President’s Letter 

This will be a very important letter to all members of the Las Vegas Avicultural Society.

During the last 30 days, there has been a mass exodus of the Bird Club’s governing board. Our elected President (the elected president resigned early in the year), board Secretary and one other board member resigned, which mandated that our new VP step into the President’s responsibilities. Michelle felt uncomfortable in taking on those responsibilities as she is brand new to the club and very busy with her family. Michelle felt the club would be better served with someone that had more tenure with our organization and she reluctantly stepped down. The great news is she will be continuing as an active member, to this I say thank you! That being said The governing board that was left had a meeting and had to vote in new board members to keep the club functioning until our elections in December.

In this board meeting Mary Lou Pazik was asked to be acting President, Judee Foster was asked to take the VP position and Karen Smith was asked to be acting secretary.

To our faithful members both old and new, I am asking all to both participate in the functions we try to provide and continue to support this great club. Let’s all start enjoying the comradery and fun we collectively share in our love of birds. I welcome any constructive comments and ideas to both make our great club better and help keep our Bird Club alive and thriving. Please never underestimate not only the importance of attending our monthly club meetings, but also supporting the two Bird Mart-Expos we work so hard to put on. The Club is a non-profit and a large part of the money we raise, to both keep the club running and hire quality speakers for our monthly meetings, is largely dependent on the success of our Bird Mart-Expos. The continuation of this club will be dependent upon enthusiastic participation in all club activities.

The Las Vegas Bird club is going to be searching and providing great programs for its members. Our intention is to have great programs, raffle table, and great food. Candidly, if there is a lack of interest and participation then all will have to consider disbanding the club.

Clubs, including nonprofits have expenses to exist. Our expense just for our monthly meetings at the convention center is $125. The same convention center charges us $1200 to rent the space each time we hold a Bird Mart -Expo and we also must furnish a $1200 deposit. We also spend an average of $400 for raffle table merchandise we raffle at the club meetings and Bird Mart-Expos. Additionally, the club spends an average of $400 at the Bird Mart, with the vendors that drive in to support us, so we can have merchandise available for our own raffle table provided at our monthly meetings. You can see the cash needed to fund our club is substantial. As I already mentioned, most of our funding comes from the Bird Mart-Expos. When members do not support or attend we can’t generate revenue to run the club. Additionally, if no one attends the Bird Mart-Expo, the vendors do not make enough to make it worth their while and they don’t come back. When that occurs, everyone says “there were no vendors”. It can be frustrating. Every member needs to know this information, before you criticize this club for what they try to provide for you the members.

The Bird club needs all of you!! We can all continue to learn and be educated through this club to make our parrots lives and ours better. Please come, participate, enjoy. We will all benefit.

Thank you,

Mary Lou Pazik