Hi all, we hope everyone has had a safe and enjoyable summer considering everything going on. As everyone already knows, we cancelled all but one of our spring hikes and our annual meeting & picnic this past spring because of COVID-19. In light of these circumstances, the board met on July 28th in an outdoor environment and discussed how to proceed this fall.

The first topic of discussion was the fall hiking schedule. The board agreed to proceed forward with a hiking schedule and those details will be coming out in the very near future.

The Second & third topics of discussion were a work day and the rescheduling of our annual meeting & picnic. It was agreed to proceed forward with the idea of having our annual meeting on September 26, 2020, 1:30 PM at Glen-O-Jones Lake Recreation Area near the Tecumseh Statue. September 26, 2020 is designated as National Public Lands Day. With the COVID-19 pandemic still ongoing, this annual meeting will be different from previous years in that there will be no picnic and everyone is encouraged to BYO everything. Bring your own lawn chairs, drinks, snacks, bug spray, umbrella and whatever else you may want or need. Following our brief annual meeting you will be able to listen to our guest speaker Kelly Pearson of the SNF. Kelly spent about 4 months earlier this year working over in Missouri at the Mark Twain NF. I am not sure what she was doing, but considering that her tour started about the time the pandemic shut downs started back in March, it should be interesting to hear about her experiences with the Mark Twain NF or just the pandemic travel challenges while working in Missouri. I wonder how the toilet paper shortage affected her? So please come to catch up with others in the society, participate in the annual meeting and listen to an interesting speaker.

In addition to the Annual meeting, the Board agreed to sponsor a work day in the form of a Trash Blast in the Garden of the Gods area. Originally this was going to be conducted in conjunction with the Friends of the Shawnee NF, however the Friends elected to hold a virtual event because of COVID-19. As a result, this event will be a Society only event where in we will meet at the GOG observation area on September 26 at 9:30 AM. This trash blast will involve bushwhacking around the base of the observation area to clean up all of the trash left by all of the visitors to the area. Because of the COVID-19 situation the Society is seeking between 10-12 volunteers to help in the effort and it is requested that volunteers call or email Bill Gilmour (270-331-1553 or william.gilmour@frontier.com) to register your participation. If you are planning on volunteering please plan on bring your own gloves, water, trash pickup tools and snacks needed for the event. The work day will end no later than 1:00 PM so participants can travel up to Glen-O-Jones to participate in the annual meeting.

The Society also looks forward to discussing with the membership our 2021 plans to honor our founder John O’Dell.

We hope to see you all there.