Departing Group Leader David James and his successor-elect John Turner presented their annual report on the Group's activities at the annual meeting on Friday 20 May

Highlight of the year was the 25th anniversary celebrated in September – £2000 cheque presented to Paul Outhwaite. Wine and nibbles to the music of Ralph Todd giving an outline of 25 years of birds and the RSPB in Bexley.

Indoor Meetings
Again well attended the most popular being Chris Corrigan’s talk on SE Reserves and the most spectacular slides being shown by David Cromack. The prize for panic of the year must go to Alan Johnson (he spoke about Cliffe) who can negotiate the wilds of Elmley but become lost in the streets of Bexley.

Coach Trips
These are now run solely for Bexley members after a year’s experimentation with joint trips with another group. The new coach company proved to be a worthwhile find and has been employed for the whole season. This year’s trips included Titchwell, Minsmere, Snettisham, Pagham and Fingringhoe Wick as well as the resurrection of the French trip to Marquenterre. All trips were fully booked or nearly so and we have not experienced the embarrassment of a loss on any trip. We need to keep up this level of support for all future trips. Thanks to Tony for all his hard work and to all leaders.

Car Trips
The Saturday trips have been well attended, the venues including Rainham, Clifftonville, Riverside Country Park, Dungeness and of course Stodmarsh. We have also run impromptu mid-week trips to Oare, Cliffe and Elmley. Our thanks to all trip leaders.

Conservation
Work parties have been manfully slaving through the undergrowth at Northward Hill throughout the winter very ably organised and overseen by Chas Parr. Thanks to Chas, but I am sure he would like a few more slaves to add to his gang.

Publicity
This has been in the capable hands of Eric Brown. With his contacts in the local press we have seen many mentions of our activities and even pictures. He has also taken over the reorganisation of the website since Christmas and you can now see an updated, current and attractive site. Thanks to Eric for all his time and effort and to Sarah Beacock and Chris Knight who are our webmasters.

Fund Raising
Our two chief fund raising efforts have been the Autumn Fair and the recent Spring Plant Fair which raised over £600; this will be donated to the Carol Winship memorial fund. Other events attended have been the Woodlands Farm Fairs in the autumn and spring where Chas has been ever-present with his Tombola and Lucky Dip. We have seen the launch of the new 100 Club and we nearly have our launch target of 50 participants. If you have not joined yet we urge to join; the final date for 12 entries is 31st May. Thanks to Maurice Ewart for promoting this fund raising effort. You can see the total amounts raised in the annual accounts. A huge vote of thanks must go to Maureen Thompson our Treasurer who has worked under difficult circumstances this year.

Recruitment
This is an area where we need to redouble our efforts in the coming year. The current membership of the RSPB locally is 3700+ but we have started to look at attending the Danson Show in July on a regular basis as well as the Woodlands Farm Open Days and other possible fetes. Name gathering on behalf of the RSPB is an activity for the coming year.

Communication
This year we have reached over 3600 of the RSPB membership in our area with our twice yearly newsletter. Our thanks go to all the volunteers who deliver these and to Dorothy Wells and Helen and Marcus Burgess for the maintenance and updating of our records. Thanks also to Tony Banks for producing the newsletter and to Eric Brown who has taken over the Editorship. In addition in the last year we have changed printers which has saved £300 in production costs.

Volunteering
As you have heard, a few names have occurred many times in this report and with the resignation of Dave James from the committee we are becoming stretched. In order to maintain all our current activities which you enjoy and to expand them we need people to step forward and help to share the burden. Nobody has volunteered so far! I would urge you to volunteer!

However you do not have to be a member of the committee to volunteer. If you would be willing to help in any of the following ways your time and effort would be appreciated.

• Peanut and seed preparation and sales at Indoor meetings and perhaps at the Spring and Autumn Fairs.
• A person responsible for group sales would be a huge boost to fund raising; or even assistance to help Anthea and Maureen with sales at the autumn and spring fairs. Thanks to Maureen and Anthea for their efforts this year.
• Assistance on our stall at the Danson Show and Woodlands Farm for half a day. A group on whom we could call would be a huge help.
• A co-ordinator for pin-badge sales in the locality.
• A co-ordinator for the collection of used computer cartridges and/or mobile phones to raise funds.

Thanks
Our thanks go to:

• The committee who have worked so hard under difficult circumstances.
• All our volunteers especially Alan and Jean Mayes who provide our refreshments so efficiently and their daughter Alison who now collects and sorts used stamps for us and helps at the door. This family is a fine example of non-committee members who volunteer to help the group. Could others follow their example in any of the capacities mentioned previously?
• Maureen Thompson and Roy Lewis for organising the raffle every month.
• Our wives Clare and Jeanna neither of whom can be present this evening.
• Dave for all his hard work over the last four years and all his help since Christmas in this interim period until a new leader is elected.