We will have our annual elections at the December 1 meeting. The vice president (Joann Sustachek), treasurer (Kris Hoth), and membership chair (Nicole Riendeau) are all willing to stay in their positions (although Kris is willing to take over as secretary if someone else wants to be treasurer). The offices of president (me) and secretary (Karen Kaplan) are open and we need volunteers to fill them. The duties are:
Secretary: 1) Take attendance at the meetings and give that information to the president in the late fall for the State of the Chapter (SOTC) report to national (it’s due in December). 2) Also, the secretary generally takes notes at the meeting to have a record of what happened, and could also handle correspondence in the future (we don’t really have much other than thanking our speakers and emails to the chapter).
President: 1) Come up with a program for each meeting – this sounds more difficult than it is. At the December meeting I ask for suggestions for meeting topics, speakers, activities, etc., which I use to create the year’s program. Also, historically the May meeting has been a garlic mustard pull, the June meeting is the plant sale, the July (now July/August) meeting is a potluck to celebrate the plant sale, and the December meeting is elections and a lunch to celebrate the year, so there are only 7-8 other meetings that need to be planned. I didn’t have any contacts with local conservation folks when I started, so this is helpful but not necessary. Chapter members are really good about helping with anything you need. 2) Run each meeting by setting up the projector and computer (the chapter owns the projector but you’d have to supply the computer), direction signs if necessary, and introducing the speaker. 3) Send email – again, some of this could be handled by the secretary. I send a monthly meeting announcement and a followup before each meeting, plus announce the monthly Chiwaukee Prairie workday. I also occasionally send other emails about events, and am the contact person for the chapter for Earth Day, EcoFest, Spring into Gardening, etc. where we typically have a booth. 4) Prepare the yearly State of the Chapter report for national and send it in. This is a form that is pretty easy to fill out and you can use previous years’ forms as a guide. 5) The biggest job I’ve had is to organize the plant sale, but the plant sale committee is going to take this over (unless the new president has a burning desire to run it).
That’s all I can think of in terms of duties – let me know if you’re interested in either position. I have much support to give you in terms of old topic suggestions, sample correspondence, previous SOTC reports, etc. that I’m happy to pass along. This is such a great chapter – please step up and help continue our good work!
Stay Wild,
Chris