WORCESTERSHIRE RECORDERS

Geoff Trevis

Simon Wood, the newly appointed BRC manager, will from now on report the news from the Worcestershire Biological Records Centre, whilst it falls to me to report on Worcestershire Recorders and its committee. The requirement for a formal group and its proposed activities was described in the last issue of the Worcestershire Record. I am pleased to say that these ideas were accepted at the Recorders' Annual Meeting in March 2003 and the current committee was elected nem con for the coming year. I can confirm the committee members as Harry Green, Bert Reid, John Partridge, John Meiklejohn, Gary Farmer, Patrick Taylor, Martyn Hodgson, John Day and Geoff Trevis (chairman) with Simon Wood in attendance. It is our intention that the committee's work should be as open as possible and to this end we have decided that the meetings should be open to members of Worcestershire Recorders who will be encouraged to participate in discussions though, of course, only the elected members will be eligible to vote, should vote be necessary. The meeting dates in 2003 are to be Thursday 15th May, Thursday 10th July, Thursday 11th September and Thursday 13th November. If any members wish to attend I would be grateful if they could notify me in advance so that I can send relevant papers and ensure that we do not get too many for the room and also confirm that meeting dates have not been changed.

The formation of the new Group with its remit to elect nominees to the BRC Board means that we will have to be more strict about subscriptions to the Worcestershire Record and only subscribers will be eligible to vote in elections to the committee and Board. However, non-members will be welcome at the annual meeting to participate in the talks and presentations. Elections to the committee and Board will take place at the annual meeting and papers calling for nominations will be circulated with the autumn issue of the Record. Arrangement will be made for those who cannot attend to notify the chairman to vote on their behalf by proxy. All votes and ballots will be secret.

In the meantime the committee has been active in arranging the March annual meeting, the summer recording days and the contents of the Worcestershire Record. We have also been discussing ways in which records can be used and published and we would encourage everybody to participate in the recording activities and submit records to the Veteran Tree and Mammal projects. Both are vitally important and, we anticipate, will set the pattern for future projects. We have also been looking at ways to publicise the group's activities and the BRC's work and to see how we can focus recording activities in ways that contribute to the requirement of the BRC. We would welcome any input to these discussions from the members.

I cannot finish without saying the "we" above has distinct similarities to the Royal "we". The vast bulk of the work of arranging the annual meeting and recording days and editing the Worcestershire Record has been done by Harry Green and I would like to express thanks to him on behalf of the committee.


COULD YOU VOLUNTEER?

1. The WBRC has made a start computerising some of the records of the Wildlife Trust, but this will need quite a lot of volunteer input if it is to be completed and the information useable in a reasonable time. We are hoping that we can find some volunteers who would be happy to work at WBRC at Lower Smite Farm, and on a reasonably regular basis. If you are computer literate it might help, but if you can find your way round a keyboard, and are a careful worker, then we can show you what to do.
Please contact Simon Wood at WBRC for more information.

2. The WBRC board is in need of a Company Secretary and possibly a Minuting Secretary, either as one person or two. At present the board meets on a Monday at 5.30 p.m. at Lower Smite Farm, and we anticipate that about six meetings a year will be needed now that we have settled down, and most of the preliminary setting up has been done. The main functions of the Company Secretary are to ensure that the Board runs its meetings correctly, and meets the deadlines required as a Limited Company for producing annual accounts and reports. They will also ensure that Minutes and Agendas are circulated as required.

If you are interested in undertaking this job and so becoming involved with running the WBRC please contact Geoff Trevis who will provide further information.