November 1999
Volume 30
Number 3
SLIDE/DESSERT FEST IN DECEMBER
The meeting on Thursday, December 9th, will be our third annual
"Slide/Dessert Fest," where you, the members, will be the
entertainment. This has gone over well in the past, with a few giggles, many
calories and seasonal cheer shared by all.
The meeting will be held at the Foothills Unitarian Church, 1815 Yorktown Ave.
one block north of W. Drake Ave., and one block west of Constitution Ave. We'll
begin to set up tables and chairs at 6:30 PM. Please bring a favorite desert,
enough to serve six to eight people. Please provide your own serving utensils.
Plates, eating utensils, napkins and beverages will be provided.
The slide program will begin at 7:00 PM. If you care to contribute to the
program, bring some of your favorite slides. They do not necessarily have to be
of birds. The catch is, you have to provide the narration for your own slides.
There will be empty carousels for you to load your slides into. Please limit
your presentation to about five to seven minutes.
As has been customary in the past we'll be passing the a basket for
contributions to defray the room rental.
BYLAWS REVISION IN NOVEMBER
The Board of Directors has authorized a revision of the FCAS Constitution and
Bylaws to be presented to the members at the November 1999 meeting for their
approval. The current set of bylaws were adopted in 1978 and last revised in
1982. The second revision to be presented at the November meeting for adoption
were formulated to reflect current conditions of lower member attendance at
program meetings and our busy life styles that makes it difficult for many
people to become more actively involved.
Major changes to the Bylaws, and the reason for the changes, are:
A. Removal of the Family Membership. To be in agreement with National Audubon's
system of memberships.
B. Change of a quorum for a members' meeting from forty to thirty members. To
make it easier to conduct business, given lower member attendance of past years.
C. Removal of the four year limit to the number of consecutive years a person
may serve on the Board of Directors. To facilitate the filling of requisite
Board positions.
D. Change of a quorum for Board of Director meetings from a simple majority
(currently eleven) to six members of the Board of Directors, two of whom must be
elected officers, and of which one must be either the President or the
Vice-President. In recognition that it is difficult to get a large number of
people together at the same time.
E. The inclusion of a revision history of the Constitution and Bylaws at the end
of the document. For clarification to future readers.
President's Message: WE'RE ON A MISSION - Sue Kenney
The Board of Directors of the Fort Collins Audubon Society has officially
adopted a mission statement as follows: The mission of the Fort Collins Audubon
Society is to promote the appreciation, conservation and restoration of
ecosystems, focusing on birds and other wildlife, through education,
participation, stewardship, and advocacy.
We are embarking on a planning process to ensure our effectiveness in carrying
out our mission into the next century. We will be meeting this fall to discuss
this and welcome your input.
Please vote for the Help Preserve Open Spaces ballot initiative
in November!
GET READY "IT IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER:" - Bill Miller
"IT" is the 2000 Colorado legislative session that will begin in
January of 2000. "IT" doesn,t promise to be any better than the 1999
session. I encourage the members of the Fort Collins Audubon Society to
subscribe to Audubon of Colorado's listserve, CO-GENERAL, in order to receive
firsthand the legislative updates and alerts put out by Jo Evans, the
environmental lobbyist partially funded by the Audubon chapters in Colorado.
To subscribe to CO-GENERAL:
1. send an e-mail to: LISTSERV@LIST.AUDUBON.ORG
2. Leave the subject line blank
3. In the body of the email, write the following: SUBSCRIBE CO-GENERAL
News from the State Office - Susan Kirkpatrick, Executive Director
Conservation organizations like Audubon often spend energy fighting public
policy proposals that others suggest. Frequently, we find ourselves on the
defensive at city hall and at the Colorado General Assembly.
In August, Audubon-Colorado played a proactive part in the improvement of state
trails policy. It was great to be proactive for a change!
Since 1993, when the Great Outdoors Colorado program began, the Colorado
Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation (State Parks) has had more money for
grants to do trail planning, trail maintenance and trail development. Several
conservation groups had concerns about trail impacts so State Parks refined the
state trails program and policy. A newly created strategic plan will try to
balance the public's appetite for recreational trails with the public,s need to
protect important habitat.
Representing Audubon, I met with staff members from State Parks to discuss the
new trails policy. State Parks staff conducted outreach sessions with other
environmental groups besides Audubon. Three of us, Vera Smith from the Colorado
Mountain Club, Roz McClelland from the Rocky Mountain Recreation Initiative and
I pooled our expertise and drafted a set of criteria for State Parks to consider
for use in grant making. We advocated grant application language that encourages
trail proponents to take habitat for birds and other wildlife into account in
trail planning and development. We suggested that grant applicants provide
information about long term trail maintenance. We also recommended that grant
applicants develop methods to mitigate conflicts among different types of trail
users. Our recommendations were used extensively by the State Parks staff to
develop the criteria they presented to the Parks Board. Cities, counties and
other entities that receive state trails grants in the future will be required
to demonstrate their knowledge of and commitment to habitat protection.
When the state office opened in April, it was clear that one priority was
advocacy. We have already had an impact on state trails policy. Audubon's place
at the table's was valued.
Susan Kirkpatrick
Executive Director,
Audubon of Colorado