WHO JOINS THE CLUB?

by Rosemary Curley, Waterside, P.E.I.

We have over 200 members now, and as of June 15th the total was 230, including 23 family and three institutional members. Our mailing list shows 203 P.E.I. and 27 out-of-province naturalists from B.C. to Newfoundland, as well as a gentleman in Pennsylvania. Below are county breakdowns for P.E.I. and provincial totals.

P.E.I. British Columbia 3 Quebec 2 Prince County 12 Alberta 4 New Brunswick 2 Queens County 168 Saskatchewan 1 Nova Scotia 4 Kings County _g§_ Manitoba 0 Newfoundland 3

Total 203 Ontario 7

We've yet to strike a blow for nature in Manitoba, but ex-NHS vice-president Anne Landry was at last word attempting to triple the membership in Saskatchewan. (Keep up the good work, Anne!)

No doubt a major part in our rapid membership growth can be attributed to active recruiting by instructors Catherine Clough and Geoff Hogan during their respective mycology and ornithology courses at U.P.E.I. Another factor which has been important in both attracting and retaining memberships is our news- letter, a tribute to the editor. This is especially true with out-of—province members, where the newsletter is usually the only benefit of membership. Those Islanders transplanted to Newaundland, Alberta or points between, read the news— letter to keep in touch with P.E.I.; ex-newsletter editor Kathy Martin is said to ignore content in a conditioned search for errors of fact, layout, spelling and typing.

Here on P.E.I., membership is still centrally based, although we have members from Souris to Alberton. We've talked about setting up Society Chapters in other centers as our membership grows, but we'el have to raise our profile in Kings and Prince Counties to do this. Certainly any provincial organization needs support from across the province, and it is disappointing that only one member hails from Summerside, our second largest population center. (Recruit an "up-wester" or a "down-eatere“ today!) .

On a happier note, a healthy human population has an even sex ratio, and we are close to the mark with 96 men, 131 women and 3 institutions for those who don't care. This survey did not examine age of the membership, but we've assumed all our members are at one age or another.

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Thanks to all who contributed sightings to this issue of the newsletter: Stu Alexander (SA), John Alway (JA), Jackie Beaton (JB), Ninnie Cairns (HEC), Thelma Clark (TC), Jerry Compton (JCo), Jim Crowe (JCr), Rosemary Curley (FRC), Andy Dean (AD), Lilia Dean (LD), Barbara Fisher (BF), Geoff Hogan (GGH), Ann Charlotte Kelly (ACK), Steven MacFarlane (SM), Bruce MacLaren (RBM), Dorothy MacLeod (DM), Joyce MacLeod (JM), Dan McAskill (JDM), Arlene McGuigan (AM), Paul McGuigan (PM), Sue Stephenson (SS), Jane Symmes (JS), Carol Townsend (CT), Harold Trainer (HT), Pat Wooton (Pw), John Wright (Jw).

Special thanks to those who contributed articles to this issue: Dan McAskill, Vicki Friesen, Rosemary Curley and Bruce MacLaren. Writing articles takes time and effort, and these contributions are particularly appreciated, for it is the articles which form the backbone of each issue of the newsletter. Finally, a thank-you to Vicki Friesen for the typing.

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