News
Wednesday, 27 July 2011
Changes for the Group
The other major area of membership participation is in our field trip activity. We have been running around 1 trip a month with an average of just under 20 members attending. I believe that we can, with benefit, step up our activity in this area and for this coming year we will have two field trip organisers. Pete Furniss will organise the midweek trips and Peter Stoppard the week-end trips. We will experiment again with the mini-bus.
Secondly we exist as a means of generating funds to assist the RSPB nationally in carrying out its conservation work. Pete Furniss has for the last three years led in this area and has been instrumental, through collections and the tombola, in raising over £8,000 over the period. Pete is now stepping down from this role and our special thanks are due to him, and Ann, for their very successful work in this area. How we fill the gap going forward is my crucial concern. In the absence of any one volunteer I think that we shall need to ask individuals to lead on separate collection events. This is a key issue to be addressed in the immediate future. Funds are also generated through the monthly raffle with Ann Furniss and through the sale of bird food with Amanda and Noel Palethorpe.
An extension of fund generation is the recruitment of new members for the RSPB. This we do by raising the profile of the RSPB locally by attending local shows and through talks to local interest groups. Prime movers in this area are Ann and Pete together with Noel and Amanda Palethorpe at the shows and with Norman Crowson leading on talks to local groups. I am unsure of the group appetite for this type of activity, which is in my view highly desirable, but if we are to match what we have done in the past and indeed do any more it demands greater involvement from others.
The group also exists to carry out local conservation work that supports overall RSPB objectives. Our efforts, led by Peter Stoppard, have been focussed on the Linacre Reservoir area. The feeding program continues and this year we installed an additional 29 boxes, a very good proportion of which have been used. There are monthly wetland bird surveys on behalf of the BTO of the reservoirs, again led by Peter, which are generally well attended particularly from March onwards. Peter also carried out three farm surveys as part of the RSPB's Volunteer and Farmer Alliance program. For the future the RSPB's new role in managing the moors to the west of Sheffield and Chesterfield will provide new opportunities for our involvement which I for one look forward to with some excitement.
Local communication is a vital ingredient of our activities and the Newsletter continues strongly under the editorship of Marian Pateman. An up-to-date website is also important and it, together with our monthly email to members, is now being maintained very ably by Barbara Lower.
Les Unwin maintains the group finances impeccably and I personally am grateful to him for all the work that he does on behalf of us all.
There have been a number of committee membership changes during the year. Gill Needham, Sue Ottowell and Pete Furniss have stood down. Subject to the endorsement of the AGM Kathy Davies and Barbara Lower have joined. I am myself new from January. There has therefore been significant change. We, as a committee, need to establish our priorities for the future and communicate this to the group. It remains for me to heartily thank those that have departed or are departing as well as welcoming the new members and thanking those still in post.
Finally the greatest thanks are to you the members of the local group; without you we wouldn't exist and without your active participation we would wither on the vine - thank you.