The New Hampshire Audubon Society has embarked on a campaign to polish its recently tarnished image.
Several weeks ago, the organization abruptly announced it had fired several staff members as a result of restructuring.
The outcry from many members of the popular environmental group was fast and furious.
On Tuesday the organization held the first of what they say will be several meetings with members and donors to explain their actions.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s Rebecca Kaufman attended the meeting and filed this report.
It was standing room only at the Silk Farm’s conference room Tuesday evening.
And from the get-go, it was intense.
Audubon president David Houghton had barely begun his opening remarks, when he was interrupted by audience member Steve Lindblum from Warner.
Houghton: "In all are various different concerns we forgot how to treat people properly." Lindblum: "How can you forget to treat people properly?" Chairman Gilbert: "I’m going to ask that david be permitted to finish his briefing…"
That was the Chairman of Audubon’s board of trustees John Gilbert.
President David Houghton continued with a mantra he would offer many times throughout the three hour meeting: blame me, not Audubon.
"I know my credibility may be low with all of you but I have a favor to ask of you, hold me responsible for my shortcomings, and to know New Hampshire Audubon and the staff here continues to do fantastic and wonderful work."
Three weeks ago, Houghton dismissed eight Audubon staff members, without giving them notice or severance pay.
Houghton has admitted that he had handled the layoffs “miserablyâ€.
The former staff members have since been given four weeks severance pay.
Houghton has also returned two biologists to full time status after earlier reducing them to half time.
To help offset those costs, Houghton announced he would take a 20 percent pay cut.
But his repeated apologies did not quell the disappointment many in the audience felt over how the changes at Audubon took place.
Rebecca Courser from Warner demanded Houghton's resignation.
"Even though you are apologizing and saying focus it on you I say focus it on you, then you have to go…I think the board really needs to hear that and I hope there are people in the audience who speak to that as well." (applause)
Although there was applause, Courser's sentiments were not shared by everyone.
Charles Leveque, a natural resource consultant from Antrim, says Audubon must think about how to best serve New Hampshire.
"I’m not defending how the layoffs happened I’m simply saying there’s a structural problem within the organization and I know David came in to try to do good for new Hampshire wildlife and wildlife habitat…so be kind." (applause)
Those structural problems reportedly include years of financial difficulties at Audubon.
According to Board Chair John Gilbert, for the past six year the organization has run on a deficit running on average about $150,000 dollars.
And that number has been rising.
Gilbert says the board, well aware of the financial issues, signed off on the layoffs.
"When you have the choice of keeping those folks on or running another 500,000 deficit maybe, and risking the whole future of the entire organization you end up with these very uncomfortable choices and that’s the situation we found ourselves in and as David has indicated we didn’t handle it very well."
Houghton says he wants to restructure Audubon to make it more effective.
Currently he says, the organization runs a nature center, and it does that well.
But that model, he says, is costly.
Instead, Houghton wants Audubon to improve its wildlife biology, provide more education for both children and adults, and focus more on land conservation and public policy.
But to get to that point, Houghton had to lay-off his director of education Ruth Smith, who'd been at Audubon for 18 years.
"A lot of people in this community think I’m smart enough to do some great things and I think I would have been smart enough to help you move forward and there’s nothing I would have like more to help this organization move forward and do the work we need to do better."
Some current staff members attended the meeting, but only two spoke.
Rebecca Perkins is Audubon's foundation manager.
"I know I am not alone in this, there is staff here that are still very enthusiastic and committed, frankly I am enthused about the directions that this is going, I saw several inefficiencies and I’m encouraged to see those are being addressed."
Audubon staff is scheduled to meet with the board of directors without David Houghton on November 17th.
For his part, David Houghton says he is open to talking to anyone who wants to, wherever they want to.
That includes a scheduled public forum tonight in Laconia.
For NHPR news, I’m RK.
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