by Nancy Bedan

CAS Adapts Programs, Meetings to Current Conditions

Columbia Audubon will not be able to meet at our usual location, the Unitarian Universalist Church, for the foreseeable future, so meetings and programs will take various forms this year. Weather permitting, we plan to hold actual meetings—outside, with masks and social distancing—in September and October. We’ll rely on Zoom for our November meeting. Here’s more about our fall lineup:

The September meeting is still under consideration due to changing Covid-19 Restrictions.

Saturday, Oct. 17, 2-4 p.m.:  Open House at the Boone County Nature School Site   CAS members will be able to visit the site of the new Boone County Nature School and learn about the status of the project. CAS contributed $30,000 for construction of a “council house” at the site, and we hope construction of that meeting facility will be underway when we visit. We will form small groups for the briefing, wear masks, and practice social distancing.

Wednesday, Nov. 18, 7 p.m., via Zoom:  “The Greenbelt Land Trust of Mid-Missouri—What It Is and How It Works”   Mike Powell, executive director of the Greenbelt Land Trust, will explain how land trusts work and highlight ways that CAS and GLT can work together. A Zoom link will be sent to members a few days before the meeting.

Tentative plans for 2021 include a photography program via Zoom, a discussion of grassland birds/prairie habitat via Zoom, and a bird-identification webinar.

The CAS Program Committee realizes that some members might not be able to “attend” virtual programs and others won’t feel comfortable coming to actual meetings. We hope that all members will be able to enjoy at least some of our CAS programs in this most-unusual of years. We will notify members by e-mail if programs plans must be changed because of weather or virus conditions.

–CAS Program Committee (Nancy Bedan, John Besser, Doug Miller, Jean Neely)