A meeting of the steering committee of the Menotomy Bird Club was held at the home of Marj. Rines on September 12, 2006. In attendance were: Marj Rines, Eric Smith, Wendy McIntosh, Stephen Baker, Debora Diggins, Oakes Plimpton, Ann Perkins, and Janet Crystal. Marj chaired the meeting.

Financial Report

The business began with a financial report by Treasurer Janet Crystal who reported that the club had a bank balance of approximately $1800. There was discussion about how much nest egg we actually need with opinions ranging from $200 to $2000. Ann made a motion that $1000 be set aside as a nest egg. The motion was seconded and passed, but with 2 dissenting votes.

Use of Funds

We discussed paying honorariums for speakers and reconfirmed that we would continue to not pay honorariums, but would still reserve the option to pay for a truly exceptional speaker if such an opportunity came up. In such case the entire steering committee would be involved in the decision.

Stephen suggested that some funds should be used for to support project(s) that would give back to the community, or for a picnic for club members. There was a general discussion of this, and on motion made and seconded it was agreed to form a committee to make some recommendations. Oakes and Stephen volunteered to form this committee and report later to the Steering Committee.

Program Committee - Speakers for the Year

Stephen as chair for the program committee announced the lineup for the 2006-07 year. The committee has secured an excellent roster of speakers:

Joan Walsh will speak on Tuesday, September 26, on the "Massachusetts Breeding Bird Atlas"
Ron Lockwood will speak October 20th on Grassland Birds
Scott Surner will speak on Wednesday, November 15, on "Birding Monhegan Island"
Paul Roberts will speak on Tuesday, December 5, on "Winter Raptors"
John Van de Graaff will speak on Tuesday, March 27 on "Point Pelee, Lake Erie".

Other speakers have committed to present programs to the club but dates for them have not yet been fixed. Program committee members Eric Smith and Wendy McIntosh will organize a workshop on photographing birds. Everyone agreed that the program committee had done an impressive job in securing these speakers.

Publicity

The question was raised whether it made sense to publicize the meetings in the community to reach people not on the list-serve. Some questioned whether publicity might bring in too many people and affect the intimate feeling of current club meetings. It was also discussed whether more people might necessitate a larger venue.

It was decided informally that publicity might be tried once. Various options such as the Arlington Advocate and local email groups were put forth and it was finally agreed that Oakes would post to a local email group.

Trips

Though trip chairman Karsten Hartel was not present, Marj reported that he had told her by telephone that an extensive list of trips has been planned. The trips will be posted to the website and announced on the list-serve.

Marj moved that in view of Alan Ankers' outstanding service on the trips committee and as a field trip leader he be invited to serve on the steering committee. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.

Refreshments

Ann noted Marj's idea of having a list to sign up refreshment committee members had been very successful. There are now about 7 people willing to help out. Wendy McIntosh and Marjory Forbes have agreed to be in charge of refreshments if Ann is out of town.

Conclusion

The meeting concluded with a feeling that an exciting year lies ahead for the Menotomy Bird Club.

Submitted by Ann Perkins