WBRC MANAGER'S REPORT

Simon Wood

For those of you I didn't talk to or meet at the Worcestershire Recorders Meeting in March I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce myself and give a brief potted history. My name is Simon Wood and I have been in post here at WBRC since mid-January 2003. I moved down from Chester where I was working at RECORD, the BRC for Cheshire and the English pilot National Biodiversity Network Local Records Centre. Before that I worked in Shropshire for English Nature, at Devon Biodiversity Records Centre in Exeter and started my career as part of the reserves team at Norfolk Wildlife Trust.

I would like to say, as Phil Richardson also noted at the recorders meeting, it was so pleasing (and reassuring for the health of Worcestershire recording) to see so many people turn out for the day, and I would like to pass on my congratulations to all those involved, especially Harry Green, for organising a very enjoyable day.

The thrust of my work so far has been towards pulling together applications for continued funding whilst developing the day-to-day operational side of WBRC. Developing the use of Recorder 2002 as WBRC's main data storage system has formed a significant part of this development and I now have c.100,000 records securely transferred. As part of this work I will be developing transferable products that those amongst you running R2K2 in Worcestershire can make use of, so watch this space. An important issue for BRC's to approach is the agreement of data flow procedures between organisations (and individuals) and the BRC, it is with this in mind that I have met with a number of groups, organisations and individual recorders to discuss the best way to tackle potential problems (including duplication of effort).

As a general comment I am very aware that there is a lot of support for the BRC in Worcestershire and that we need to make sure that this wave of enthusiasm, that has included my employment, is further built upon to make viable this valuable resource for the county, so please do keep the records coming in and give me a call if you feel you can contribute in any other way. Many thanks.

If you haven't sent in records before, the basic facts we need to know are:
Ÿ Species name (common or scientific)
Ÿ OS Grid Ref for the Observation (as accurate as possible)
Ÿ Site name where the Observation was made (optional but useful if possible)
Ÿ Date of Observation (e.g. 13/12/1998)
Ÿ Your Name, Address and Telephone number

Records can be sent to WBRC for inputting to the database on paper recording forms or computerised records via email or disc. We can accept most spreadsheet types (e.g. Excel, Access, MapMate, Recorder 2002, etc.). However, please make sure as a minimum you have the individual fields mentioned previously, or feel free to contact me on 01905 759759, e-mail records@wbrc.org.uk to discuss any aspects of data collation or indeed other issues relating to WBRC.

Finally, many thanks must go to those who are transferring data into electronic format for incorporation to WBRC's database and a special thanks to the two Johns (Partridge and Micklejohn) for their continued help at the WBRC office.