Our 20^th Year at the Summer Social

This year the Summer Social was more than a mid-summer get together, it was also a chance for us to celebrate our twentieth year as the North Texas Master Naturalists. The History Committee planned several activities to commemorate the twentieth including an ice breaker focused on NTMN history, inviting people associated with the chapter since the beginning, compiling milestones into a brochure, and displaying the newsletters and scrapbooks from the old days.

We also had several people whom we hadn’t seen for years join us. Kip Kiphart, Susan Roberts, and Jane Bartosiewicz have since moved from the Dallas area and came in for the day. We also have active members from the first class who are still working with us all the time: Linda Cooke is still an active member.

We also talked about some of the earliest chapter projects at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) and Texas Discovery Gardens (TDG) where we are still very active. The three projects on display from the spring class gave us a good idea of where our efforts are focused today. While we had several activities planned for the evening, there was plenty of social time for North Texas Master Naturalists to exchange stories and learn from one another.

The Right Size

You may have heard the old saw that people mention about a glass that is partially full. One group looks at the glass and proclaims that it is half full, and another would observe the contents and proclaims that it is half empty. My son, who is an engineer, volunteered that there is another interpretation of the partially full glass, as an engineer would see it – the glass is not the right size for the job. A container half the size would hold the fluid perfectly.

We have a similar situation in our chapter – is the chapter too large, too small, or, just right? These are questions that we will have to address this fall as we plan our activities for 2019. In the fall, we will send out a comprehensive survey to determine attitudes about several issues with which we must deal in 2019. We haven’t conducted a survey like this of the membership for four years; it is time to find out what you are thinking on these issues.

This summer we have asked you to take a very specific survey of your interest in assisting the chapter in committee and board work; this survey will be used by the nominating committee in August to fill positions for the North Texas Master Naturalists. The fall survey will be used in planning whereas the nominating committee survey is used for a very specific need: identifying volunteers.

Bruce Stewart
President 2018