Deep Fork Audubon minutes
10 April 2012, 6:30 P.M., at Sips Cafe
Recorded by Donald Winslow

Attending were Deane Carlberg, Becky Carlberg, Ruth Beasley, Karen Bays, Forest Winslow, and Donald Winslow

Deane reported on finances. We spent $25 attempting to incorporate and $36.61 in postage. Our account balance is now $380.89.

We discussed our recent program on creating urban bird habitat. Karen counted 12 attendees. For most of the time, however, there were 7 individuals in the room, 4 of whom were presenters. We did a good job with organization and a fair job with delivery, but the attendance was disappointing.

We discussed how we might build an interested base of members. One possibility is taking our show to the audience; for example visiting university classes. We may want to plan our next spring program for earlier in the year. During February people are thinking about gardening and birding, but the weather may be bad enough to sit inside for a program on a Saturday afternoon. Becky suggested surveying our membership to discern what types of events would be popular. We discussed fall program ideas; in September or October we could do a program on bird-feeding or on migration.

We all agreed that the display cases looked great, and hope that someone took pictures.

We corrected our Certificate of Incorporation to resubmit to the Oklahoma Secretary of State. We named three directors: Becky Carlberg, Ruth Beasley, and Donald Winslow.

Br. Damian was not able to attend, but sent a draft set of bylaws for our society. We went through the document and identified a number of changes to make, which Donald will email to Br. Damian.

We decided that we will visit Wes Watkins Reservoir on 28 April. We will meet at 8 A.M. in the parking lot behind the St. Benedict Catholic Church at Benedict and Kickapoo. It might be helpful to bring some cash, in case we decide to visit the park on the north shore (where there's an entrance fee).

The Lesser Prairie-Chicken Festival is that same week, 26 April to 2 May. See http://lektreks.org.

We will plan an excursion to the woods for May, when migrant songbirds will be in force. We will work out details over email.

We discussed several conservation issues. The National Audubon Society is asking chapters to sign on to a letter which asks the Secretary of the Interior to follow through with the recent guidelines that have been developed for new wind turbine construction to minimize harm to birds. We agreed that the Deep Fork Audubon Society would sign the letter. Donald will let National know of our decision. The National Audubon Society also sent us postcards addressed to the Environmental Protection Agency, asking the agency to follow through with the new carbon standards that have been set for new gas and coal power plants. Donald collected signed postcards from attending members and will send them to National. We also discussed the planned southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would pass between here and the Deep Fork National Wildlife Refuge.

We will decide the time and place for the next meeting via email.