Come to the Annual Members’ Meeting

Each year Avalonia has an annual Members’ meeting, a time to come together, to share accomplishments of the past and goals for the future.

This past year has been a year of growth, like teenage years. We got our “Driver’s License”: Accreditation by the Land Trust Alliance (LTA). A huge milestone. We learned the rules of the road. Now we are mapping out our route to conservation acquisitions and preservation.

We are also entering our Fiftieth Year. Another huge milestone. As we celebrate, we are also growing in other ways. We worked with a legal guide to help us amend bylaws to conform to LTA Standards that will work best for the organization we are becoming. One of the changes is to increase the number of Directors we have which will greatly increase our diversity and talents in all areas. Another change was to create overlapping Director terms for continuity and succession planning. As due process was followed, we have found ourselves with some returning “old faces”, friends coming back to re-join the “new Avalonia”. We also are welcoming some very new faces, people who are now seeing the emergence of a well-run organization, ready to step up to take its place as a modern land trust. To get a little more insight into our new Board of Directors, please visit “Our Team” on our website here.

 We will be updating the site after the elections at the Annual Members’ meeting where you will have a chance to meet most of them in person.

Another new person to welcome is our new Director of Development and Programs, Chuck Toal. His focus will be on growing the organization both through memberships and fundraising. There are a lot of positive changes to celebrate.

Chuck Toal

So on June 22, please join the Avalonia team to celebrate these changes. The Annual Meeting will be held at Avery Point, the Project O building, room 243, at 6pm. (details and directions on our website). There will be a brief business meeting to introduce the directors to the membership prior to the vote. It will be followed by a speaker, Jeff Cordulack, the Executive Director of Northeast Organic Farming Association. His topic will be organic gardening and composting techniques.

We all want bountiful vegetable gardens, so learn how to help with composting.

Light refreshments will be served, and members and friends will have the opportunity to talk with the Avalonia leadership, ask questions and get a sense of where the next 50 years will take us.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Beth