December 3 Update: Joy Hester, Past President of Houston Audubon was selected at the recent Board of Director's meeting to be the chapter's nominee for Southwest Region Director of the National Audubon Society.

The National Audubon Society (NAS) has 28 members on their Board of Directors. Nine of those are elected by the chapters in their region. Houston Audubon (HAS) is in the Southwest Region. The SW Region consists of all the chapters in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona. Regional Directors serve three year terms so every three years there are three regional elections. The SW Region election will be held next spring. Each chapter may submit one nominee for their regional director. Additionally, nominations can be made by petition having twenty signatures of NAS members.

NAS establishes guidelines for the election and each chapter establishes procedures within those guidelines. The HAS Board of Directors (BOD) has established the following procedures for the selection of our chapter's nominee. Any Houston Audubon chapter member may nominate a NAS member or a HAS member. All nominees must be a resident of the region, have been a member of HAS or NAS in good standing for the past twelve months and must consent in writing to the nomination. There will be a thirty (30) day period for making nominations, beginning on October 20. No nominations will be accepted after November 23. The BOD will announce the nominees and they will select the chapter's nominee from all the submitted nominations. NAS specifies that the nominee will be posted after January 1, 2010, to the NAS regional election website. Candidates may campaign from February 22 to April 30, 2010. The BOD will vote on behalf of the membership, prior to April 30, 2010. HAS has five ballots, the maximum for chapters of 2,500 members or more. The board may split these votes among several candidates or they may cast all votes for one candidate. The election results will be posted on the NAS regional election web site on May 1, or soon thereafter.

For further information, please contact Jim Winn or call the Houston Audubon office, 713-932-1639.