tae AUDUBON BULLETIN 
Published Quarterly by the 
ipiteienleiNe 0) Inoe PAS UsD2U BsOcN) © S:0:'C LET Y 
Number 76 December, 1950 
What the Nature Camps are Doing 
By ANNE DOUGLAS BAYLESS 
RENEWED ENTHUSIASM toward conservation work and a host of ideas that 
may be used by local clubs came out of the “delegates’ session” held at the 
National Audubon Society’s camp near Greenwich, Conn., in August. 
The five-day, intensive session was attended by representatives from 
20 local societies, most of them from the middle west. There are accomo- 
dations at the camp for only 20 persons, so invitations are rotated and not 
each local Audubon society or affiliate of the national group receives an 
invitation every year. This year three Illinois groups were represented: 
the Vermilion County Audubon Society, formed only this year, with Mrs. 
Delores Fulton of Catlin, Ill., as its delegate; the Rockford Nature Study 
Society, represented by Milton Mahlburg, director of the Natural History 
Museum in Rockford, and who also unofficially represented the North Cen- 
tral Illinois Ornithological Society; and the Illinois Audubon Society, 
which I represented. 
Other delegates came from such midwestern locations as Painesville, 
Columbus, Youngstown, and Akron, Ohio; Detroit, Mich.; Dubuque, Ia.; 
St. Louis, Mo., and Chatham and St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada, both near 
Detroit. 
The purpose of the delegates’ session is to give the local groups a 
chance to talk over their mutual problems with one another and also to 
gain ideas from the camp, its staff, and officials of the national society, 
whose headquarters in New York are only about 30 miles away. In addi- 
tion, the delegates get a condensed version of the regular two-week ses- 
sions held at the camp for nature leaders, teachers, youth workers, and 
whoever else wants to attend. Despite a packed schedule, there also is 
time for fun, such as swimming daily in the camp’s private lake. 
At one session, each delegate in turn told about his or her organiza- 
tion, its aims, membership, and methods of procedure. Kenneth Morrison, 
editor of the Audubon Magazine and director of public information for 
the society, was present for part of this and Charles E. Mohr, camp di- 
rector, was present throughout to lend suggestions. 
The first thing I found in seeking ideas for the Illinois Audubon Socie- 
ty was that its problems are somewhat different from those of all the other 
groups represented, for it is a state society, and the others are not. State- 
wide participation, one of the aims of the Illinois society, is something 
that none of the other organizations has to worry about. 
Virtually all of the societies represented have monthly meetings with 
programs somewhat similar to those of the Chicago Ornithological Society, 
[3] 
