Looking Ahead

As I sit down to write this at 6:30 am on Sunday morning, the weather person on TV is predicting snow, again.  I don’t know about you but I have had enough of the white stuff.  I am looking forward to earth coming back to life, to trees greening up, to flowers popping open to say hi to Spring!  Watching the colorful activity of our feathered friends at the feeders at our house has helped weather the winter for sure.  It isn’t hard to draw the analogy to our current condition at the Northern Neck Chapter of the National Audubon Society!

Since Covid, our organization has been dormant but we are ready to come back to life and come back with a will to thrive and to rekindle interest in our feathered friends.  So far, we have had a few meetings, gotten an “Acting” board elected and taken the first few steps to get ready for the new year.  This coming Saturday, February 28 at 10:00 am, we will build the first NNAS bird nesting boxes in a long time.  We are calling this a membership meeting but the program will be to build 100 to 150 boxes to sell to the public at the upcoming Farmer’s Markets in all counties of the Northern Neck.  There are over 30 Farmer’s Markets this year and we hope to be at each one.  To accomplish these two goals, we need your help.  We need volunteers to help build boxes and to help host the NNAS booth at the markets.  If you can help, please give me a shout at 804-761-2608 or email me at kenknull2@gmail.com.  

Before I move on, we are starting from scratch on the boxes.  We have consolidated all of the assets into one storage unit but have not found any of the materials used in making the boxes previously (tools, jigs, patterns, etc.).  Kevin Howe did find the branding irons!  On top of that we haven’t found any tables or chairs or a canopy that must have been used in previous Farmer’s Markets!  If any of you members know where these might be stored, that would save us a considerable amount of time and money.

Kevin Howe, as our “Acting” Past President, is working on a schedule for membership meeting programs for the rest of the year.  We are shooting for those meetings to be held on Sunday afternoons at 2:00 pm each month to maximize the ability for all to attend.  He is also actively setting up a bird walk schedule. 

Andy Bailey, our “Acting” Nominations Chair, is putting together a slate for the new board to be elected by the membership at our annual member meeting in June. If you are interested in joining the board, please let us know!

Bottom Line: we are up and running.  We are going to have a great time, learn a lot, educate more and do something positive in the Northern Neck.  As we all feel, a little positivity is needed these days!

  by Ken Knull (acting President)