Nominees for new board members, 2025

• Western NC Vice-President: Mike Resch (Asheville, NC)

  Mike has been a birder since getting his first pair of binoculars at 8 years of age. Since then, he's birded throughout the US and Canada, birding extensively in all 50 states and 10 provinces. Mike's state birding passion is chronicled in his blog – statebirding.blogspot.com. He formerly lived in New England where he was the Chair of the New Hampshire Rare Birds Committee. During his working days he was a marketing manager and environmental engineer specializing in clean-up of hazardous waste sites. Since retiring to Hendersonville, NC, Mike has enjoyed birding throughout the Carolinas, especially the many excellent birding spots in the NC mountains and the upstate of SC. He is a guide for Ventures Birding Tours, co-coordinator for the western NC region of the North Carolina Bird Atlas, and compiler of the Lake Lure, NC Christmas Bird Count.

• South Carolina Member-at-large: Matt Malin (Aiken, SC)

  I arrived in Aiken, South Carolina in 2009 and stayed until 2011 for work and was introduced to birding in the State by some good birding friends from Aiken County. We ran all over South Carolina, mostly in the west part of the State and ACE Basin. I returned in 2016 to Aiken, SC and have been here since and became a member of Carolina Bird Club.

  I started birding as a youth in Bucks County, Pennsylvania at a local nature center and was taken to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, by my dad, in the late 1970s to watch raptor migration. And then I was hooked. I've lived in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Colorado, Massachusetts, and I have moved around the country and traveled to parts of the world as a geologist for work after college and continued to birdwatch. Now after 40+ years, its just my "bad habit" hobby.

  I've done Christmas Bird Counts, point count surveys for state agencies, NOAA seabird surveys, Breeding Bird Surveys, as well as assisted shorebird and passerine banding, all of which have been great experiences. I was a member of the Cape Cod Bird Club Board, as the Field Trips Coordinator, and led field trips all around Cape Cod year-round.

  Now that I am South Carolina, I'd like to participate more in the Carolina Bird Club and help others "catch the bug" and learn how much fun (and frustrating) birding can be. As a good friend of mine once always said, "Keep your eyes to the sky."

• Secretary: Kathy Jones (Garner, NC)

  Growing up on our ancestral mountain farm in the small Watauga County community of Stony Fork, outside of Boone, NC, my love of all things outdoors started when I would ride an old wooden sled into the woods with my grandfather and go gather berries and nuts with my grandmother. They started my love of all things about the outdoors from the earliest times I can remember, and taught me to recognize plants, trees, berries, bugs, wildlife and of course birds!

  Through the years, I have been fortunate to live across NC from the mountains to the coast and in between (currently residing in Johnston County near Clayton), as well as having spent four years in Columbia Falls, Montana, which afforded me the opportunity to see and fall in love with many different kinds of scenery, wildlife and birds and indulge in my passion…all things outdoors!

  I really enjoy CBC, their trips and the continued learning I get from the members and looking forward to giving back to CBC wherever I can.