ANNUAL REPORT 2007

At the annual meeting on Friday 18 May 2007, Group Leader John Turner gave his annual report.

He said: Highlights of the year were the 20 year service awards given to our work party coordinator, Chas Parr, and his volunteers, and the donation of cheques amounting to £4500 to the RSPB to be allocated to the work at Cliffe Pools. I gather a lottery bid is being prepared for the Cliffe Pools Reserve, but will be competing with the 2012 Olympics. We are sad to report the passing of former leader Mark Kelly and founder member Doug Marchant.

Indoor Meetings
These were again well attended. The most interesting talk was by Des Sussex on Bringing wildlife back to our Farmland which was closely followed by the talk on the Cuckmere Valley by Patrick Coulcher. Thanks to Alan Mayes for organising our speakers

Coach Trips
The coach trips have again run successfully with our coach company L S Travel proving to be both reliable and recommendable. This year’s trips were Pagham Harbour, Minsmere, Abberton Reservoir and Tollesbury Wick. Marquenterre in France is on this coming Sunday. All trips were only quite well booked and we have not experienced the embarrassment of a loss. However the diminution in numbers from fully booked trips last year to two thirds booked this year on some trips is a worrying trend which needs to be reversed for future years if we are to sustain this activity. Thanks to Tony for all his hard work and to all trip leaders.

Car Trips
The trips have been well-attended particularly Petts Wood in March. Other venues have included Footscray Meadows, Cliffe Pools, Rainham and Cliftonville. The unfortunate change of venue for the beginners walk resulted in a poor attendance. We have also continued to run impromptu mid-week trips to Riverside Country Park, Bough Beech, Sevenoaks, Northward Hill and Cliffe. Future tips are to Knole Park on May 26 and Stodmarsh on 16 June. Thanks to all trip leaders for their time and efforts.

Conservation
Work parties have been hacking through the undergrowth at Northward Hill throughout the winter as well and have been very ably organised and overseen by Chas Parr. Thanks to Chas. and his volunteers and congratulations on their awards. He is always looking for more volunteers to add to his group.

Publicity
This has been in the capable hands of Eric Brown. With his contacts in the local press we have seen many reports of our activities, in fact over 84 column inches with six pictures this year. Many of our meetings and trips are being mentioned in advance giving us extra publicity. He has also run the website and you can see an updated, current and attractive site. Thanks to Eric for all his time and effort and to Sarah Beacock and Chris Knight, our webmasters.

Fund Raising
Our two chief fund raising efforts have been the Autumn Fair and the recent Spring Plant Fair which raised over £670. Other events attended have been the Family Fun Day at the Well Hall Pleasaunce in August, the Danson Show in July and the Woodlands Farm Fair. Chas has been ever-present with his Tombola and Lucky Dip. We have seen the launch of the 100 Club and we will have reached our target of 100 participants if everybody renews. If you have not renewed yet we urge to do so by the end of the month (31st May). Thanks to Maurice Ewart for promoting this fund raising effort. You can see the total amounts raised in the annual accounts. Thanks also to Brian Fagg for promoting the raffle which again raised over £1000 for the RSPB. A huge vote of thanks must go to Maureen Thompson our Treasurer who has worked so hard 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 3600+. We have started to look at attending the Danson Show in July on a regular basis where we concentrate on recruitment rather than fund raising. Other events attended have had membership forms available as well as name gathering cards. Name gathering on behalf of the RSPB is an activity which can introduce non-members to the RSPB and lead to their recruitment. The recently received list of 96 new local members has given our area a boost in numbers perhaps due to the distribution of membership forms to libraries and waiting rooms. Thanks to Maurice Ewart for co-ordinating these activities.

Communication
This year we have reached all the RSPB membership in our area with our twice yearly newsletter. However we are always in need of distributors so please put your name forward as a reserve for your area. Our thanks go to all the 130 volunteers who deliver these and to Alan Mayes, Dorothy Wells and Helen Burgess for the maintenance and updating of our records. Thanks also to Tony Banks (who would like some assistance if you have DTP skills) for producing the newsletter and to Eric Brown the Editor.

We have also attempted to reach the public with activities on ‘Feed the Birds Day’ in October and ‘The Big Garden Bird Watch’ in January when we set up feeders and telescopes at Hall Place and Lamorbey to encourage people to take part. We hope we contributed to the 100% increase in participants in Bexley.

A number of members took part at the peregrine viewpoint in at Tate Modern last July and August where over 3000 visitors were contacted. We will have greater representation this year. If you are interested in taking part in this please come and have a word.

Volunteering
As you will have seen, a few names have occurred many times in this report and in order to maintain all our current activities which you enjoy and to expand them we need people to share the burden. I would urge you to volunteer!

Thanks to Maureen and Anthea for their efforts this year in raising over £300 and to Tricia Large who has volunteered to assist.

Thanks
My thanks go to:

• The committee, who have worked so hard.
• Sylvia Say for selling peanuts and seeds at Indoor meetings and at the Spring and Autumn Fairs and some fetes.
• Beverley Treece for co-ordinating the re-cycling of computer cartridges and mobile phones.
• Laura Hurt for volunteering to find sites for pin-badge boxes.
• Alan and Jean Mayes who provide our refreshments so efficiently and also their daughter Alison who collects and sorts used stamps for us and helps at the door and at fairs.
• Maureen Thompson and Roy Lewis for organising the raffle every month.
• All helpers at fairs and fetes.
• My wife Jeanna for all the support she gives me.

How about joining this list of volunteers and enhance the work of the RSPB?