BRC DEVELOPMENTS AND RECORDING

Geoff Trevis

The BRC development continues apace with regular meetings of the Board. Most significantly, after two advertisements, we have applicants for the managers post and interviews are to be held on 12th November. (SEE BELOW). The initial appointment will be on a one year, short term contract, funded by the County Council, English Nature and Worcestershire Wildlife Trust but we anticipate that if it is successful the post will become established for the longer term. The manager will be based at the Centre at Lower Smite Farm but will liaise closely with the Trust, the County Council and the County Recorders to begin the process of bringing the centre up to NBN standards and establishing a viable funding base. He/she will be accountable to the Board to whom reports will be regularly submitted. Meanwhile, the application for charitable status is in preparation and issues relating to finance, governance and company law are being resolved.

Most importantly, the centre continues to function under the joint management of John Meiklejohn and John Partridge and the database is growing. A number of new people are now involved in transferring data to the Recorder database for addition to the computerised records. However, keep the records coming - we never have enough and even for common species there are clearly gaps whilst repeat records will become increasingly important as we try to monitor the state of wildlife in the county.

In addition to the BRC, there have also been developments with respect to recording. The BRC Board has three nominees from the recording community and there now needs to be a mechanism for the nominations to be made democratically. Please note that I use the term "nominees" and not "representatives". Once appointed to the Board a person's legal responsibility is to implement decisions in the best interests of the BRC. They cannot be mandated to vote for a particular proposal. However, they will be the main channel of communication between recorders and the Board and it will be their responsibility to ensure that your views are properly considered.

Because of this new requirement, a meeting was held at Lower Smite Farm to which people known to be active in recording were invited. It was decided that a formal organisation will be needed from and through which nominees will be elected. The organisation will also have as its objective support for the BRC by promoting recording in the county through field meetings, workshops and other educational activities and through publications. It will be known simply as "Worcestershire Recorders" and its members will be those subscribing to the Worcestershire Record.

Clearly some form of Executive will be needed to administer the elections, to organise the events and projects and to act as channel of communication between the BRC and the recorders. At the moment this function is carried out by an ad hoc working group with the following members, Geoff Trevis (chairman), Harry Green, John Meiklejohn, John Partridge, Martyn Hodgson, Patrick Taylor, Gary Farmer and Bert Reid. It was agreed that this group should form the basis of the new committee, to be called the Worcestershire Recorders' Committee, that will carry on co-ordinating and supporting recording but that will also draw up a constitution for Worcestershire Recorders. The proposed constitution will be widely circulated for comment before its adoption.

Whilst an executive will be necessary to undertake the administrative work it was agreed that bureaucracy will kept to a minimum and meetings of the committee should be open to a wide constituency of recorders. Further details will be published as soon as possible but, in the meantime, if anybody would like further clarification or would like to comment on the proposals I would be pleased to hear from them by writing to me at the Worcestershire BRC or by telephone (01905 774952) evenings or weekends, or by e-mail geoff.trevis@btopenworld.com. I will also give an update at the annual meeting in March and will be happy to discuss matters then.

BRC BOARD AND COMMITTEES

In summary there are two sides to the activity and management of the Worcs BRC. The Centre is managed by a Board whose membership is:

Geoff Trevis (chairman) Nominated by WWT
David Heaver Nominated by EN
Harry Green Nominated by Worcestershire recorders
John Partridge Nominated by Worcestershire recorders
Bert Reid Nominated by Worcestershire recorders

In attendance:
Colin Raven Company secretary
Ian Bamforth From Worcestershire County Council (we are waiting for a formal nomination by the Council)
Alex Preston Worcestershire BAP manager
BRC manager When appointed.

The Board has sole responsibility for running the Centre and its members are not representatives.

Active recording is vital to the success of the Centre and this is recognised by the presence of three recorders' nominees on the Board.

The county recording community has set up an organisation, Worcestershire Recorders, to promote recording work in the county, to support the BRC and to elect the Board nominees. Worcestershire Recorders is intended to support the BRC but it is not run by the BRC and an executive committee, Worcestershire Recorders Committee, has been set up to administer the elections and organise its work. Current committee members are Geoff Trevis (chairman), Gary Farmer, Harry Green, Martyn Hodgson, John Meiklejohn, John Partridge and Bert Reid. One of its primary tasks is to set up a constitution for the new organisation and to oversee its implementation. The constitution will be widely circulated and, once agreed, we will be looking to elections in 2003.

MANAGER APPOINTED

We are very pleased to report that following interviews in November Simon Wood has been appointed at first manager of the Worcestershire BRC. He has worked at Devon BRC and most recently as IT Officer at RECORD, the Local Biological Records Centre established at Chester to work on many aspects of establishing record centres meeting the criteria required by the NBN (National Biodiversity Network). Simon will be responsible to the Worcs BRC Board and will work closely with all partners to help establish a modern, efficient and financially viable BRC. More in our next! Simon is expected to take up the post in early January 2003 and will (hopefully) attend the Recorders Annual Meeting in March 2003 when you will be able to meet him.

COMPANY SECRETARY WANTED

A Company Secretary is required for the Worcestershire BRC Board. This is an Honorary post and the incumbent will be expected to deal with tasks required by law for a Registered Company limited by guarantee, and (eventually) a registered Charity. The Secretary will of course attend Board meetings and be involved in the usual tasks of producing agendas and minutes. If any reader is interested in this post please contact the current Chairman. Geoff Trevis, for further discussions.