Wirral Bird Club

30th Annual General Meeting - 24th May 2007

Chairman's Report

Last year, you may remember, I recounted some of the highlights (and a few lowlights) of an eventful twelve months. This year the theme is 'change and innovation' by which I mean the changes we have introduced during the year in order to continue to survive as a club: some of them you may not have noticed while others have been obvious. The first obvious one was the appointment of a new Secretary. While it's true that the Committee sometimes gives tasks to comittee members who happen to be absent for a particular meeting, we couldn't really do this when it came to finding a Secretary. Kaye actually volunteered! We soon discovered that she was not only able to make the tea but was willing to take on the bothersome job of arranging the speakers for the year. Contacting them and getting replies isn't easy but she has tackled the chore with cheerfulness and determination Well done Kaye!

You may have noticed that we have had to put up a few prices this year in order to keep solvent. The Committe has discussed putting up the annual membership fee - again - but this no longer appears necessary....If we can persuade 40 or so people to join our coach trips Jean, our Treasurer will be very pleased. Hugh, our Vice Chairman and Field Meeting Co-ordinator continues to make every effort to ensure our field trips are a success. He tries hard to find new places for us to go and a memorable day out this year was the trip to Blundellsands on a cold day in January. Not only did we enjoy the birds - especially the large flock of greedy starlings - but Antony Gormley's statues on the beach were a source of some merriment for us all, as you may have seen in our Newsletter and especially on our Website.

The Website deserves a special mention. Jennifer is our techno-wizard who does a grand job keeping the site up-to-date and displaying a large number of photographs of our Indoor and Outdoor Meetings - there's a good chance you'll find a picture of yourself if you've been on a Field Meeting this year. Also, any prospective members of the Club often make their first contact with us via their computer (the site gets dozens of hits every week, I'm told). Generally speaking, it's this increased publicity for the Club in the local Press and on the internet which has led to a gain of 16 members this year - yet another reason why we don't have to put up our membership fee.

The Committee has recently discussed a change of venue for our Indoor Meetings. This place has its problems - we have been both locked out and locked in this year - but more seriously, it's not really big enough. The projector and even the speaker often seem to be in danger of getting damaged, squeezed as they are in the central aisle and if we continue to expand at our present rate we are soon going to need a hall rather than a classroom to meet in. In March we had to find somewhere at short notice when this venue was unavailable and we were all pleased with the school we found; however, there are problems with the availability of that place on a regular basis but, rest assured, we will continue to review the situation.

In a year when we have had much to celebrate we started off fittingly in September with Gordon Yates' 25th appearance at the Club and we will finish the indoor programme in July with perhaps the most remarkable innovation of the year - (we'll try anything!). I refer, of course, to the premier appearance of Hugh Stewart, Vice-Chairman and Field Programme Co-ordinator as our 'guest' speaker. Such bravery in one so young! This is a not-to-be-missed occasion and I'm expecting a record turn-out for that evening....so be there or be sorry you missed it!

Our last 3 Indoor Meetings have been very well attended and also our last Field Trip and I hope this improvement continues. We have now been going for 30 years so we must be doing something right. Hilda was told when the Club began that 5 years was the usual life for such ventures - she little realised what she had started!

The theme of this report has been 'change' and one obvious thing that has changed over the years is our membership (I know there is still a nucleus of those founder members - some no doubt are here tonigh) but we rely on new members to keep us going. So, I'll finish by offering my thanks to all of you, old and new members, for making this little Club the happy, informal and successful Club I believe it to be.

Colin Garside (Chairman)
Wirral Bird Club - May 2007