Many of you, maybe most of you, know more about WSO and its past than I do, since I’ve only been a member since right before I moved back to Wisconsin just over three years ago. While as your new WSO President, I’m learning much and hoping to learn more from you about Wisconsin bird-people, their priorities and issues of concern to them, and their dreams for WSO and for Wisconsin’s birds, I would also like to encourage each of you to consider how you too could become more involved in WSO and be an active part of its future.
With this letter I also hope to tell you the news of what’s happening and what’s planned in our WSO world. There have been a few recent changes to our WSO board since our very successful convention in May in Two Rivers. Dani Bauman, our longtime, hard-working treasurer, gave notice some time ago of her decision to resign for personal reasons, but until recently we had not been able to find someone to take this job. We were delighted when board member Melissa Kesling agreed to step forward to become our new treasurer. The WSO board appointed her to this position at its July meeting. At the July meeting the board also enthusiastically voted in two new board members, Alicia King and Angie Tornes. You can see their bios on the WSO website at https://wsobirds.org/about-wso/board-members. Welcome to both of them!
There are a variety of events planned to which I would like to invite you. For many years WSO has been working to figure out how best to be stewards of our special Honey Creek property. The land management plan is nearly complete. But is there more we can and should be doing with the land? Opinions and ideas vary. We want to hear from those who have been part of Honey Creek’s history and from any others who love it and want to give it the brightest future that we can. We also want more of our members to see and fall in love with Honey Creek. To those ends, we are going to going to have a “Brainstorming Gathering” at Honey Creek on Saturday, September 28th. We will begin with time to wander around the property before we settle down for a time to hear each other and talk to each other. People should bring a lawn chair and food (main dish/salad/veggies) to share at lunchtime and their own plates/cutlery, etc. Water and desserts will be provided. Detailed plans for the day will be announced soon. Please RSVP to me if possible if you plan to be there that day to help us in our planning for the event, but come with ideas in any case.
We are publicizing our other two next annual WSO events elsewhere and in future issues of the Badger Birder, but I want to mention them here so you can be sure to put them on your calendar:
Our second Unconvention – Biology Building, UW-Stevens Point, Saturday, October 19, 2024
Our 2025 Convention – La Crosse (details TBA) – May 16-18, 2025
As always, our WSO board meetings are open to WSO members who are not on the board. Our next board meeting will be in Stevens Point on Sunday morning, October 20th (the day after the Unconvention), also in the UWSP Biology Building, beginning at 8 am.
Please email me on any of the above topics, or on anything you feel could be helpful to WSO and to Wisconsin’s birds.
