President’s Column
Redwood Region Audubon Society:
March 2006
After 4 years of attending board meetings as the Field Trip Committee Chair for RRAS, I’m eager to take on my new role as President. Over the years, I’ve learned a lot from our excellent past presidents. Jim Clark, Chet Ogan, Elias Elias, and Hal Genger deserve many thanks for all their hard work. What I’ve realized by observing these terrific leaders is exactly that: they lead; they don’t achieve local conservation victories all by themselves. Our local society is very lucky to have a terrific cadre of volunteers who make our RRAS events a success. So I’m taking this opportunity to introduce a few of them.
We’ve all enjoyed the excellent variety of speakers at our general meetings, and I’d like to thank C.J. Ralph for putting together an amazing lineup of talks through the years. Of course, we also enjoy the great refreshments, thanks to David and Louise Bacon-Ogden and many others.
Field trips have always been my favorite part of RRAS, and I’m excited to hand over the committee chair to Ken Burton. Ken is a top-notch ornithologist who has recently moved here to the redwood region, and our chapter is lucky to have him take part. But he will get a lot of help. Elias Elias has done an excellent job of developing docents for the Arcata Marsh walks. David Fix and Jude Power have also provided an amazing program of walks for the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge. I’d also like to thank Jay Sooter and Robert Sutherland for offering wonderful walks at the Southern Humboldt Community Park. Together this ad hoc committee thanks all the talented trip leaders and docents who generously provide this service.
I also can’t thank enough all those responsible for taking care of our publicity and publications. Sue Leskiw has an uncanny ability to help our announcements find their way into all our local media. Gary Bloomfield continually lends his artistic talents and has literally made our logo take flight. Stan Harris, David Fix, and Tom Leskiw’s articles make the Sandpiper a real pleasure to read. Ron LeValley has provided years of service in laying out the Sandpiper. Jan Andersen recently took over as Sandpiper editor, and she is sure to continue to make our chapter’s newsletter must reading. All these folks deserve sincere thanks for their contributions.
Now you may be thinking, did he just win an academy award or something? As the new president, I want to acknowledge that our board members do a lot of work for the society behind the scenes. Lauren Matsui does a great job of managing our membership list on a monthly basis, and Frances Madrone diligently keeps our finances in order. Shana Stearn has provided many fresh ideas to the board and helped Elias acquire funds for the new Arcata Bird Box. Our newest board member, Tracy Cline, has already proved to be a great organizer, undertaking many of the tasks for the annual banquet.
If some of these names aren’t familiar to you, then I hope you’ll take the opportunity to introduce yourself at our next function. Better yet, take on a lead role in the chapter and have the pleasure of getting to know them all, as I have.