’s vice chairman, Graham Barton, stepped in that role.
Long-time life member and past chairman and president of the society and well known
fancier Janice Al-Nasser was the guest speaker for the evening. Janice addressed the
members with her life in the fancy. Janice began with her first encounter with budgies was
when she was a little girl and her father built a small aviary where a few budgies were kept.
Janice had a fascination with all animals, and loved being with them in particular she was
very fond of horses. Later in life when Janice was married to her first husband John in 1973
he brought home a pair of budgies. More and more budgies and a few cages followed and
Janice was hooked. Breeding colony style budgies until 1980 when she visited the North
Essex budgie club and soon became involved in the exhibition side of the budgies. Janice
soon moved on with the purchase and the selective breeding of better quality birds who she
bought locally from champion breeders. Within a few years Janice was showing at the B.S.
club show winning the best Novice Breeder award in 1985 with a grey green cock.
Janice explained that the hobby was and still is dominated by males. It was then and still is
quite unusual for ladies to be heavily involved in the hobby. Despite experiencing
discriminating behaviours from some senior members of the fancy. Janice was soon involved
in the administration side of the Show scene and for many years has been the writer of the
B.S. club show CC’s. In 1993 Janice trained to became and eventually appointed as a judge
in 1995 (Janice has judged all over the UK and the world on many occasions over the years).
Within a few years Janice was elected as a general council member of the Budgerigar Society
in 1994 being only 1 of 2 females on the 40 strong General Council of the day. Janice has
been on the Council ever since and in 2007 was appointed the society’s president. In 1987
Janice met Ghalib Al-Nasser and formed a partnership in 1990 and they later married. Both
were successful champions by then but together they went from strength to strength and soon
became a force to be reckoned with adding to their previous successes winning many major
awards.
Over the years Janice and Ghalib have specialised in the main stream colours as well as
several of the rarer varieties and today continues to improve their line of Dilutes. They
continue to perform and are regularly taking Best in Show awards.
The members were all engaged in the evening and were keen to share their experiences with
Janice from years gone by. Fanciers from many years ago were remembered for their
contributions to the hobby. After a very interesting meeting the evening was concluded when
the society’s president Peter Stevens presented Janice with flowers as a thank you token of appreciation.

 

 

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