Trips Committee Report (Karsten Hartel, Chair)

The club has had 22 trips to date. Attendance ranged from a few to 30 with a good mix of beginners and advanced birders. Karsten made up an Excel sheet with weekend dates to plan trips to December; he is willing to lead trips every other weekend at Arlington Res from September until the pond freezes. He asked other members to consider leading trips.

Karsten has been handing out printed checklists to trip participants, but a PDF of this list is available for downloading on the Menotomy web site, off the “Links” page.

New trip ideas:
Whale-and-bird-watching trip once during the summer (even if it is out of our area)
A nighthawk walk: suggestions on locations?
Hawks in the fall: Middlesex Fells?
Roosts: robins, crows, starlings
Midweek trips: Have already run some; is there enough interest?

Programs Committee Report (Jane Stein, Chair; Stephen Baker, Lew Bushnell, Oakes Plimpton)

Jane could not come and Marj Rines presented the report. A list of potential speakers was presented, and members made other suggestions.

Oakes expressed a concern that he was not contributing enough. Lew volunteered to join the Programs Committee. Everyone agreed that September would be a good time to begin programs, aiming at one a month or so as opportunities arise.

Membership Committee Report (Marj Rines, Chair; Janet Crystal)

We now have 184 subscribers to the ArlingtonBirds mailing list. 121 people have signed up as members of the Menotomy Bird Club (although 5 Steering Committee members have not!). On the other hand, many club members are not subscribed to ArlingtonBirds, and Marj said she was planning to email these people.

Refreshments Committee (Ann Perkins, Chair)

Ann has provided all the food for three meetings with other contributors providing drinks. Ann said, however, that she has had other volunteers and feels it is under control.

Official club business: Marj requested that people who act in the name of the club always coordinate through the Steering Committee. Announcements should come from the Committee.

Book database: At the first meeting Stephen had suggested creating a virtual “lending library,” where people who are willing to lend books are matched with people wanting to borrow them. He will spearhead the creation of the list. All exchanges will take place between the individuals with no further club involvement.

Publicity: The general subject of publicity was raised. It was agreed there should be a single person responsible, and some initiatives were discussed, but no decision was reached.

General organization: Trips are working well. However, at this point the committee chairs are doing all the work, and other members need to contribute more.

Steering Committee openness: Minutes of Steering Committee meetings are on the web site. Marj requested that when new minutes are available, a notice be posted on ArlingtonBirds.

Next meeting: Perhaps at the end of the summer, but no date or agenda was set.