wmmsn.org website news

If you've visited us at http://www.wmmsn.org/ lately, you may have noticed some changes in the works.  It's true.  We've been working to improve your experience on our website!   

Today I'm happy to announce that you can now donate to receive your very own Whatcom Marine Mammal Stranding Network T-shirt through the "donate" page on our website! 

Wear your heart on your sleeve!  Show your support for WMMSN!  With your donation of $25 you will receive 1 T-shirt or donate $35 and receive 2 T-shirts!

 

These T-shirts are pre-shrunk, 100% organic cotton in light blue and feature a Walking Whales design on the front with the Whatcom Marine Mammal Stranding Network logo on the back.

Front View

Back view

If you have any suggestions of things you'd like to see on the website, find any problems or errors, or if you have pictures you'd like to contribute, please let me know. 

~Christi
webmaster@wmmsn.org

Help Us Help Marine Mammals

General Meeting Minutes

Date: January 6, 2010

Location: Metcalf Hodges Accounting Firm conference room

Meeting called to order at: 6:30pm (1830hrs)

People present at Meeting: Mariann Carrasco, Bob Ryerson, Lori Crawford, Heather Harris, Victoria Souze, Sonia Hurt, Edradine Hovde, Christi Spangler, Claudia Olejniczak, Steve (new volunteer helping Bob with Education)

Unanimous approval to accept minutes from past meeting

Treasury report (Lori Crawford): Currently have around $500.

Old Minutes:

In the absence of Trisha, Sonia will look into the Rest stop with WDOT and the Boundary Bay Brewery date for confirmation. Apparently the Rest Stop location and date has not been reserved as Trisha had informed us. Claudia will go to the DOT office in B’ham on Tues, the 12th at 8:00 am and pick a lottery ticket, at which time she can select a rest stop and date, as this is the only way the rest stops can be reserved. Discussion on types of fundraisers ensued. Julie brought up the type recommended by Susan Howlett, who teaches fundraising classes, which involves finding a host to have a “wine & cheese” type party where they invite their friends willing to donate around $100 each and listen to someone from our group talk for a few minutes about the WMMSN. Susan says these types of fundraisers are the most effective. We explored that a bit given that auction-type fundraisers are a lot of work, and maybe we don’t need that much money right away. We may pursue that type in the future.

Sonia will be notifying everyone of a fundraising committee meeting to come up soon.

Lori mentioned that if we were able to come up with a few large contributions from corporate donors, we may be good for 2010.


New Minutes:

· Bob brought up an e-course put on by the SeaDoc society about Healthy ecosystems.

· Mariann talked about the MMSN conference in April and wanted to see if anyone would be going. Mariann may try to go.

· Julie mentioned that she is organizing a training with the San Juan MMSN. They would provide training on taking care of seal pups for the first 24 hours before transferring to SJMMSN. We figured one day she could come to Bham and teach us this spring, and then one day we would go to SJMMSN to help with actual pups, so we get some hands on training. Julie will get back to us on arrangements for those interested.

· It was suggested that occasional descriptions of an incident could be put on the website to educate those that haven’t been out much. Mariann volunteered to do the first one.

· Website: Christi to add a donations page, and get it set up for accepting donations and getting a t-shirt. Mariann to send Christi pics of T-shirts. We commissioned Bob to do color prints of about 4-5 species of MM found in our area, so that we can sell them on the website and at auctions. All of us to send him pics of our favorite MMs. These prints can also be part of an “Adopt-a-MM” program that Victoria will start up, and go with any “kits” that are sold along with that animal.

· Header of minutes will include website address. All meeting minutes will be posted on our website for those interested.

· Christi says we are averaging about 35 hits per week on our website.

· We will hold out next MMSN training on April 17, 2010 at 10:00 am, location TBA.

· Mike to get back to us on when we can hold our next necropsy training. Since we received permits from scientists requesting get organ parts of all species that are stranded, it is becoming clear that we all need more necropsy training, especially in regards to protocols for labeling, shipping, etc. Training would be ideal if it were held in the spring.

· Board meeting to be held next Tues, Jan. 12, 2010 at 6:30 at Pastazza Rest. (same location as previously). All board members should try to make it as we will be discussing budgets.

· Sonia informed us that she is leaving in May, to go on a forever boat trip to Mexico and will be relinquishing her duties at that time. We will need to find a replacement for the Fundraising Chairperson position, so if you are interested, please let Mariann know.

· Next meeting on Feb. 3rd, same time and place.

Meeting adjourned: 8:05pm (2005hrs)