14 T HE -AiU DP B‘O°N@ Bou Teeny ee 
How To Start A Bird Club 
By Leroy TUNSTALL 
ORGANIZATION! WHEN WE hear of this word we think of a group of people 
knitted together by a lot of work and planning, but when starting a bird 
club it means a lot of work, plus pleasure. I would like to relate my personal 
experience and pleasure in organizing a local branch of the National 
Audubon Society, which became known as the Wheaton Audubon Society, 
the only one in DuPage County, as far as I know. 
It was about six years ago (after coming here from Warren, Pennsyl- 
vania) that I felt the urge to organize a bird club. Having been a Bird 
Study Merit Badge Counselor in Warren County Council of Boy Scouts, 
and a holder of a merit badge on this subject, I had extreme interest in 
this kind of program, and, since I was a member of the National Audubon 
Society, I was also interested in a local chapter. Being new in this locality, 
I did not know a person interested in either bird life or conservation. 
Now, the only way to get an organization started is to find out who is 
interested, and to do this I had to get all interested persons together, and 
to do this an auditorium was needed. The only one available without a 
great expense was the Wheaton Y.M.C.A. The next thing was to get some 
publicity, and of course the local newspaper is the best medium for this; 
so I hada little conference with the staff, explaining my plan and the pur- 
pose of an organization of this kind, informing them that the meeting date 
was near, and that publicity was necessary. Being very gracious, they gave 
me the front page and a bold type heading. Next I multigraphed some hand 
bills and placed them where I thought they would be distributed to the best 
advantage. These informed the public that all persons interested in bird 
life, wildlife and conservation were invited to attend the meeting. 
Not knowing how large a crowd might attend, I secured a temporary 
secretary to handle all paper work. Another important thing is to see that 
the people who come are seated and made welcome to the meeting. This 
being a civic duty which a boy scout could do, I located a troop of scouts 
and booked a couple of them through their scoutmaster. Seating capacity 
was a problem in that building; an undertaker was located who generously 
loaned some chairs. 
Well, everything was all set. The evening had come, the secretary was 
there, the boy scouts reported for duty and the people started to arrive © 
and kept coming until the room was filled to capacity. Then we started the 
meeting off with singing ‘America the Beautiful,” followed by a full ex- 
planation of the program. To my surprise, seven people responded, making 
their way to the secretary for application forms. Some others said they 
would join soon. This was the nucleus of the Wheaton Audubon Society. A 
date was set to draw up Constitution and Bylaws, and thus the society 
was organized. 
Now this was perhaps as good an experience as I could have had in 
organizing a club, and from it a great deal of knowledge was acquired. 
There are a few points which stand out as important. First, to organize 
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