Annual General Meeting 2003

Reaseheath College, 26 April 2003.

1. Apologies

Paul Harding, Glyn & Dawn Collis, Doug Richardson, David Scott-Langley

2. Secretary's report (Helen Read)

BMIG currently has 185 members, 44 are overseas members, 6 from Ireland and 1 from Gibraltar. In the last year the group has become affiliated to the British Entomological and Natural History Society which confers various benefits to our members including insurance for field meetings.

3. Treasurer's report (HR on behalf of Paul Harding)

The accounts were presented and approved.

4. Woodlouse recording scheme (Steve Gregory)

Two members in Wales have been very active and submitted lots of record cards. It has been a good year with notable records being those of Armadillidium pictum from Derbyshire.

5. Millipede recording scheme (Paul Lee)

500 cards are yet to be input. BRC are working on the outstanding ones and there should be a total of 40 000+ records in all. Species drafts are available for people to comment on at this meeting. When PH retires he and PL will push this forward. All outstanding records should be in by June 2003 to go in the atlas.

After publication PL will take over the records from BRC and we will be able to manage the database ourselves and update continually.

6. Centipede recording scheme (Tony Barber)

South Wales records have been received from Greg Jones. The current plan is for the atlas to be produced after the millipede atlas.

A draft Aidgap key will be available as a test version this summer and a Synopsis is planned. In the meantime a CD of Eason’s book is available from Pisces.

7. Newsletter (Paul Lee)

Two editions have been published over the last year. The last one used up all the spare copy so new articles are needed for the autumn edition.

8. Bulletin (Tony Barber & Helen Read)

It has not been possible to produce this prior to the meeting this year but it will be available by July [oh yes!] and will have some colour pictures in.

Some back issues are available.

Bulletins can be sent outside UK

Ken Hill proposed a vote of thanks to the Bulletin editors which was gratefully received.

9. Election of Officers

Dick Jones wished to stand down. John Harper and Desmond Kime both agreed to stand.

The Committee was proposed on bloc by Derek Whiteley and seconded by Ken Hill. The officers elected were:

  • Chairman – Tony Barber
  • Vice chairman – John Lewis
  • Secretary – Helen Read
  • Treasurer – Paul Harding
  • Librarian – Steve Gregory
  • Ordinary members –
  • Wallace Arthur,
  • John Harper,
  • Desmond Kime
  • Paul Richards.

Paul Lee, Tony Barber and Steve Gregory remain as Recording Scheme Organisers for millipedes, centipedes and woodlice respectively.

10. Financial adviser

Dick Gutteridge examined the accounts last year. Now the BMIG is affiliated to BENHS their financial adviser should be able to do this in future. (ACTION: PH to write to Dick to thank him and explain the change).

Dick Gutteridge pointed out that the accounts need to be independently examined not audited. It was agreed that the constitution needs to be changed to say this. (ACTION: ??).

11. Future meetings

Next field meeting in 2004. Possibilities are Bucks. or Durham as offered by Val Standen. There is also the possibility of a trip to Spain.

12. AOB

  1. A reminder was given that identifications from the Kew visit should be sent to Helen
  2. A new, photographic wall chart has been produced by Steve Hopkin and FSC.
  3. A CD of Ted Eason’s book has been produced by Pisces.
  4. Records from this meeting should be sent to the relevant scheme recorders.
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