The first executive was elected: President, Andre Lavoie; Vice President, Eleanor M. Lowe; Secretary - Treasurer, Margaret E. Mallett; Program Convener, Nelson G. Hurry; and Lunch Committee Convener, Ruth I. Ross.

Randy Dibblee entertained the group with a slide talk on denizens of fresh water marshes and ponds as well as on many of the plants that grow there. We were beginning the experience of learning about nature which would continue to this our 20th year, and, we hope, far into the future.

The first three regular meetings were held in room "C" at the Y.M.C.A.. The next four in Room 214 of the Downtown Campus, so called because the University of P.E.I. was using some space at the former Prince of Wales College. The next five meetings were held in Room 306 or 320 (the former Prince of Wales College), then four from pillar to post between the MacKinnon Lecture Theatre and Room 619 Holland College.

The December meeting of 1972 found us back at the Y.M.C.A. It was at this meeting that Wendall MacKay and Thomas M. Lothian began to draw up a constitution for the new society using as a guide the constitution of the Prince of Wales Natural History Society. It took several meetings before the constitution was completed. The Society is grateful to Mr. MacKay and Mr. Lothian for their interest, expertise, time and effort they put into the making of this document. It has guided us through the years with only an occasional amendment or addition as the need arose.

It was at the same meeting in December 1972 that the members heard with pleasure Hendall MacKay's offer to try to secure a meeting room in the Provincial Administration Building on Rochford Street. He was successful. January 17, 1973 found the Society meeting in Conference Room 47 on the third floor of the Health Building where we would meet for the next 12 years until May 7, 1985 when alterations to the Health Building made it necessary to find a new meeting room. In 1974 we found that our meeting NIGHTS were as mixed up as meeting PLACES had been earlier. To try to settle the problem each member was given a blank calendar form on which to indicate which nights of the month were regularly unsuitable. By this method the first and fourth Tuesdays were found to be equally uncluttered. It was put to a vote and the first Tuesday of the month was chosen.

For the meeting of October 1, 1985 the Society "went underground" to meeting room No. 2 which is under the Jones Building. Our stay here was brief, only to the end of 1986. Here the Society's participation in the 5-year Breeding Bird Atlas project got under way with Rosemary Curley as the Island Co-ordinator. The Maritimes Co-ordinator, Judith Kennedy of Halifax, was the speaker at the April meeting and gave us a pep talk and some helpful hints on bird atlassing .

On January 6, 1987 we began holding our meetings at the Farm Centre on University Avenue. We continue to meet there.

BIRDING EVENTS

In the early years of the Society we relied rather heavily on the P.E.I. National Park naturalists, particulary for guiding the nature walks which were a very important feature of our program. Bob Gray introduced the Maritime Nest Records Scheme of having people fill out a card with data on each nest observed with the cards to be returned to the Canadian Wildlife Service in Sackville, N.B. by October lst each year.

Richard (Rick) Howie became park naturalist in 1971. Rick reinstituted the Christmas Bird Count on the Island. He selected two areas for counts, divided them into sections, and was the compiler for both counts. Twenty persons went

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