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The Council of Ohio Audubon Chapters (COAC) 

Creates Bird-Friendly Communities 
By Tom Romito, Board Member, Western Cuyahoga Audubon 

“Right now, the fifteen chapters in Ohio are essentially operating as independent islands
without interaction with each other or the National Audubon Society. What we, Western
Cuyahoga Audubon Society, want to do is to spearhead an initiative to reinvigorate COAC and
bring the chapters back together.”

Hello, I’m Tom Romito from the Western Cuyahoga Audubon Society in Cleveland, Ohio. In this
short video I’d like to educate and inform the Audubon community in Ohio about the Council of
Ohio Audubon Chapters, or “COAC”.
COAC existed thirty or forty years ago and was active for several decades. But about a decade
ago, it became dormant.
The purpose of COAC was to get the chapters together and learn how to strengthen the
chapters through interaction and mutual projects. Well, time has elapsed and it’s time to try to
reinvigorate COAC.
Right now, the fifteen chapters in Ohio are essentially operating as independent islands without
interaction with each other or the National Audubon Society.

Copyright 2016 Western Cuyahoga Audubon.

Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works.
Western Cuyahoga Audubon Society, 4310 Bush Ave., Cleveland, OH 44109
Email: ​info@wcaudubon.org​ Web: ​www.wcaudubon.org
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What we, Western Cuyahoga Audubon Society, want to do is to spearhead an initiative to

reinvigorate COAC and bring the chapters back together.
Now, you might ask, “What is that to us as individual chapters in Ohio?”
We, at Western Cuyahoga Audubon, believe, that if individual chapters can strengthen
themselves, and collaborate with all the other chapters, they will become stronger and thereby
support the National Audubon Society’s strategic priorities of creating bird-friendly
communities.
I want to enumerate some of the essential elements of a strong Audubon chapter and those
things that we want to work on in a future workshop with all the chapters.
These things are,
● Growing membership
● Recruiting members
● Recruiting volunteers
● Improving relationships, communications, and interaction with each other
● Improving member involvement
● Learning how to ask for help with projects
● Learning how to create and complete conservation projects and,
● Learning how to raise funds.
By getting the chapters together and drilling down on all of these areas, in individual work
sessions, people who come to this workshop can benefit and learn how to strengthen their
chapter.
We hope that this event will occur in the spring of 2018.
We’re working hard to build a network with all the chapters in the Ohio Audubon community
now and encourage all the chapters to come to the table.
So, we hope that you will keep your eye on the Internet and future communications from
Western Cuyahoga Audubon about this project and we hope to see you there next year.
Thanks for listening.

Copyright 2016 Western Cuyahoga Audubon.

Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works.
Western Cuyahoga Audubon Society, 4310 Bush Ave., Cleveland, OH 44109
Email: ​info@wcaudubon.org​ Web: ​www.wcaudubon.org