[Bristol-Birds] Historical Snippet - October 9, 2000
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:21:34 -0400
BBC Snippet
Kenn Kaufman's name and image as a birder of almost epic proportions
was a household handle for anyone who took birding very seriously.
During the 1990's he was one of the persons birders flocked to at big
festivals. His books on birding and his field guides began to be as common
on naturalists' bookshelves as encyclopedias are in libraries.
To be in his audience was something to write home about. To stand
within earshot during one of his crowded field trips was like heaven on
earth.
In one magic month the Bristol Bird Club made all of those dreams and
far more reality for area and state birders. Kenn Kaufman was ours at
a time when no one dared to go where dreamers dared to dream.
Kaufman came to a monthly
meeting of the Bristol
Bird Club to be our program
speaker at ETSU-Bristol Campus,
October 9, 2000. Word spread
like wildfire when the news began
to break that he was on his way
to the BBC.
Delta Flight 4190 taxied towards
the gates at Tri-City Airport,
Sunday, Oct 8. It was 6:55 p.m.
and birders Bob Quillen, Larry
McDaniel and Wallace Coffey had all eyes forward as the passengers
began to depart. Ken Kaufman was all smiles as he noticed the three
waiting with binoculars around their necks. Ken then knew this was his
official BBC greeting party. He had asked where to meet us and how
he would recognize us. We told him that would be no problem. It wasn't.
He loved it.
So there we were, driving up the road -- just the four of us. He was
an absolutely relaxed and as down to earth as anyone you would ever
want to meet. He said he was ours for whatever we wanted to do
while he was here. We laid out our schedule. He said it was fine.
We would probably need to pinch ourselves to see if we would wake up
from an unbelievable dream. But making arrangements for his visit
was almost as dramatic.
It all began when Wallace Coffey, lurking on a national birding listserv,
suddenly saw a brief post by Kaufman. THERE WAS HIS PERSONAL
E-MAIL !! Oh, man. This had possibility. So a few moments of
brainstorming and internet surfing found "Kenn Kaufman's Great
American Cities Tour and Dates for The Birds of North America, his
new field guide coming out that fall. He was flashing across America
on a thirty-cities tour to promote that new book.
Ah, heck. What will hurt ? An e-mail was crafted that went out on
Sept. 19 to "Ken:" The approach was to put a marketing spin on his
plate. We ask if we "can reach you in our market for a local book
appearance and pitching our bird clubs" and we promised him a media
exposure that would reach a network covering much of the south.
We had access to major media outlets over a very large area. We
looked forward to hearing from him during his busy schedule. We
left phone numbers.
He did not reply.
Then came THE phone call. A woman by the name of Deborah
calling from the Houghton Mifflin Co., publishers of the
Kaufman field guide was on the line. Ken had forwarded our e-mail.
She had studied it carefully. Was impressed with our eagerness. Was
impressed with our near top 100 market. Was impressed that we
seemed to know how to market this and how important media
support was and our apparent understanding of how to do this.
Deborah had a lot of hard questions about demographics, network
associated outlets. She needed, within 50 miles, CBS/NBC affiliate
news coverage. She had a date we would have to work with.
In a few minutes she had everything she wanted and much more.
She said Kaufman would be flying from an appearance at the
three-day Clearwater Bird Festival at Tampa/St. Petersburg,
heading into appearance at New York City and Boston.
Did we have a commercial airport that he could make a side
flight to that would have a service carrier which could handle what
was needed? We did!
It was simple. Then he was ours for Monday, Oct. 9th. The
publisher in New York would take care of all the arrangements
and pay all the expenses for his visit.
Oh, yes. There was one other small thing to handle. Now we
found "Haley" calling and she wanted to know about making a
a needed surge with a bookseller. We had to provide that. She
wanted something quick. It would be part of the deal. He was
to sell and sign books. They were smart marketers and knew
their business.
I had bought my personal copy of his book at Books A Million
in Johnson City. They were a major retail book outlet in the
market. To our horror, they were cool to us, gave us no
encouragement and said they would get back to us and then
didn't. We were getting in a bind.
What we did know was that B. Dalton Booksellers, who
specialize in shopping mall stores and are owned by Barnes
& Noble, Inc., had a store in the Bristol Mall. So let's give
that a shot.
B Dalton's said yes in a heartbeat. Within hours they had
a list of every book by Kaufman. Their manager gave it
a great thumbs up. They would order cases of all of his
books shipped to their store. Anything that was not sold
would be shipped back to their warehouse. Their people
would come to ETSU/BBC and set up to sell. They would
bring charge-card machines. Was there anything else they
could do for us ? Houghton Mifflin liked that. We were a
final to go.
Houghton Mifflin rained down on us with promotion materials
and info. We soon had commitments from the local media
and packets quickly in the hands of media from Knoxville to
Roanoke to Asheville.
Bryan Stevens prepared and printed a
nice program handout. Dave Worley
would video everything. President
Janice Martin would handle a reception.
Mary Jane Erwin had the name tags.
Some two dozen seats would be
reserved up front for BBC members.
Coffey would set up a special invitation
field trip during the day leading up to that
night's meeting. Larry McDaniel and
Coffey would take him to dinner as needed.
It was all hammered out at a quickly-called meeting at Bare's
Bar-B-Que in Bristol. Ten birders showed up to make sure it
happened.
At 8 a.m. on Mon., Oct 9, with TV production crews hustling in
front with news cameras, the invitational field trip of 10 people
set out on foot. Camera angles caught the images of birders
moving over a dark woodland trail and they were in the background
as seen behind a great spider dripping in the morning dew and
early morning sun. In the background the voice of Kenn Kaufman
talking about the birds and the their songs as a great touch.
He was fabulous.
We were shocked at two things: (1) he called a Blackburnian
Warbler flying across a long opening from nearly 200 feet away
(we challenged that call and he walked us right up to the bird ;-)
(2) he could not get his binoculars off a Brown Thrasher. He
enjoyed it because he doesn't see them often in Arizona, where
he lives. The field trip continued and Larry McDaniel and others
birded on with him over Holston Mountain and into the bogs in
Shady Valley.
Sixty (60) birders came from across the region to hear his
presentation at ETSU. He stayed late and signed every book
the birders wanted and sat to chat with anyone who wanted
to just talk. Kenn stayed behind to have his photo taken with
BBC members.
B Dalton's had the largest off-site book sale in the Bristol store's
history. They were beyond themselves. They never dreamed
his books would sell like that and that birders bought so many
copies. It was good and easy money. It was good for B Dalton's.
It seemed like only a few hours and U.S. Air Flight 4003 closed
its doors at 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning and carried one of
America's great birders away on their big wings. The many
warm memories of BBC birders would linger to these last
key strokes and as long as our minds can comprehend.
Persons participating in the BBC Kenn Kaufman Invitational Field Trip
Mon, Oct 9, 2000 -- Rick Knight, Bert Hale, Bob Quillen, Bryan Stevens,
Howard Langridge, Wallace Coffey, Larry McDaniel, Janice Martin,
Geoff Larsen, Kenn Kaufman and Jim Conrad of WCYB-TV
Flights Against the Sunset,
his new upcoming book
is scheduled to be published by
Houghton Mifflin Co.
April 24, 2008.
from the archives of the Bristol Bird Club
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