Notes From the First Meeting of the Austin Parrot Society

Well folks we did it! We successfully had our first meeting, and I for one had a great time.
I want to thank everyone who showed up and put up with the disorganization... I think in the end, everything went pretty well!

I have been over the suggestions and expectations that everyone turned in and it seems that the following were the main threads in common:

Networking with other parrot owners and having a support group
Resource sharing (recipes, toys, supplies etc)
Supporting good avian causes
Enrichment
Solving behavioral problems
Nutrition
Toy making group
Species specific education
General education on all aspects of care

We also had most people interested in being a part of at least one co-op (I'll be passing on these people's info and preferences to Emily)

With these suggested topics of interest I think we have some very good topics for future meetings.

I am planning on starting organizing our next meeting in the next couple of days, but would love some input from everyone.

1) Was the time good, or should we meet a little earlier/later?
2) Would members prefer if we met South, North or Alternate wherever possible?
3) Is Sunday a good day for everyone?

Finally I wanted to include a reminder about some of the links and information in the hand out.

Barbara Heidenreich's positive reinforcement workshop is May 14th, support rescue parrots and learn how to train your own in a positive way

The Feather Distribution Project

Good Bird Inc information, dvds, books etc on positive reinforcement

Susan Friedman and information on the Living and Learning with Parrots course... a must do for parrot owners who want to understand why their bird does what it does

I look forward to your input and can't wait to see you at the next meeting!

Jamie

DATE CHANGE: 1st Meeting Now on 22nd February

Well folks after some input from folks who have human as well as feathered kids, it turns out that apparently Saturdays are packed with their activities, and not a good time for adults to go to a parrot get together.
So to accommodate them I have moved the date ahead one day to Sunday the 22nd of February. Still at 3pm and still at Opal Divine's Penn Field.

People who have already signed up for the mailing list should have received an evite today (much thanks to Lisa Porter for teaching me about evite and knowing how to write a great invitation). I am excited to say that so far 9 people have confirmed they will be attending!
Lisa also persuaded me to do a brief talk on a topic interesting to parrot folks. So I will be doing a short (don't worry, it'll be really short) talk on Positive Reinforcement, before facilitating a discussion on the same topic... here is a great opportunity for us to share our experiences training our birds, and maybe help a few members with their training problems

First Meeting Date Set!

The first meeting of the Austin Parrot Society will be...

Saturday February 21st, 3pm at Opal Divine's Penn Field.

Opals is on South Congress and offers good eats and a nice deck (if the weathers nice) for us to have our first meeting.
This meeting will be a get to know each other and a chance for us to discuss what we want out of the Austin Parrot Society.

A donation box will be at every meeting with each months donations going to a different parrot related charity.
Charities I have in mind to receive donations are The World Parrot Trust , Wings of Love Bird Haven, The Gabriel Foundation, The Gulf Coast Exotic Bird Sanctuary and the Schubot Exotic Bird Health Center. Please consider a separate donation to one of these organizations as well if you are able to, as they do great work for companion parrots in Texas and the rest of the world.

Please RSVP to austinparrotsociety@gmail.com so I can let the Opals folks know if there will be a lot of us, so they have a table ready.

I look forward to seeing you there!