Conservation opportunity – new birding club seeks members

News from the Big Horn Basin area Audubon chapter

By Melissa Hill, President, Meadowlark Audubon

Last week the club filed with the Wyoming Secretary of State’s office to officially dissolve the club as a non-profit organization. The Board agreed that we wanted the remaining funds in the club’s bank account go to local organizations with projects benefiting birds in some way. After looking at some proposals, the Board voted to divide the money between the Montana Audubon Center in Billings, East Yellowstone Trout Unlimited in Cody, and Audubon Rockies. Checks were mailed at the same time as the dissolution paperwork.

The board is saddened that we were not able to keep enough interest in the club to keep it going any longer. We realize that, while there may not be enough interest for a non-profit-level birding club, there may be folks wanting to continue a birding club but without the responsibility of an Audubon club. Based on that, we purchased a website name and paid for 3 years of web hosting so that someone can easily manage the webiste https://www.meadowlarkbirdclub.com/ to organize events or simply provide information about birding in the Big Horn Basin. If you are interested in being the webmaster for a new birding club, please contact Jarren jarren@landstewardservices.com so that he can run through all the details with you.

Additionally, if you are interested in helping run a new club, please contact me and I can put the interested people in contact with each other so they can organize further from there. Our current website, www.meadowlarkwyo.org, will be allowed to expire when it’s next set of fees are due. Until then, we plan to put info on the site to direct folks to the new website.

Please note, there will be no further gatherings for our club (that means no April meeting) as we are now no longer an official Audubon organization.

I want to thank you all for the support you’ve shown Meadowlark Audubon Society over the last 19 years. Even though the “club scene” in our area seems to be fading pretty universally, I know there are still many folks out there wanting to support conservation organizations. I encourage you to keep working for wildlife and enjoying the wonders we are so fortunate to have in our back yard.

Best wishes and happy birding!

Melissa