Berwick Wildlife Group

Present:

Apologies: John Inglis, Maureen and Philip King, John Rust, M. Williams.

Items	Subject	Details	Notes
1	2008 AGM minutes	.	Accepted. Proposed by Fiona, seconded by John Rae
2	Chairperson's Report	Fiona Aungier (2008/09 events, surveys, interpretation, co-operation, lobbying)	Fiona Aungier thanked all members of the Group and the Committee for the work they had done to protect and promote wildlife in the Berwick area during the past year. She also thanked 3 Rivers Housing for their grant towards the Group's expenses and Northern Green Networks for their grant which paid for 2 tree measuring tapes, a bat detector and a GPS. She thanked the Castle Hotel for allowing us to hold our Committee meetings there, the Berwick United Reformed Church for the use of their hall for our indoor meetings and the Berwick Advertiser for printing articles on the Group’s activities and the resulting free publicity. The Committee had been active in lobbying the local council on wildlife issues and will continue to do so.The monthly Newsletter and Review had been overhauled with 12 issues annually, most distributed by email.The enormous number of surveys undertaken had included town trees, bats, beach litter, red squirrels, bumblebees, butterflies and estuary birds. The Group’s recording and reporting system had been overhauled and all data collected had been supplied to the national bodies, the Explore Your Environment project for Northumberland and the National Biodiversity Database. A comprehensive programme of monthly talks and/or walks had been arranged, and were appreciated by those attending.
3	Treasurer/Memb. Sec's Report	Enid Turnbull	Enid Turnbull distributed a detailed account of BWG’s finances and explained it in detail. Membership currently stands at 40 addresses which, taking into account family memberships, probably equates to 60 people. The report was accepted. Proposed Fiona, seconded John Rae.
4	Election/re-election of officers: Please feel free to nominate new people or volunteer yourself for any of these posts – we need help!	Chairperson Treasurer/Membership Secretary Secretary (Minutes) Secretary (Events) Other Committee Members	No nominations had been received, and none were proposed from the floor, so the following agreed to continue in office. Chairperson, Fiona Aungier. Proposed Enid Turnbull, seconded unanimous. Treasurer/Membership Secretary, Enid Turnbull. Proposed Fiona, seconded M. Hutcheson. Secretary (Minutes), Margaret Williams. Proposed Malcolm Hutcheson, seconded Fiona. Other Committee Members. The existing officers were unanimously re-elected en block. These are Leslie Cook, Malcolm Hutcheson, Molly Hardie, John Inglis, John Rae. Unaminous agreement.
5	Notice of AGM	Change to 7 days – can then put in May Newsletter (AGMs 8th -14th May, Newsletters about 3rd ).	Motion carried unanimously.
6	Any Other Business	.	Malcolm Hutcheson thanked all who send in sightings details, which are essential to record data for our area. All sightings are forwarded to the relevant national bodies. Philomena Johnston gave a vote of thanks to Fiona and the Committee for all the hard work undertaken over the past year.

The AGM was be followed by a talk by Kevin Rideout of the St Abb's Reserve, "What to see at St Abb's in summer" and the Chairperson thanked him for an excellent presentation.