After holding a committee meeting last week (social distancing rules observed) the decision was made that in view of the ongoing situation with COVID 19 to cancel all indoor meetings and field trips etc for the remainder of 2020. The committee will review the situation again in January 2021. Whilst we realise this will come as a disappointment, we are sure everyone will agree that we have to put the health and safety of our members first.
As a result of this decision we will therefore not be producing an August or November newsletter, asking for payment of subscription fees or holding our annual photographic competition.
For this year, in view of these unprecedented times we also will not be holding our AGM, however the 2019/20 accounts will be uploaded to the website in October for all to view. All existing committee members are willing to continue in their current roles apart from Brian Clarke who has decided to step down from the club due to health reasons.
The committee and I am sure all the membership would like to take this opportunity to thank Brian for all his hard work in arranging the speaker bookings covering a variety of topics, and we wish him well for the future, he will be sadly missed.
As Brian’s role cannot be absorbed by the existing committee members this does mean the committee are looking to recruit another member to fill this role of speaker bookings for our indoor meetings. If you would like to find out more please contact either Graham or Marion to discuss. The committee doesn’t wish to apply any pressure for someone to come forward to fulfil the role but would advise if no one does we may have to rethink the format of the club going forward.
The committee also decided to maintain and pay for the website, the club insurance and the room hire so that once we can start up again everything is in place.
We hope to be able to re-start our activities in the New Year, but we will be guided by the government instructions as to what it is safe for us to do. As you know, official guidance is continually being updated in response to the changing pandemic situation and as soon as we are able to arrange anything it will be uploaded to the website, so please keep checking in from time to time.
In the meantime we hope you continue to enjoy your birdwatching in whatever format you can and obviously if you wish to share your local patch and sightings please think about sending a few lines to Marion/Graham with photos, if you have them, and we can all enjoy reading about it on the website.
Enjoy the rest of your summer and stay safe. Any queries please do not hesitate to contact Graham to discuss.