Continuing Monarch watch into 2010 and beyond.

[Orangeaid]

After reading the most recent blog concerning the state of Monarch watch i would like to bring up a solution that has been brought up before but is still not being implemented. With the increasing yearly costs of operating Monarch watch always on the rise and a large portion of the expenditures going to salaries it is most urgent that Monarchwatch find some way to ease these burdens and costs . I believe that it is time for Monarch watch to deligate some of their work load to the volunteers that have a passion for the Monarch butterfly as much as the individuals working directly at Monarch watch( afterall this about the Monarch butterfly and it should come first ). This would mean finding interested people like me and iam sure others that enjoy the website and the well being of the Monarch butterfly to be able to complete tasks that are required throughout the year voluntarily. This could be one solution for some of the financial concerns of Monarch watch in the coming years that should be addressed in ernest.

[keithpetrosky]

I suggested they make a Myspace and Youtube account. Both are free and both those sites word spreads quickly. If any of us have a Myspace we could add their account and put it on our top friends list (so people see there account). And Youtube, well they can make videos of what they do at Monarch Watch like rearing and how to tag monarchs, even footage of monarchs in Mexico, that would be interesting!

Or I could just make a Myspace account for them but it would have links to there monarch watch site and shop and all monarch pics and milkweed. Then all I would do is join groups that have to do with insects/bugs.

I'll wait though to see if they make one on there own that is better.

[Jim]

All good suggestions...I've been thinking more about interns/volunteers and I agree that is what we need to do to get some of the many projects we've begun but put on the back burner. As you probably know, there are only two of us full timers here plus Chip (prof at KU and director of Monarch Watch) and the hourly students that help maintain our monarch population.

I will find some time to define these projects and then ask for help from the Monarch Watch community - stay tuned and feel free to send me a friendly reminder if you don't hear fron me on this subject in a timely manner

We definitely need to get more video online - we set up a YouTube Channel/Account about a year ago but haven't done much with it yet:

youtube.com/monarchwatch

I've created a MySpace page: myspace.com/monarchwatch

as well as a Flickr page: flickr.com/photos/monarchwatch

and Twitter: twitter.com/monarchwatch

and FaceBook: facebook.com/profile.php?id=1264450104

and Virb: virb.com/monarchwatch

and StumbleUpon: monarchwatch.stumbleupon.com

I'll try to get some content up there and see where it goes and what sites will work for us - if there are other similar traffic-generating/social networking sites that you think could benefit Monarch Watch please send 'em my way and I'll check them out.

Thank you for your continued support!

[keithpetrosky]

Awesome, it's great you made all those accounts. It's a start so good job!

[Mona Miller]

Maybe it would be a good idea to consider allowing taggers to input the data online like they do in New Zealand. That would save many, many hours that could be used for other work.

http://www.monarch.org.nz/monarch/proje ... transects/

http://www.monarch.org.nz/monarch/wp-co ... 170208.pdf

I am sorry to say that I haven't been good at sending the data back to Monarch Watch. Okay, I'll get it done, but if it were online it would be easier for me.