by Louise Flenner

Upon review and board approval, final meeting minutes are posted to the Minutes page. Following are highlights of the unapproved minutes from the September 21, 2022 CAS board meeting:

Nature Areas

• John Besser has agreed to be the new Nature Areas Chair.
• Bill Mees reports the STEM alliance had a photography program highlighting nature photography at CANS on July 29
• Bill also reports Bumble Bee Atlas Training, a program of Xerces Society, was held at CANS on July 30. After the program Bill talked with KOPN radio about CANS and was asked to return to report on the Christmas Bird Count.
• Bill reported on the City Council meeting held Sept. 6 which approved archery deer hunt at Bonnie View Nature Sanctuary. There will be no hunting allowed on the CANS property, but if a wounded deer runs into the property, the body can be retrieved.
• Bill reports that Band with Nature is scheduled for Oct. 24, 25 and 27 with rain dates of Oct.26 and Oct.28.
• Bill reports the Crepuscular Creep will happen again this year. It is a project of the CPS Science Dept.  They are seeking donations of pumpkins to put on the Scotts Branch Trail near CANS.  The event will take place either Oct. 28 or 29, yet to be determined.
• Bill also reports there will be a prescribed burn at Bonnie View sometime after October. They will not burn at CANS this year. At Wild Haven, they will spray one more time in the Spring and wait until the Winter of 2023/2024 to seed.
• Bill reported that he applied for a grant to fund a wayside exhibit on pollinators, but did not get the Grant. He has secured two bids as of Last Feb.  One bid came in at $1068.  The other is $1378. The board approved up to $1400 for an interpretive panel on pollinators for CANS.

Communications

• Allison also reports CAS received a thank you from Sarah Kendrick re: SELVA contributions. CAS was able to donate $3550 as a result of the match of member donations.  A total of $16,050 was donated by 4 birding groups.

Memberships

• Shelby reports renewal reminders went out last week and 70 renewals came in.

Field Trips

• Eric Wood is stepping down as Field Trip Chair. If anyone has a suggestion for someone to fill this position, they should contact Lori.  There was some discussion of changing this title to Field Trip Coordinator.
• Bill and Jim led Field Trips at CANS on June 14, Sept. 20 and one is planned for Sept. 22 for the Moberly Area Community College students.

2022 CoMoGives Fundraiser

• Allison, Lori, and Kevin are on the ComoGives Committee.  The Fundraiser runs from Nov. 29 to Dec. 31. This year’s goal is $10,000.  A donor letter will be sent as will post cards.  Emails announcing CoMoGives will be sent out periodically.

Education

• CAS was mentioned in the Missourian re: field trips for children held in June.
• A home-schooling group has requested a field trip for 200 children. Lottie is looking into this.

New Business

• Lori was contacted by a reporter to comment on the Master Plan from Parks and Rec. No comment was made.
• A check for $3550 was mailed to Mo. Conservation Heritage Foundation for the SELVA project.
• An auditing committee needs to be set up. Jim Gast volunteered to chair this. Lori appointed Jim as chair.  At the next meeting the board will approve the committee
• The Board would like an update on the Nature School. We would like to know where we are in the process.  Lori will follow up on this.

Old Business

• Andrew Biggs, manager at Bradford Farms, came to a meeting of CAS members to discuss the new rules for birding at Bradford Farms and all 11 MU sites in the area. He is working with Edge Wade to establish a hangtag system to identify birders when they visit the farm.