Name Change Survey

June 1, 2023

By Kim Adelson

After a year spent gathering data and deliberating, the National Audubon Society decided to retain the Audubon name. The question of changing the name arose once it was discovered that John James Audubon was a slave owner. (See The Myth of John James Audubon | Audubon.) They made the decision to retain his name because they believe that losing the name “Audubon”, which stands for “birds” and not “slavery” in most people’s minds, would lower our name recognition, and hence clout when advocating for birds. Concurrently, the organization announced a new $25 million initiative to promote diversity and equity. (See National Audubon Society Announces Decision to Retain Current Name | Audubon for a more complete explanation of their decision.)

The way that Audubon is structured, each local Audubon chapter is largely autonomous and has the right to decide for itself what it would like to be called. Therefore, we are conducting a survey of our members to understand their position on this question.

This survey is now available on our website at this link. The included questions are listed below for preview. The survey will close on July 31, 2023.

Thank you in advance for your participation.

Do you believe that the Black Hills Audubon Society should retain our current name?

1	2	3	4	5	6	7
I very strongly believe the name should be changed	I believe that the name should be changed	I lean towards changing the name	Neutral/Don’t care	I lean towards retaining the name	I believe that we should retain our name	I very strongly believe that we should retain our name

If you believe that the name should be changed, would you be willing to help do the work involved to make the change happen? (It would be a big job.)

1	2	3	4
No.	I would be willing to do a little work on the name change.	I would be willing to devote a good amount of time on the name change.	I would be willing to take on a leadership role to make the name change happen.

If you are willing to work on a name change, please include your name and contact information:

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