[TN-Bird] TOS Winter Meet -- say thanks to Mooneys and Gaddy, others

TN-Birders and Winter Meeting participants:

When you arrive at Dayton for the Winter Meeting of the Tennessee 
Ornithological Society this weekend,  you should seek out a few really neat 
people I am going to mention and thank them for making this meeting possible.

If you don't get to thank anyone else, at least give a big pat on the back to 
Dan Mooney and Laurie Mooney of Knoxville and President Elect Danny Gaddy of 
Chattanooga.  

Those three had dreams of bringing birders and TOS together at Dayton to 
showcase the Smith Bend/Yuchi Refuge, owned by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources 
Agency.  They had originally talked about a fall meeting. 

Yuchi is a project in the making as TWRA is restoring wetlands, sowing native 
grasses and trees. It was heavily funded by a major contribution from the 
Tennessee Ornithological Society.  It will long be part of the proud legacy of 
TOS in the years to come.  The refuge is a unique 2,500 acre tract on the 
Tennessee River, with three miles of riverfront, 1,000 acres of wetland and 
1,500 acres of upland forest. They believe we should all see it for ourselves.

When TOS considered discontinuing the Annual Winter Meeting due to a lack of 
attendance in past winters,  the Mooney's stuck their necks out big and offered 
to tackle the most difficult job of putting on the winter meeting and getting 
people to attend.  That took real courage.  Their determination and leadership 
became the foundation on which the 2005 Winter Meeting has developed.

The Bristol Bird Club signed on as a sponosor with Knoxville and Chattanooga.  
The Bristol contribution was to help organize and conduct field trips for 
Saturday and Sunday.  The BBC selected leaders for the field trips -- Daniel 
Moss and Charlie Muise.

Gaddy took responsibilty for developing the evening programs, getting the 
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency involved and the Operation Migration 
speaker to make a presentation.  Working with the TOS President Virginia 
Reynolds, a sechedule of TOS committee meetings was arranged.

Reynolds had earlier told Gaddy that he had her blessings to work on behalf of 
the state TOS to pursure the meeting effort.  Danny brought an interesting 
group of partners to the table and the 2005 Winter Meeting was underway.

On Dec. 12, Gaddy held a "President Elect's Round Table" breakfast meeting in 
Johnson City.  TOS leaders from throughout East Tennessee came and spent the 
night in a hotel.  The group conveined the next morning.  All East Tennessee 
TOS Chapters were represented --  Chattanooga, Knoxville, Greeneville, 
Elizabethton and Bristol. The meeting was open to anyone and several birders 
came to get involved in the process.  The group determined that the clubs are 
so close and highways are so good that we can easily muster a lot of people to 
work in cooperation as clubs.  The Winter Meeting at Dayton was a great place 
to start.  Gaddy wanted to set a model for teaming together with people from 
over a wide area.   Some of us remembered when the Greeneville Chapter TOS 
would host all the East Tennessee clubs at a weekend birding roundup at a 
church camp in Cosby near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park each fall.

Jean Alexander and David Johnson, members of the Knoxville Chapter from 
Maryville, were busy handling motel logistics and scouting out meeting sights 
at Dayton.  They have worked hard.

Mike Roedel, state ornithologist with the TWRA in Nashville, worked with his 
supervisor Richard Kirk to arrange for regional people from all over the state 
to come.  Kirk will be a major presenter Saturday night.

Dan Mooney worked with Chuch Nicholson of the Knoxville TOS to get excellent 
information up on the TOS web page to promote the meeting.  TN-Birds net was 
used to attract more state birders and those who are not members of TOS to come 
an participate.

Knoxville TOS President  Charlie Musie became a leading architect of ideas for 
the winter meeting.  He has worked to present good ideas for the meeting.  In 
addition to leading two field trips he will also make a presentation on the new 
state bird monitoring effort he is heading.

Ken Dubke has made several trips to Dayton to work on logistcis for meetings 
and to secure a local dinning room so participants can gather on Saturday night 
and eat together.  He has talked almost daily with Gaddy to share details, 
ideas and learn how he can make his usual good contributions.

The Bristol Bird Club has worked to get the field trips lined up and share 
information with everyone.  We wanted everyone to be as informed of the joint 
effort being made by lots of birders and several chapters to pull togehter for 
the coming weekend.

Be sure and tell these people how much you appreciate the effort.

Don't miss visiting the TOS website at: 
http://www.tnbirds.org/Winter05-meeting.htm for more details about the Winter 
Meeting and excellent maps of the areas.

Let's go to Dayton......

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN  










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