Minutes of the committee meeting held at Llandeilo on 20th February 2007

Present: John Lloyd, George Causley, Rob Hunt, Wendell Thomas, Owen Harris, Angela Lovegrove, Dave Morris, Diana Jones, Colin Jones, Derek Moore

1) Apologies:- Nigel Williams,

2) The Minutes of the Committee Meeting held on the 21st

November were accepted as a true record.

3) These were duly approved for publication on the Club’s website. Owen to arrange.

4) Matters Arising:

a) Birds of Carmarthenshire

John reported that the first draft of 117 pages has been completed. This has to be proof read and habitat descriptions/photographs/maps etc. added. It is intended to work towards a publication date in the spring of 2008. It is anticipated that an atlas will be added as an addendum in four years time. Derek undertook to investigate a publisher.

b) 100^th. Member

The member has been identified and a book has been presented. George to ask Mark Newton to publish the name on the website.

c) Site Guide

Diana reported that Ian Hainsworth has made a start on updating the site guide taking the website entries as a starting point. He is trawling past records but would welcome input from anyone able to offer assistance.

Derek informed the meeting that some publishers are interested and undertook to liaise between Ian and the publishers.

d) Coed Bach

Derek is to convene a meeting of interested parties in the very near future. The Countryside Council for Wales is taking the lead role in approaching the Kidwelly Town Council. The Wildlife Trust and the County Council are also very interested in seeing the project succeed. Derek has registered the CBC as an interested party prepared to assist in the managing of the project to turn this area into a nature reserve.

5) County Bird Report:

The combined Report for 2004/05 is now at the printers. It is hoped that it would be ready for distribution by 20^th. March. Derek will assume responsibility for distributing the complimentary copies while Wendell and Angela will oversee the general distribution to members, shops and institutions. It was agreed that the selling price would be £6.00.

It was agreed that the ISN number would be as on previous Reports. It was therefore agreed to change the Report title back to Carmarthenshire Birds to accord with this number. Derek will inform the printers of this change.

With a view to publishing the 2006 Report by the end of October much discussion ensued on the form of recording. Logging sightings on the website was the preferred method but it was agreed to distribute the now defunct BTO record cards in the possession of Angela to members at evening meetings. Derek reported inadequacies in the form of records received and a lack of required descriptions for the relevant species. Derek agreed to give a talk on record keeping and submission at one of next winter’s meetings.

6) BTO Report

Colin reported that as expected there looked to be a shortage of volunteers to cover the 10km. squares in the North of the County in the forthcoming atlas survey. His suggestion of organising Club trips to cover these squares was considered and should be considered with caution because of Health & Safety and insurance considerations.

7) Programme of Meetings

Good turn outs at both the December and February meetings were recorded. The January walk at Whitford was not so well supported but the weather conditions were fairly brutal.

Future Events

07 March 2007 @ 19:30 - An Illustrated Talk - ÷Birds of Lesbos÷

A talk on the birds of the Greek Island of Lesbos by Gary Harper.

28 April 2007 @ 09:30 - A field trip to the RSPB reserve at Dinas

Meet at the reserve car park at 09:30 a.m.

19 May 2007 @ 10:00 - Talley Lakes

11 June Crychan for Nightjars led by John Lloyd

4 July 2007 Cilgerran Walk

August 2007 Evening meetings at Kidwelly and Burryport. Dates to be arranged.

17 October 2007 @ 19:30 AGM also talk on Sparrows by John Lloyd

8) Secretary’s Report

a) Regular monthly reports are now being sent to Bird Watching Magazine.

b) Owen has successfully communicated the change of Recorder to ACRE.

c) Receipt of a letter re the lack of Reports was noted. George has replied and it was felt that this was sufficient in the light of the imminent publication of the 2004/05 Report.

d) Receipt of an e mail by John from a Fay Martin of the Defence Estates Environmental Support Team. She wished records from the Pendine Military area »includes Witchett Pool). She had been told that we had few recent records, in part because of the tightened security made getting to Ginst Point not possible much of the time. We also had no contact with any staff member any more. She had no money available for us to trawl old records and as a result something of an impasse had been reached. Derek had also received communication and he and John to see if they are about the same person and to make a coordinated reply.

e) The constitution is lacking one line in the objectives section. This should include the line “To carry out legal activities in support of the above”. This change to be put before the AGM in October.

9) Newsletter

Diana was able to publish a December newsletter and a March edition is well into preparation.

10) Treasurer’s Report

The Current bank balance is £2294.93 with a further £1, 000 on deposit. The publication of the 2004/05 report will cost in the region of £950.

Current membership stands at 4 Free or Honorary members and 116 individuals. George has mailed those who have not yet paid their subscriptions.

11) A.O.B

Past Reports

A number of these are in the possession of George and John. It was agreed to offer these free to members and at cost of £7.00 to non members. It was also agreed to lodge a copy of each available report with the Biological Record Centre. Derek to arrange.

Pay Pal Account

It was agreed to open a Pay Pal Account to facilitate online shopping and payment of subscriptions.

Club Website

There is now a BTO section to the website.

Rob is now communicating with Mark about getting the electronic originals of the 1992-2000 reports up on the website.

12) NEXT MEETING:- National Trust Offices, Llandeilo

Tuesday 22^nd May 2007 at 2.00PM.