Minutes
of the Board Meeting of the Desert Rivers Audubon Society,
September 18, 2007
Present: Charles
& Marion Saffell (meeting held in their home), Field Trips & Volunteer Co-coordinator;
Joy Dingley, Education; Claudia Kirscher, Programs;
Krys Hammers, Membership; Janice Miano, Treasurer;
Don Farmer, Conservation; Fran Thurber, Grants; Jan Stamm, Secretary; and
Karen Stucke, representative to the Riparian Preserve.
Absent: Mike
Rupp, President; Mike
Rigney, Vice President; Cheryl Rexford, Publicity.
Meeting
leader:
In the absence of our president, and vice president, the board elected Joy Dingley
to prepare an agenda & lead the meeting.
Minutes
of the Previous Meeting: Minutes
of the previous Board meeting, held
August 21, 2007
were accepted as a true record
and signed by Joy Dingley (motion put forward by Krys Hammers, seconded by Marion Saffell).
Treasurer’s
Report:
Janice Miano submitted a Profit & Loss statement which reflected a balance of
$1,711.29. Don Farmer moved that we
approve the report, seconded by Krys Hammers, Board accepted unanimously.
Krys revealed that she sold $604.00 worth of merchandise at the AZ Audubon
Celebration, and that likely more would be sold at the upcoming “Bye-Bye Buzzards”
festival at Boyce Thompson Arboretum.
Janice said she plans to have our “ask” letter ready in early November, and would
like them hand-addressed. Board members
expressed
willingness to help with that task.
Membership: Krys
reported that we have 82 local members (33 founding), 322 names on our zip list
and 1 corporate sponsorship from AZ Cactus Sales, owner Jim Elliott.
She has approached several other businesses, including the Wildflower Bread
Co. Only 6 national memberships have
been transferred
to our chapter from MAS, bringing our total of national members
to 29 (according to the
records at National Audubon’s Support Services office). This conflicts with our own records,
which in addition to the 6 recorded, should also include transfer memberships for
Joy Dingley, Charles & Marion Saffell, Krys Hammers, Janice Miano, and Karen
Stucke, among others. Krys intends
to begin another email (& certified letter if necessary) contact with the offices
of Les Corey, Chief Field Operations Officer of National Audubon; Lynn Tennefoss,
Vice President of National Audubon, State Programs & Chapter Services; and John
Flicker, National Audubon President to get this matter resolved.
Recruitment letter:
Krys plans to email the Board members a sample recruitment letter for comments/approval, and then get it mailed out fairly quickly. There are over 200 names in our zip
code area that are currently assigned to MAS that need to be invited to switch membership
to DRAS.
Conservation: Don
Farmer reported on monitoring the lower
Verde River
from
below the Bartlett Dam to its confluence with the
Salt River
to see if it qualifies as an IBA. He
is working with Tice Supplee and Scott Wilbor to determine the frequency & time
of year for optimum effective monitoring.
He intends to contact Bob Witzeman of Maricopa Audubon Society, since he has worked
intensively in that area along with the Fort McDowell Indian Tribe.
Along with Charles Saffell, he intends to visit the area on Sept. 20 to determine
access points along the river. He plans
to work closely on this with other agencies interested in this potential IBA, including
AZ Audubon (and MAS & SAS), the Tonto Forest Service, AZ Game & Fish Dept.,
the Fort McDowell Indian Tribe, and the Riparian Council.
Gilbert
Riparian Institute:
Karen Stucke asked for clarification of her responsibilities as our rep. to that
organization. At this time our main
concern is to be alerted to any plans/activities of that organization that would
affect our own activities. She said
that Scott Anderson, Director of the Riparian Institute has not yet formed a governing Board, so no meetings are scheduled at this time for her to attend.
An ASU student, Stacy Buclay, will be doing IBA counts at the Gilbert Water
Ranch, and she is a new DRAS member.
Grants: Fran
Thurber presented a check for $1,170.00 from the AZ Bird Conservation Iniative. This represents 90% of the $1300.00
grant awarded; the final 10% will be delivered at the end of the year.
The monies are to be budgeted in this way:
$367.00 to print brochure & materials for advertising and orientation;
$100.00 for field guides for loan & reference; $345.00 for adult binoculars;
$295.00 for children’s binoculars; $88.00 for display tables; and $105.00 for folding
chairs. The grant money is given to
accomplish these project objectives:
1) To provide an
opportunity for a
minimum of 300 individuals (children & families) to connect with nature in a
meaningful way.
2) To increase knowledge about freshwater
marshes, their vulnerability and how they can be preserved as measured by the Gilbert
Bird Walk Satisfaction Survey (GBWSS).
3) To bring about behavioral change
in the manner in which these children and families interact with their natural environment
as measured by the GBWSS.
4) To provide volunteers and experienced
leaders to share their knowledge and experience about birds and their habitats.
5) To provide useable equipment through
which learners can focus and learn about bird identification.
6) To replicate the success of this
project in other parts of the
Phoenix
metropolitan area in partnership with other Audubon chapters.
It is Fran’s intention to pursue additional grants to enhance this project &
facilitate its continuation after this year.
Publicity: In
Cheryl’s absence, Janice Miano reported.
The
computer given to Cheryl to use to execute her duties as Publicity Chair still
needs to be serviced. Joy Dingley offered
her husband Steve’s assistance.
Field
Trips:
Charles Saffell reported that Theona Vyvial has volunteered to be part of a committee
to help plan field trips & obtain guides.
Charles spoke with members of Northern AZ Audubon at the Celebration, and
they are willing to lead trips in their area for our group.
Another idea is to publicize to our members the annual campout hosted by
the White Mountain Audubon Society in June.
Our fall field trip schedule is filling, and Charles plans to work the December
field trips around the Christmas Counts coordinated by Walter Thurber.
The Sept. 22 field trip to the Painted Rock area has been rescheduled for
Oct. 13.
Programs: Claudia Kirscher has lined up Dave Pearson from ASU as our October speaker, followed in
November with AZ Game & Fish’ Nest Watch program, and Tom Wood & Sheri Williamson
from SABO are scheduled for December, with the Saffells as hosts.
Family Bird walks:
Liberty
Wildlife will be
present with
5 or 6
birds on October 20, the first of this year’s Family Bird walks at the Gilbert Water Ranch. Leaders are needed to be available
to take groups out that morning; the AZ Audubon Council is also being hosted that
day by DRAS.
Hospitality: Marion
Saffell will continue to assume the duties of this position until a permanent replacement
is found; she has someone interested in taking over in January.
She needed someone to be responsible for set-up & tear down of our monthly
meeting room at the library, Hal & Jan Stamm volunteered; hopefully others will
help as needed.
Newsletter: At
Mike Rupp’s direction, Marion Saffell visited 5 print shops, yet obtained bids from
only 2 of the vendors for the printing of our newsletter.
Because quotes were given for various methods of printing (in color, b &
w, on colored paper vs. white, various quantities), sorting through the bids was
confusing.
Marion
recommended choosing the Maricopa Community College Skills Center in
Phoenix
over SW Lithographers, also of
Phoenix
. In Mike’s absence, the Board directed
Marion to choose the most economical way of printing for the most copies (probably
600-800 is what
we’ll need). She will
proceed after Janice Miano checks with the Post Office on obtaining a bulk mailing
permit ($175.00 application cost, with same to be paid annually).
Other printing needs:
the Family Bird walk flyers will not be reprinted
in a bookmark size at this time, so they will be distributed as is to local libraries
& other locations to advertise the walks.
Flyers will need to be generated to advertise Kathe Anderson’s Beginner Bird
walks, starting in October, as well as Joy Dingley’s proposed Kid’s Audubon Club,
also to start in October if there is interest.
Education: As
just mentioned, Joy plans to lead a Kid’s Audubon Club on the 3rd Saturday
of each month at
7:00 a.m.
at the Gilbert Water Ranch, just before the Family Bird walks at
8:00 a.m.
commence. She will check with Sarah
Porter on the wording for a permission slip to be signed by parents of participating
children. She is also working with
the Desert Foothills Library on outreach/kids
programs, and is following up a lead with a
Scottsdale School
following Cathy Wise’s Education seminar (Cathy is an Environmental Educator with
AZ Audubon).
Old Business:
Job Descriptions:
Joy reminded the Board of the importance
of each member writing down their current responsibilities.
Janice Miano will check with National Audubon & see if job descriptions
already exist for typical chapter positions.
Joy passed out a form (which will be included in the secretary’s folder) that the
Board worked through to clarify responsibility for some of the typical jobs performed
on a monthly basis by DRAS.
Website: Mike
Rigney is in the process of reworking our site.
New Business:
AZ Audubon
Council Meeting:
DRAS will be hosting the Council all day on October 20 and chapter members are invited
to attend. We will be supplying &
serving a complimentary breakfast (helpers are needed) at their meeting place at
the Southwest
Regional Library, and will also supply a lunch which the Council members will pay for. The grow. will be bird
walking through the Gilbert Water Ranch, it was suggested that Cindy Marple be contacted to be their guide. Dinner will be at
a local restaurant in the evening, and Charles Saffell will lead them through the
Granite Reef area on Sunday morning.
Next Board
Meeting:
Tuesday, October 16th. Charles
& Marion Saffell will contact the Bass Pro Shop & see if they having meeting
rooms that would be available for our use.
Don Farmer has suggested use of a meeting room at the Phoenix Zoo.
Saffells also offered use of their home again.
Adjournment: At
9:25
Krys Hammers moved that we adjourn, seconded by Marion Saffell, unanimously approved
by the Board.
Signed as a true record…………………………………………………………………..Date……………………..