Date: 1/29/26 10:29 am From: Sandy Berger <sndbrgr...> Subject: Re: Name Change
Thank you Adam. I totally agree. Why all the trouble, all the cost of
renaming. We have a good name. There is absolutely no need to change. I’m
proud of our history. Thankful I’ve know the founding members of AAS. Think
of Doug James, Bill Shepherd, Bill Beall, and others. Isn’t it
disrespectful to them to be doing this?
Plus I just got my AAS life membership pin. 🙂
Sandy B
Past President
Arkansas Audubon Society
On Thu, Jan 29, 2026 at 10:30 AM Adam Schaffer <
<000000135bd342dd-dmarc-request...> wrote:
> I’m going to throw a counterpoint into the ring here. To be confused as
> being part of or associated with the National Audubon Society is a good
> thing. There is a lot of positive name recognition associated with that.
> More importantly I think the Arkansas Audubon Society has gained some
> well earned name recognition through its camps, trust, conferences, et. al.
> It’ll be more work and more confusing to say that yes our new Arkansas
> Ornithological Society or whatever we go with is actually the same
> organization you’ve known and loved. I can share that a friend sent her kid
> to camp last year because she had a positive experience at an Audubon camp
> in Connecticut as a kid. Let’s keep the name.
>
> Adam Schaffer
> Bentonville
>
> On Jan 28, 2026, at 8:30 AM, Mitchell Pruitt <mitchellpruitt24...>
> wrote:
>
>
>
> Regardless of whether the reason is to discontinue honorific names, reduce
> confusion among organizations, or both doesn’t really matter. The proposal
> AAS has put forth is not to change the organization itself, just the name.
> Same people, same organization, same values, different name. The identity
> of AAS is attached to the people within it and the community of birders and
> research the organization supports. To add, National Audubon actually
> predates AAS by at least 50 years and is certainly no enemy here, given
> their work in avian conservation across the globe.
>
> Thank you to Dan Oko for sharing your relevant experience from outside
> Arkansas. This is similar to what has been the experience here.
>
> Best,
> Mitchell Pruitt
>
> On Jan 27, 2026, at 6:11 PM, Sandy Berger <sndbrgr...> wrote:
>
> Historically of all these groups using the Audubon name, which entity was
> first to use it in Arkansas? This “confusion” really began when Audubon
> Arkansas came to town, if I recall correctly. I joined the Arkansas Audubon
> Society back in the 90’s. Became a life member of the Arkansas Audubon
> Society a couple of years ago. I’ve been proud to be a member of the
> Arkansas Audubon Society. And now, because of this “confusion”, all of a
> sudden it is felt that a change in name needs to be made. Honestly, I’m
> very disappointed.
> Are we really changing the name because of “confusion”, or does it have to
> do with the controversy surrounding Mr. Audubon?
>
> Thank you,
> Sandy Berger
>
> On Tue, Jan 27, 2026 at 1:02 PM Ragupathy Kannan <
> <0000013b0ad14faf-dmarc-request...> wrote:
>
>> Not really, Sandy. It is to avoid the eternal confusion between National
>> Audubon Society, Arkansas Audubon Society, Audubon Arkansas, Audubon
>> Delta, Central Arkansas Audubon Society, Northwest Arkansas Audubon
>> Society, etc etc., and everything in between!
>>
>> On Tuesday, 27 January 2026 at 12:43:21 pm GMT-6, Sandy Berger <
>> <sndbrgr...> wrote:
>>
>>
>> So basically the officers think that the Arkansas Audubon Society needs a
>> name change to get rid of the word Audubon. Is that correct?
>>
>> Sandy Berger
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> To unsubscribe from the ARBIRD-L list, click the following link:
>> http://listserv.uark.edu/scripts/wa-UARKEDU.exe?SUBED1=ARBIRD-L&A=1 >>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> To unsubscribe from the ARBIRD-L list, click the following link:
>> http://listserv.uark.edu/scripts/wa-UARKEDU.exe?SUBED1=ARBIRD-L&A=1 >>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> To unsubscribe from the ARBIRD-L list, click the following link:
> http://listserv.uark.edu/scripts/wa-UARKEDU.exe?SUBED1=ARBIRD-L&A=1 >
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> To unsubscribe from the ARBIRD-L list, click the following link:
> http://listserv.uark.edu/scripts/wa-UARKEDU.exe?SUBED1=ARBIRD-L&A=1 >
>
> ------------------------------
>
> To unsubscribe from the ARBIRD-L list, click the following link:
> http://listserv.uark.edu/scripts/wa-UARKEDU.exe?SUBED1=ARBIRD-L&A=1 >
