St. Louis Audubon Annual Reports

St. Louis Audubon Society
Committee/Activity Reports
May 2003 – April 2004

Board of Directors

From May 2003 through April 2004 the Board of Directors of St. Louis Audubon Society held nine regular business meetings, one calendar-planning meeting, one special meeting regarding a proposal to St. Louis County Parks, and one strategic planning meeting.

Conservation

Represented SL Audubon on Audubon Missouri's Conservation/Public Policy Committee.

Represented SL Audubon as one of 29 member organizations of the MO Bird Conservation Initiative and as a member of the state's Important Bird Area Steering Committee.

Planned and promoted the week of festivities for International Migratory Bird Week May 2–9 and produced the informational flyer.

Served as the St. Louis Coordinator for the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service's Urban Bird Conservation Treaty Program via a USFWS grant to SL Audubon. Submitted grant proposal under MO Bird Conservation Initiative's first annual grants program to supplement funding under the USFWS program.

Participated in numerous public input meetings related to Missouri and Mississippi River management, and in the annual Conservation Forum held at the St. Louis Zoo and sponsored by the University of Missouri - St. Louis Biology Department.

Represented SL Audubon on St. Louis County Parks Creve Coeur Lake Park Master Plan Advisory Committee and Forest Park Kennedy Woods Advisory Committee.

Sent numerous letters to state and federal legislators regarding issues affecting environmental quality, wildlife habitat, etc.

Education

From June 2003 through May 2004, the eleven active committee members met eight times and presented twelve different programs including:

Birds
Owls
Bird identification workshop
Butterflies
Mammals
Bats
Plants
Gardening for Birds
International Migratory Bird Day
Wetlands for Kids
Girl Scout Interest Patch
St. Louis Audubon Meeting

To Public, Parochial and Private Schools, for County and Municipal Park Programs, Club meetings, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, and other special occasions. Program totals include:

2,135 children and

761 adults

The Society purchased a slide projector and laptop computer with a digital projector for the Committee. This allowed them to develop additional programs and enhance existing programs.

Master Naturalist Program

During the academic year 2003-2004, in cooperation with St. Louis Community College at Meramec Continuing Education Department, and with the Missouri Native Plant Society, St. Louis Herpetological Society, St. Louis Chapter of the North American Butterfly Association, Webster Groves Nature Study Society, and the St. Louis Astronomical Society, there were 12 workshops offered that were attended by a total of ~150 participants. In May 2003, the first three individuals completed the requirements for the Master Naturalist Program and received their Certificates. All of the funds paid to the instructors were returned to the various organizations. We received a total of $648 for our chapter.

Scholarships

We gave scholarships to Audubon Camps to two area teachers. We also gave a research scholarship to a PhD student from the University of Missouri – St. Louis, and two awards to Science Fair projects.

Electronic Media

We support a web site ( http://www.stlouisaudubon.org/Index.html ) that includes information about our local chapter events including meetings and field trips.

Field Trips

St. Louis Audubon Society operated 20 local birding trips at no cost to participants and no restriction on numbers or membership. These trips averaged an attendance of 20-25 people in all weather conditions. We also sponsored two over-the-weekend trips to locations a long distance from the local area. Last, we cooperated with the St. Louis County Parks Department and put on three Bird-n-Learn bird talks and walks for them that attracted about 10 participants, mostly newcomers, per trip. Nine individual leaders have helped put on these birding trips, with one coordinator organizing the team of leaders.

Finance

Our functions through the year primarily consisted of monthly meetings with our investment advisor to review and make decisions on chapter investments. In addition, we reviewed the Treasurer's proposed budget, worked on advertising policies for the chapter newsletter, established guidelines for the Habitat Restoration Fund, and handled the fund raiser showing of Winged Migration, which netted the Chapter $1540.

Newsletters

During our fiscal year, from May 2003 through April 2004, we published nine issues of our newsletter – “Tale Feathers”.

Membership

Created a welcome letter for the new and transferred members belonging to the St. Louis Chapter of the National Audubon Society. Assembled a packet including the letter, a calendar of events, and a current Tale Feathers newsletter.

404 members received the packet

130 members received the letter only (May, June, July members)

Sent out an invitation to 123 new members to encourage them to attend the September New Members' Meeting (13 new members attended).

Created an Excel database for St. Louis Audubon Chapter Only members. This database was used for making labels for the Tale Feathers newsletter.

Created a welcome letter for the St. Louis Audubon Chapter Only members and created a letter to remind the St. Louis Audubon Chapter Only members to renew their membership.

Provided refreshments for three Programs (one of which was the September New Members' meeting).

Programs

The year saw a continued expansion of topics and area-wide interest as well as a growing standardization of the year's schedule. Topics covered included the role of prescribed fire in ecosystem restoration, prairie chicken conservation, Aldo Leopold's environmental legacy, red-tail hawks in Central Park, and endangered parrots in Brazil. Organizations represented by those speakers included the University of Missouri, St. Louis, the Missouri Department of Conservation, the University of Missouri, Columbia, and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Attendance averaged over 40 persons per event with a projected total attendance of nearly 300 for the year. We continued our partnerships with the Webster Groves Nature Study Society and the Eastern Missouri Group of the Sierra Club and have had discussion to potentially partner with the St. Louis chapter of the North American Butterfly Association.

Strategic Planning

The Strategic Planning Committee met regularly for 6 months to collate Board input and develop a plan that was endorsed and adopted by the Board at its regular January meeting.