News
Tuesday, 2 June 2009
NORTH WILTS RSPB ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2009
1 Welcome
Derek Lyford, Group Leader, welcomed all present, including Tracé Williams from the RSPB Wiltshire office.
2 Apologies
Apologies for absence were received from John Booth, Betty Lovell, Rod and Ingrid Powell and Win Luckhurst.
3 Minutes of the 35th AGM
The minutes of last year's meeting were accepted as a true record.
4 Group Leader's Report
Derek's review of the year mentioned the continuing success of our Tuesday evening monthly meetings with good speakers covering a wide variety of subjects. He invited members to let Vera know what subjects they would like to hear about.
He also thanked Eileen Miller for newsletter write-ups on these meetings.
Derek said that now John Booth had regrettably been forced to give up RSPB talks to other organisations because of illness, he was now the only person doing this. Requests for these talks were still coming in, and all had been met.
Other events mentioned included Derek speaking to a school in Box, the RAF Families Day at Lyneham, the Ridley's Christmas stall in West Swindon and survey and conservation work. Several members had opted to do work for the BTO atlas.
Brook Meadow did not have enough volunteers and proposed outside partnerships over the past year failed to materialise.
Treasurer's Report
A copy of the annual accounts was displayed on the screen.
Ray Thatcher said that the main point was that there was a loss of £180 on the Tuesday meetings, which needed to be addressed. There was some discussion on the high fees charged by some speakers, and on publicity for meetings. Tracé said that the RSPB Exeter quarterly Diary may help with publicity. Other suggestions from the floor were the possibility of notices at Slimbridge and the Water Park, and items in the Swindon Advertiser following the BBC "Springwatch" programmes.
The accounts were now being audited by Christopher Comens, and thanks for past services were extended to June Webb, who had given up for health reasons.
A copy of the accounts is attached to the official copy of these minutes, and a copy is inserted in this issue.
6 Election of Committee for 2009-2010
It was unanimously agreed that the present committee be re-elected en bloc.
It is as follows:
Group Leader and Newsletter Derek Lyford
Treasurer Ray Thatcher
Secretary and Membership Kathleen Wyatt
Monthly Talks Organiser Vera Raymont
Birdseed Sales Sylvia Pilot
7 Appointment of Community Talks Organiser
Brian Timbrell was re-appointed
8 Appointment of Website Manager
A new website manager was appointed last year but never really got started and has since proved impossible to contact. We can only assume that he has left the area.
The website post therefore remains vacant.
9 Appointment of Auditor
Christopher Comens was appointed as auditor.
10 Proposal from Committee to Increase Admission Fees
Proposal: to increase the admission fee for Tuesday evening monthly meetings by 50 pence, setting the fee for group members at £2.50 per evening and at £3 for non-members.
After a broad discussion the proposal was carried.
11 Close of Meeting
The Chairman declared the meeting closed at 8:45pm.
After the interval Tracé gave us an interesting illustrated talk about her visit to Russia to see the great bustard project in action over there, and ended it with the exciting news that the first chicks had been born to great bustards re-introduced from Russia on Salisbury Plain - the first for over 150 years.