Volume XII, No. 6, Summer 2009

A Quarterly Resource for Audubon Chapter Leaders Across the Nation and Beyond

Engaging with our Latin American Partners: IAP’s Bahía San Quintín Campaign

A Message from John Flicker

FY09 Chapter Annual Reports

Using Facebook as an Organizational Tool: Part III

TogetherGreen Volunteer Days: Hours Add Up to Big Conservation Impact

Audubon Coffee Club

Madison Audubon’s Big Birding Day

Chapter Networker Information

Over 180 Neotropical migrants – including Willets, Marbled Godwits, Long-billed Dowitchers, and Dunlins – rely on Bahía San Quintín, Mexico, a critical site along the Pacific Flyway that is benefiting from California Chapters’ generous support. Photo by Alan Harper.

Engaging with our Latin American Partners: IAP’s Bahía San Quintín Campaign

Recognizing that birds migrate across national boundaries and that effective conservation of these birds must encompass their entire range, Audubon formed the International Alliances Program (IAP) in 2006. From the beginning, IAP realized that the most sustainable approach to protecting the wintering grounds of ‘our’ birds is to grow the conservation effectiveness of local, on-the-ground organizations through capacity-building, joint projects, and financial support. IAP is advancing a program that delivers long-term, sustainable conservation results throughout the Western Hemisphere, drawing from Audubon’s 100+ years of experience in education, policy, bird and biodiversity conservation, and Audubon’s large network of dedicated conservation professionals and volunteers.

IAPs growing program currently has projects with local partners in Mexico, Belize, Panama, El Salvador, Paraguay, and the Bahamas, and continues to explore strategic new partnerships and conservation opportunities in other Latin American and Caribbean countries. In every location, IAP focuses financial and staff resources on the global Important Bird Area (IBA) program. By using the presence of migrant species as a selection criterion when identifying partnership sites, IAP links Audubon State Offices, regional initiatives, and Audubon Chapters to the conservation efforts at those sites – thereby harnessing the capabilities and resources of these organizations’ staff, volunteers, and donors to achieve maximum conservation results.

One current project is located in northwestern Baja California, at Bahía San Quintín, a complex coastal environment with the largest Mediterranean coastal wetland in Mexico and the most pristine tract of coastal salt marsh in western North America. Considered an irreplaceable site along the Pacific Flyway migratory corridor, Bahía San Quintín supports approximately 180 Neotropical migratory bird species, including Western Snowy Plover, Long-billed Curlew, and Marbled Godwit. Bahía San Quintín is threatened by unsustainable tourist and urban development, agricultural expansion, poor grazing management, and incompatible land use. This natural area is at risk and desperately needs both local and national land use safeguards, ideally as a federally-protected area.

Due to the many shared species between Bahía San Quintín and California, IAP approached California’s Chapter network to support a Pride campaign along with the Bahía San Quintín Coalition (Pronatura Noroeste, The Nature Conservancy, Pro Esteros, and Terra Peninsular). The campaign aims to empower citizens, build support, and change negative behaviors toward this site through social marketing techniques. Jess Morton, member of the Palos Verdes/South Bay Audubon Society and a National Audubon Society board member, has been visiting other Chapters in California to talk about the Bahía and its importance for so many of California’s birds and to solicit support. For every $1 Chapters contribute to the campaign, $1 is matched through a challenge grant. In addition to this financial support, IAP is exploring more ways to build upon and strengthen the long-term conservation initiatives by linking the Audubon network (Chapters, State offices, National staff) with partners in Bahía San Quintín.

FOR MORE INFO:

Contact the International Alliances Program at international@audubon.org

Tools for Chapters

The Butterfly Effect, by Michele Wilson, is an insert from July/August 2009 AUDUBON that discusses the migration of monarch butterflies, threats to their breeding and wintering habitat, and what you can do to help.

Cost: $6.00 for each set of 100; shipping included

Fall 2009 Migration, by Kenn Kaufman, is an insert from AUDUBON’s July/August 2009 issue featuring six fall migration hotspots from Izembek Lagoon, Alaska to Monteray Bay, California.

Cost: $6.00 for each set of 100; shipping included

Audubon ball caps are in! Perfect for gifts, prizes, or to don at your next outreach event.

Cost: $3.00 each; shipping included

FOR MORE INFO:

To order Audubon outreach materials from Chapter Services, complete and mail the order form on page 7 or go to http://www.audubon.org/local/outreachHome.html and download the order form to send via email. You may also call in your order at (800) 542-2748. Checks only, please; no cash or credit.

Policy Fact Sheets Now Available in Spanish

The Audubon Policy Office hired an intern from Mexico this past spring and put her talents to work translating a number of policy fact sheets. They have been received with great enthusiasm at Audubon Centers that serve an Hispanic population. Spanish fact sheets are now available to Chapters and include:

El calentamiento global y las aves (Birds and Climate Change)
La campaña contra el calentamiento global y lo que tú puedes hacer día con día (Global Warming Campaign - Top Ten Things You Can Do)
Mitos y hechos acerca del calentamiento global (Global Warming Myth and Facts)
La verdad acerca de las lámparas fluorescentes compactas (CFLs) (The Real Deal on Compact Fluorescents)

FOR MORE INFO:

To obtain any of the Spanish fact sheets listed above, contact audubonaction@audubon.org. For English versions, visit http://www.audubon.org/globalWarming/factsheets.php.

A Message from John Flicker

If you’ve been around Audubon for a while, chances are you’ve run across Glenn Olson.

Glenn is a conservation dynamo who has served Audubon for 33 years, as Western Regional Director, leader of Audubon’s field operations and, most recently, as Executive Director of Audubon California. Glenn played a key role with his team of staff and volunteers in the comeback of the California condor and helped Audubon gain protection of nearly a quarter million acres of the Tejon Ranch, the state’s largest and most biologically diverse undeveloped parcel. Glenn’s team led the grassroots fight for a ban on lead ammunition and guided Audubon’s identification and mapping of 145 Important Bird Areas.

Glenn is successful because he understands the unique power of the Audubon network –including its nearly 500 local Audubon Chapters and Birdlife International partners. He knows how to energize and empower its many parts to unite behind meaningful bird conservation. And now, he’ll be applying those insights to the entire nation, as the newly named Donal O’Brien Chair in Bird Conservation through Advocacy and Public Policy.

The job is all about taking the first-rate bird conservation work already going on and elevating it to new heights. Glenn will focus on making the IBA program bigger and more robust, laying the foundation for multi-state, regional initiatives that can protect birds along their entire flyways including Latin America.

He will use his experience gained in leading California’s successful push for a ban on lead ammunition to explore the potential of similar nationwide initiatives that can spare birds the devastating impact of lead poisoning. Glenn will find and nurture other promising opportunities to build on the conservation energy and expertise of Chapters, State Offices, National programs and partner organizations.

The possibilities are endless and exciting. “Audubon is uniquely positioned with a network that truly distinguishes our organization and allows us to have impact from the local community level to issues of international importance,” he says. “When we combine our efforts, it can have a tremendous impact on bird and landscape conservation.” I couldn’t agree more.

And there’s further potential in the conservation interest shown by the Obama Administration. Just a few months back, Audubon joined with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other colleague-groups to elevate our State of the Birds reports to a new joint initiative. Now, data from decades of Christmas Bird Counts and other sources are more useful than ever in building public awareness and shaping conservation plans and policies. With Glenn on the job, the possibility of new and productive bird-focused collaboration with federal agencies could well take off.

These are the kinds of opportunities that Donal O’Brian had in mind when friends and Board colleagues first endowed the $5 million O’Brian Chair to honor his 15 years of service as Audubon’s Chairman and fundraiser extraordinaire. The post was intended to ensure that Audubon will always lead the effort to conserve birds and their habitats. And Donal says, with Glenn on the job, it will do just that.

For his part, Glenn is counting on some help from his long-time friend and mentor. He told me that, “Donal has promised to role up his sleeves and re-enter the arena with me, to re-engage his network of conservation friends and supporters to get great conservation done by Audubon and our partners across America.”

With Donal’s help and your help, Glenn is sure to succeed. So if you don’t know him yet, stay tuned. He’ll be delivering new and exciting opportunities to work together—for the birds.

John Flicker

President

FY09 Chapter Annual Reports

The Annual Chapter Report Questionnaire and Chapter Leader Report Form are now available online at http://www.audubon.org/local/annualReports.html. The completed forms, along with a copy of your Chapter Annual Plan for the coming year, are due by Saturday, August 15th, 2009. Baseline funding will be shared with all Chapters who file their report between August 15 and December 31, 2009.

This year, all Chapter reports should be sent to Chapter Services, who will share them with the relevant state programs. Please email your completed report documents to chapterreports@audubon.org, or print and mail to:

Chapter Annual Reports
Audubon Chapter Services
Building 30, Fort Missoula Rd
Missoula, MT 59804

Thank you in advance for sharing the exciting results of your past year’s work and your Chapter’s plans for the coming year.

FOR MORE INFO:

Contact the Chapter Services Office at chapter_services@audubon.org or (800) 542-2748

Using Facebook as an Organizational Tool: Part III

Stella Miller, President of Huntington Audubon Society, manages the Chapter’s Facebook Page. Photo by Stella Miller.

In the Spring 2009 issue of the Chapter Networker, Part II of this article covered the nuts-and-bolts of setting up Facebook (www.facebook.com) Fan Pages and Groups. Now we’ll look at how Audubon Chapters have been using Facebook and share some of their experiences with this social networking service.

In searching “Audubon Society” on Facebook, one can find several dozen Chapter Fan Pages, Groups, and Causes*. Chapters are posting events, photos, videos, articles, and bird sightings, inspiring discussions, building membership, encouraging attendance at meetings and programs, and raising awareness about conservation issues.

Facebook utilization varies widely among Chapters. Stella Miller, President of Huntington Audubon Society (HAS) in Huntington, NY, created their Chapter Fan Page in Spring 2009, and it has thus far attracted 165 fans. Miller spends about two hours a week updating the Page, by posting wall content, events, photos, and field trip reports. A good number of the Page’s fans have attended field trips and programs based on the information gleaned from the Page. One new birder said she uses HAS’ posted birding reports to look up birds in her field guide so that she can familiarize herself with the birds spotted on HAS field trips. To generate additional interest, Miller wrote a book review and received positive feedback from fans.

HAS also created a Facebook Cause called “Save Our Raptors” (SOR) to raise awareness about injury and death to birds caused by perching atop methane burners at landfills. SOR has attracted 660 members, and provides a link to an online petition, which has been signed by nearly 5,000 individuals. How did Stella hear about the petition website? Through networking on Facebook, of course!

Andrea Ritchie, Community Relations Associate for Houston Audubon Society (Houston, TX), created a Chapter Group page on Facebook in January 2009 that now has 315 members. Andrea states, “While Facebook has not directly brought in new members or donations, I feel like it has introduced Houston Audubon to an audience that would never have been reached. In addition to a younger audience, some of our members include influential Houstonians, people in the art community, and politicians.”

Cautions

However, Stella, Andrea and other Chapter leaders have identified several limitations in using Facebook as a Chapter outreach tool. Eric Larson, Webmaster with Great South Bay Audubon Society (Sayville, NY), feels that a Facebook Page can be a good supplement to—but not a replacement for—a Chapter’s website. He does appreciate that Facebook is useful for providing a means to disseminate important information quickly if a Chapter is unable to post updates to the website in real time. However, he finds that Facebook Pages are not as customizable as websites, where one can generally create a unique design that is aligned with the Chapter brand. Eric also feels that Facebook seems to change its layout frequently, which may be a hindrance to more novice computer users.

Conclusion

Recognize the benefits and limitations of using a social networking service such as Facebook for Chapter outreach. Social networking sites are about building community and/or awareness around your Chapter or particular issue. Utilize Facebook in combination with Chapter websites, newsletters, and other communication tools. Research the the size and demographics of the population you are trying to reach, and consider how much time you’re willing to spend updating the Page or Group. New content should be posted daily, or at least a few times a week, otherwise people will find little reason to join, interact, or invite others to join. To increase your fan/member numbers, be sure to invite as many people as you can to join. Also don’t forget to upload a Facebook Badge to your Chapter website and link back to your Facebook page. Promote your Page or Group with links at the bottom of emails you send to your members, in the newsletter, and in advertising. And make sure there is something interesting to see—events, bird sightings, videos of birds hatching, links to relevant news articles.

* “Causes” is a Facebook application through which users can create causes, take donations, and recruit members. Whenever someone creates a cause or joins one, it shows up in their news feed for their friends to see. Information about the cause is also included in the user’s profile, including total amount raised by that user and new users recruited.

FOR MORE INFO:

Contact Rebecca Richter at chapter_services@audubon.org or (800) 542-2748. Visit http://www.audubon.org/local/communications/facebook1.html to read all three parts of this article.

Three Girl Scouts volunteer at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey. Photo by Lynne Flannery.

TogetherGreen Volunteer Days: Hours Add Up to Big Conservation Impact

As summer arrives, the first year of TogetherGreen Volunteer Days comes to a close—but the impact of its 240 events will continue to benefit the environment for years to come.

Forty-one Volunteer Days sites have done a great job of reaching out to new audiences and engaging veteran volunteers since the kick off last September. To date, Volunteer Days have attracted more than 8,000 volunteers who donated over 40,000 hours of time. Additionally, dozens of major partner organizations, including the Sierra Club, AmeriCorps, and the US Army Corps of Engineers have worked with Volunteer Days organizers, as have many more local schools, businesses and community organizations.

Each site received a $7,000 grant, TogetherGreen t-shirts and hats, and outstanding training, support and enthusiasm from National Audubon staff.

Among the success stories:

Wabash Valley Audubon Society (Terre Haute, IN) made a significant impact for conservation through nestbox installation and habitat restoration. Volunteers built and installed the very first nestboxes at Chinook Fish and Wildlife Area, a reclaimed strip mine. And Terre Haute’s newspaper, The Tribune Star, gave front page treatment to the volunteer honeysuckle removal on Earth Day.
Greater Ozarks Audubon Society (Springfield, MO), under President Charley Burwick, engaged over 200 volunteers in various activities from trailblazing around Lake Springfield to cleaning up South Creek. The Chapter’s Volunteer Days events have been featured in the Springfield News-Leader newspaper eight times!
South Florida Audubon Society (formerly Broward County Audubon Society) (Fort Lauderdale, FL) made big strides towards strengthening the volunteer network in South Florida by surpassing more than 1300 volunteer hours! Volunteer commitment was exemplified at an Earth Day celebration with more than 100 volunteers removing exotic species and planting native plants such as Red Mangrove.
Hundreds of Toyota employees and their families from across the country have participated in TogetherGreen volunteer events in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and San Antonio and will continue to join the efforts through the remainder of the five-year initiative.

Thirty-six Audubon sites were selected during the second round to hold Volunteer Days events in 2009-2010, including seventeen Chapters:

Volunteer Days Recipient	City	State
Tucson Audubon Society*	Tucson	Arizona
Los Angeles Audubon*	Los Angeles	California
Napa Solano Audubon Society	Napa	California
San Diego Audubon Society*	San Diego	California
Golden Gate Audubon Society*	San Francisco	California
Evergreen Naturalists Audubon Society	Evergreen	Colorado
South Florida Audubon Society*§	Ft. Lauderdale	Florida
St. Louis Audubon Society	St. Louis	Missouri
Lahontan Audubon Society*	Reno	Nevada
New York City Audubon*	New York	New York
Audubon Miami Valley	Oxford	Ohio
Audubon Society of Central Oklahoma	Oklahoma City	Oklahoma
Tulsa Audubon Society*	Tulsa	Oklahoma
Audubon Society of Portland*	Portland	Oregon
Travis Audubon Society*	Austin	Texas
Seattle Audubon*	Seattle	Washington
Tahoma Audubon Society*	Tacoma	Washington

* indicates year one sites selected to continue into year two

§ formerly Broward County Audubon Society

To see Volunteer Days in action, please visit:

FOR MORE INFO:

If you are inspired by what you see here, please consider applying for a Volunteer Days grant in 2010. Contact Chuck Remington at (212) 979-3094 or cremington@audubon.org.

Audubon Coffee Club

With the new Audubon Coffee Club, choose from any selection of Audubon Premium Shade Grown Coffee and have your favorites delivered every 2, 4, or 6 weeks or more …your choice! Cancel at anytime, change frequency at any time, no strings attached. And for every new Coffee Club membership, the Rogers Family Co. will plant a native tree in your name on their organic coffee farm.

Chapter Discount

Rogers Family Co. continues to offer Audubon Chapters a 25% discount off the retail price of Audubon Premium Shade Grown Coffee when placing an order to be served at a Chapter office, event, or for sale as part of a fundraising effort. Audubon coffee is available ground or whole bean in 12 oz. or 2 lb. bags, and in convenient 2.5 oz. pillow packs for brewing a 12-cup pot of coffee. Audubon coffee promotional items such as mugs and bag clips may also be purchased at special pricing for Chapters. The minimum order amount is $50.

FOR MORE INFO:

For more information on the Chapter discount, please contact the Rogers Family Company at (800) 829-1300. For more information on the Coffee Club, please visit www.auduboncoffeeclub.com.

Madison Audubon’s Big Birding Day

Photo by Paul Noeldner

Madison Audubon Society’s (Madison, WI) Big Birding Day (Birdathon) 2009 - Team Sustain Crane (Dave Drapac, Matt Krueger, Paul Noeldner, and Caleb Pourchot) demonstrated the greenest mode of transportation during their Chapter competition by riding bicycles as they tallied 107 bird species. The team raised $3,700 out of the $5,000 event total.

Illustration by Steven D'Amato

Chapter Networker Information

The Chapter Networker is published quarterly by National Audubon Society as a resource for Chapter leaders. Please send Chapter Networker articles and Chapter Services inquiries to Audubon Chapter Services at the contact information below.

Chapter Services Office
National Audubon Society
Building 30, Fort Missoula Road
Missoula, MT 59804

Phone/Fax: (800) 542-2748
Email: chapter_services@audubon.org

Lynn Tennefoss, Vice President, State Programs and Chapter Services
ltennefoss@audubon.org

Rebecca Richter, Program Associate
chapter_services@audubon.org

Contact Audubon-Policy Office
1150 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036,(202) 861-2242, Fax: (202) 861-4290

Contact Audubon Home Office
225 Varick St, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10014, (212) 979-3000, Fax: (212) 979-4290

Audubon Website
www.audubon.org

Chapter Resources Website
www.audubon.org/local/index.html

Chapter Networker Editor
Rebecca Richter

Design
Randy Stekly, DoubleClick Design

Contributors
Steven D’Amato
Lynne Flannery
Alan Harper
Eric Larson
Stella Miller
Paul Noeldner
Andrea Ritchie