Massachusetts Audubon Society 3 



BUILDING A BIRD CLUB 

 By WiNTHROP Packard 



You need two things for the foundation of a successful Bird Club. 

 FIRST, birds, of which every community has many, usually far more in 

 number and variety of species than is suspected by the average citizen. 

 SECOND, two or more people genuinelv interested in knowing birds. 



Given these two conditions, it is perfectly easy to start a considerable 

 portion of the community on what bird enthusiasts speak humorously of as 

 "the trip," meaning that once started on the trail of bird study you have 

 acquired a joyous avocation that will last a lifetime. Bird study and bird 

 protection lead always the one into the other, and many especially fine 

 opportunities to study birds intimately come from attracting them in numbers 

 about the home by giving them food, water, shelter and nesting accom- 

 modations. 



To form your club: Get two or more bird enthusiasts together and 

 organize. You will need a President, Secretary and Treasurer, (these last 

 two offices may well be combined in one). Some clubs have besides these 

 a "general manager," who is picked for his energy and ability to foment 

 business activity and who acts as a sort of field driver to round up and 

 enthuse the activities of the organization. 



These offices may well comprise the Board of Government, to whom all 

 mooted questions should be referred. More officers than these, as well as a 

 constitution and by-laws, may or may not be needed. Personally, I believe 

 that the less a club is bound by careful rules and restrictions the better it 

 will get on. A name, purpose, simple rules for membership, meetings, and 

 the government of the club are desirable. The enthusiasm of the members 

 and the guiding power of the officers should supply the rest. 



As for the things a club may do, both for its own welfare and pleasure 

 and for the good of the community, their name is legion. 



The club should have frequent meetings for free discussion of bird 

 topics and experiences, and should occasionally have a bird lecture from 

 some outside authority on the subject. It should hold frequent bird walks 

 to observe the bird life of the neighborhood. It should encourage its mem- 

 bers to feed, house and otherwise protect the birds. All these things work 

 for the maintenance of personal interest among the club members. 



Beyond that, however, lies a great field of valuable civic work in which 

 a bird club may engage with profit both to itself and to the community. It 

 should get in touch with the Audubon Society of its state and with that of 

 its nation, take membership in each as a club or in the name of some in- 

 dividual of the club, and heartily support the work of the two greater 

 organizations for better state and national bird laws. Through these organi- 

 zations it will receive stimulating and improving literature of great value. 

 It will learn the methods of interesting the school children of the State in 

 a knowledge of birds through the junior classes in bird study, organized and 

 carried on by the National Association of Audubon Societies and fostered 

 by all State organizations. Bird clubs may well assist by placing this work 

 locally before teachers and scholars and in keeping it forward. 



The club may give a public exhibition of bird-protection literature and 

 appliances on some desirable occasion, in connection with its lecture course, 

 for instance, or in the public libraries, and attract and interest the general 

 public in that way. 



