The Friends of the Atchafalaya held its annual meeting last month and Board President Miriam Davey presented this report. If you are interested in participating in the FOA, notices of the monthly Board meetings are posted on the front page of the FOA web site, http://www.basinbuddies.org.
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Friends of the Atchafalaya
President’s Annual Report
April 22, 2008
Friends:
Over the course of our second full year of existence, Friends of the Atchafalaya has accomplished the following:
Received tax-exempt 501 c 3 charitable organization status from the IRS and
filed appropriate IRS reports, and maintained more than minimal requirements for such organizations
Held eight regular meetings of the Executive Board, two special meetings, several standing committee meetings, and an annual meeting.
Made changes in the executive board, resulting in a larger, more diverse board with more advisors, and with the changes in government agencies, added some new governmental advisor faces
Considered taking on what would have been our first large project. We ended up deciding we liked the project, though we weren’t quite ready to be a primary host. The deliberation, nonetheless, was very instructive for us on several levels.
Sent out our first solicitation for new members, via e-mail
Set up/fine-tuned, and maintained a website, and produced three issues of our web-based newsletter
Deliberated on the many projects we’d like to eventually host and support
Prepared and are now fine-tuning a seed-money, start-up grant application to Baton Rouge Area Foundation that if funded, will allow us to launch a major funding and membership drive which should set us up with those all-important funding resources with which we can grow our organization for years to come, and which will allow us to pursue our mission of building public awareness and promoting the conservation of America’s Largest River Basin Swamp, the Atchafalaya.
In the coming year, I’d like to see us not only fatten our bank account, and watch out, I may be passing the hat tonight…but I’d like to see us reach out to more of the membership and potential membership, and engage in some outreach activities.
Miriam L. Davey
President, FOA Board