Newsletter title

September 2010

In This Edition

Editorial

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

From several docents I received positive comments about the August 2010 edition of The Docent News. Quality of the publication depends a lot on the contributions I receive. The newsletter belongs to you; I’m just the person in charge of making it happen each month. As docents, you are the reporters, the eyes and ears of the newsletter.

Often people are afraid to contribute because they mistakenly think that they don’t have anything to say or are worried about committing crimes against the English language. As Editor, my job is to make you look good in print, silently correcting anything that doesn’t look or sound right.

Regarding pictures, I can always discard information, but I can’t add information that isn’t there. Pictures should be as they come out of the camera — I will format and adjust the size and resolution.

Photographic prints are more problematic as I have to re-photograph them, then manipulate the resulting image to make it suitable for the newsletter. Digital pictures are always superior to photographic paper.

To contribute, send plain text with any digital pictures as attachments to the email. Note the Newsletter Publication information below.

Fall Road Cleanup Set For October 16

—Dennis Bires

There are few better ways to enjoy crisp autumn weather than by roaming the county roads on the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve for a road cleanup work day. On Saturday, October 16, everyone is invited to meet at Preserve Headquarters at 10:00 a.m. to receive an assignment to clear a stretch of prairie roadway. The best approach for our fall cleanup is to drive slowly and stop only when litter appears.

A good time is guaranteed for all. Pack some food for the convivial Bunkhouse porch lunch break. We will finish by 3:00 p.m. Thanks!

Docent Recognition Luncheon

—Anita Springer

The Docent Recognition Luncheon will be held at 12:00 p.m. on October 2, 2010 at the Research Station on the preserve. Everyone is invited to bring a guest and enjoy some good home cooked food.

Special recognition will be given to those docents passing a milestone this year. Everyone deserves recognition as we have had a good year.

So that we will know how much food to prepare, please RSVP by September 24th. You can reach me by email or my cell phones 918-214-6672 or 918-534-6739 and on my home phone at 918-846-2400.

Hope you can fit this into your calendar as it is one of the few times during the year that we all can get together and swap stories.

Soggy Love Letter

—Bob Hamilton

I found this letter in the donation box, 8 September, a little soggy:

Love Letter

They Fly Through The Air With The Greatest Of Ease

—Anita Springer

They are coming in by helicopter now. I drove out to the preserve on August 25th to talk to Ann about the September and October calendars. As I was leaving, I drove past the kiosk and spotted this helicopter. I called back to the Visitor’s Center and mentioned it to Ann. I was in a hurry and went on about my way. Dave Dolcater, who was on duty that day, sent me this picture. Ya’ never know!

Helicopter

[Editor: N828PM is a Robinson 44I, construction number 1493, registered to Mr. Robert L. Myers of Skiatook, Oklahoma.]

Biosemiotics

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

Biosemiotics appears to offer a way to gain higher level, more integrated understanding of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve ecosystem and, by extension, Life on Earth. According to Donald Favareau of the National University of Singapore: Biosemiotics is the study of the myriad forms of communications… observable both within and between living systems. It is thus the study of representation, meaning, sense, and the biological significance of sign processes — from intracellular signalling processes to animal display behaviour to human… artefacts such as language and abstract symbolic thought.

You can follow the link to read the New Scientist article Biosemiotics: Searching for meanings in a meadow. You will need Adobe Acrobat or a similar program installed on your computer to read the PDF file. If this piqued your interest then you can satisfy it by reading this PDF file: Chapter 1, Introduction: An Evolutionary History of Biosemiotics, by Donald Favareau, published by Springer Science publishers.

Visitor Counts

—Iris McPherson

There were 898 people from 36 states (870) and 12 countries (28) who signed in during July. There were 498 from Oklahoma, and the next three highest states were Texas (45), California (35), and Kansas (32). We had our first Wyoming visitors for the year, but we still have 4 states that have not been represented this year: Delaware, Mississippi, North Dakota and West Virginia.

The history of visitor counts for July is shown below:

Keep up the good work getting people to sign the visitor’s registry.

Docent Coverage Of Season Days

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

100-percent coverage for three months in a row. Can we do it again this month? What odds are you giving? Place your bets.

Docent Coverage of Season Days

 

Voices From The Past

—Iris McPherson

This is the fifth in our series Voices from the Past. Read Mary McIntyre’s Docent News. You need Acrobat Reader or a similar program installed on your computer to read the PDF file.

Tallgrass Prairie Preserve Visitor’s Center Latitude & Longitude

Here is the latitude and longitude of the Visitor’s Center that you can give to visitors for entry into their GPS navigation device.

Kiosk Maintenance

The manufacturer’s instructions for cleaning the touch-screen recommend use of a soft dry cloth only. This proved inadequate for smeared fingerprints. Soft-paper kitchen towels work well, slightly damp with a small drop of soft handsoap. Application of a dry kichen towel removes any residual moisture.

Over time, a matter of several weeks continuous operation, I have noticed that calibration of the touch-screen drifts away from the initial set-point. If you notice that the cursor isn’t under your finger when you touch the screen then restart the kiosk by unplugging it from the wall, waiting a few moments and then re-inserting the power plug. It will restart and recalibrate.

This link points to the complete Kiosk Maintenance Manual.

Back Issues

Some printed back issues of the Docent Newsletter, to February 2009, can be found in the two green and one blue-black zip-binders, stored in the Perspex rack by the file cabinet in the office of the Visitor’s Center.

All back issues are available electronically via the links shown below. All newsletters prior to December 2007 are available in Portable Document Format (PDF), which means that you will need Adobe Reader installed on your computer to read these files. All newsletters from December 2007 onwards are in HTML format that is easily read using your web-browser.

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Newsletter Publication

Deadline for submission of articles for inclusion in the newsletter is the 10th of each month. Publication date is on the 15th. All docents, Nature Conservancy staff, university scientists, philosophers, and historians are welcome to submit articles and pictures about the various preserves in Oklahoma, but of course the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in particular.