On April 26, 2011, as called for in the official bylaws, the Friends of the Atchafalaya held a Board of Directors meeting, followed by an open membership meeting at the Audubon Coastal Initiative office in Baton Rouge. (more…)

To All Friends of the Atchafalaya:

It’s April again and time for the Friends of the Atchafalaya to meet again and review where we have been and where we are going.

In 2009, we brought back Atchafalaya Month and Experience Atchafalaya Days. We worked with the Atchafalaya Basin Program as they renewed the Program and began to emphasize the basic needs for Water Management with projects at several scales in the Basin. We worked with the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area in their quest for a management plan that will serve the needs and desires of the people in the area. And we worked with the other non-governmental organizations in the area to educate the public about the problems and initiatives in the Basin and along the coast.

We joined the Louisiana Wildlife Federation as an affiliate organization, added advisors from several different groups active in the Basin, and began an expansion of our Board of Directors to bring new blood and different perspectives into the group.

What we need now are YOU! We need your ideas, your energy and your contacts. We need the enthusiasm of the Atchafalaya Basin Advisory Committee to help us push for more funding for the Basin Program and the Heritage Area. We need your support to keep the Basin in peoples minds while the budgets are lean and the Coastal problems have everyone’s attention. We need you to create Experience Atchafalaya Days Events to introduce more people to the Basin.

We need for you to come out to our annual meeting on April 27, 2010 at the Bluebonnet Branch Library in Baton Rouge, at 7:00 PM. The Board will meet at the usual time of 6:30 PM and you are also invited to that meeting. The Board will choose its officers for 2010 and take care of pressing business. Then we will move to the membership meeting. The Board will update the membership on recent developments, announce the new officers, and open the discussion to our direction and future projects.

If you value the Basin and want to participate in our conservation efforts, come out to the Annual meeting and help us to spread the word.

The Atchafalaya Basin is worth conserving.

By the way, if you haven’t paid your dues for 2010,
you can go to the FOA web site “Join Us” page and pay online.
Every little bit helps us to get the message out about the Basin.

It’s been a busy month for the Friends. Last month, i posted a short note about bringing Experience Atchafalaya Days back in October, and i said that i would say more. Well, it’s time for more.

The Friends of the Atchafalaya and the Atchafalaya Heritage Area received a letter from Lt. Governor Landrieu informing us that we have been selected to receive support from the LA Office of Tourism for Experience Atchafalaya Days 2009. The Office of Tourism will provide funding for the planning, organization and promotion of the events. We are currently negotiating a Cooperative Endeavor Agreement with the Office and expect to be able to announce the signing soon.

Meanwhile, we have been busy starting up the planning process and the first visible product is the new EAD2009.info web site. Please visit it, sign up for as an organizer or participant, and stay in touch with the developments. There are several ways of finding an event for you, using event categories, dates, text search and even a Google map.

Let us know what you think of it and volunteer to help us get the word out about the richness of our Basin resources and the need for more work to conserve them for the future.

Charles Caillouet, President of the Board of Directors
Friends of the Atchafalaya

Don’t forget to mail your annual renewal of $25 or go to the BasinBuddies web site to renew using PayPal. PayPal is simpler but we get a little more out of your donation if you mail a check to us at:

Friends of the Atchafalaya
P.O. Box 82508
Baton Rouge, LA 70884-2508

Make sure to include all your current contact information and note that it is a renewal.

Of course, you can send more if you would like to support more activities.

We have no paid staff so all of your donation goes to support our preservation and education activities in the Basin.

Thanks.

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The Friends monthly Board of Directors’ meeting will be held on Thursday, May 28, 2009 in the Capital City Grill meeting room at 100 Lafayette Street in Baton Rouge. We moved the meeting date to accommodate some conflicts with other activities.

As always, members are invited to attend the meeting. We will discuss the status of the Cooperative Endeavor Agreement with the LA Office of Tourism for the funding of the organization and promotion of the Experience Athchafalaya Days 2009 activities.

We will need all the help that we can get to make EAD2009 a success, so come on out and volunteer to work on the preparation.

See you there.

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