Minutes of the Committee Meeting 19th August 2008

Held at the

National Trust Offices Llandeilo.

Present

John Lloyd, Rob Hunt, Derek Moore, George Causley, Wendell Thomas, Owen Harris, Diane Jones, Jenny Davies, Beth Harris.

1) Apologies

None

2) Minutes

The Minutes of the previous meeting were accepted as a true record with one correction of date.

3) These were approved without amendment for publication on the Club’s web site.

4) Matters arising

There were none not covered in the main agenda.

13) Treasurer’s Report

This item was taken out of order as the Treasurer had a pressing appointment.

There is £1,531 in the bank account which will cover the cost of the publication of 2007 Bird Report due in late November.Membership remains substantially unchanged at 29 Joint Members and 63 single members. Given this situation is comparable with last year coupled with the £2,000 on deposit at the bank The Treasurer’s recommendation that the subscriptions for 2009-10 should remain unchanged was accepted not withstanding the loss of raffle income due to the payment for security at indoor meetings.

Payment of a £120 honorarium to the webmaster was confirmed.

the question of the desirability of the club having public liability insurance was discussed.The possibility that this could be a part of the membership package offered by WOS is to be investigated by Derek Moore.

5) Conservation Matters

Coedbach

The planning application for a Green Power Station at the CoedbachWashery was discussed.Derek produced a statement produced for the public meeting and approved by the Chairman.Though not read at the meeting this is a summary of the Club’s response and is to be placed on file and published in the next Newsletter.Derek reported that the RSPB and CCW had raised no formal objections to the plans provided the result will be a genuinely green source of energy.However, CCW have imposed up to 10 caveats on the plans to ensure its greenness and sustainability and it was felt that this might deter the proposal. Enforcement will be in the hands of the Environment Agency who would be in breach of their statutory responsibilities if they were to fail to do this.If these are adhered to then there should be no negative impact on the proposed reserve at Coedbach. A positive outcome of the proposal is the fact that it has focussed the attention of the Kidwelly Council on the proposed reserve and may speed its development.

There will be a meeting involving CCW, WWT, and the Council.in late October.Derek will be there and will report back.

Witchett Pool

The Chairman has established contacts at a national level and is working to resolve the issue oaccess.

Dipper Nest boxes

Nothing to report.

Development at Kidwelly Quay

Owen is to check whether the planning application isdstill live.If so then Derek will prepare a submission to agree fort the protection of the integrity of the site.

6) Bird Conservation Targeting

The scheme works through BTO’s Birdtrack.The aim is to discover all areas worthy of special attention to protect the target species such as Yellowhammer. The Chairman felt that the only likely effect in Wales might be to identify appropriate farmers to whom to channel the relevant funding.It was felt that this might be a rather blunt instrument and miss opportunities to encourage an increase in the range of the target species.

7) Publications

Bird Report

This included the County Bird Recorder’s Report (Item 8 on the agenda).

The 2007 report is progressing well and is on schedule for publication in late November.The perennial problem seems to be obtaining breeding records from Penclacwydd.The contributions made by Barry Stewart and Wendell Thomas in producing records for Penclacwydd was acknowledged. Derek Moore stressed the need for more records of common birds and this was reinforced by the Chairman who pointed out that the value of our own County Atlas would be much enhanced by as complete a coverage as possible of all tetrads and all species via roving records in particular.

It was agreed that a review of the County Rarity list was overdue and this would now be conducted by Derek and Rob Hunt.In the meantime it was agreed to remove Dartford Warbler and Hobby from this list as they are now established breeding birds.

Derek reminded the Committee that he has already expressed the feeling that the work of County recorder was now requiring a larger commitment than he was now able to provide.To solve the problem he proposed that Owen Harris take on the responsibility for collating all records however submitted (Something he had already done for 2007) and Derek would continue to write the report and deal with the Rare Birds Breeding Panel.This was accepted.Derek would produce two job descriptions to enable the plan to be put to the membership at the forthcoming AGM.

Jenny Davies had distributed 63 copies of the 2006 Report to a variety of outlets.

Site Guide

Rob Hunt has proof read the draft and this was now with Gary Harper.

Birds of Carmarthenshire

This is well advanced and Owen Harris will now write the sections on the History of birding and on the geology of the county.

8) County Bird Recorder’s Report

See in item 7 above.

9) BTO Report

The Chairman showed a short power point presentation to demonstrate the promising progress made with the Atlas in the first year.

10 Programme of Meetings

Wendell Thomas reported encouraging turn outs at the June (Fairfach), and July (Butterflies and Dragon Flies), with 14 and 8 respectively.Wendell outlined the the Winter Programme which will be posted on the web site shortly.

11) Secretary,s Report.

The only item was the Secretary’s single handed closing down of the Kite free newspaper by means of a series if birding contributions.The publication is now moving to Cardiff to get away from him.

12) Newsletter

This will be in the hands of the Secretary by early September so that it can be distributed with the notice of the AGM.As mentioned above it will contain the statement concerning the Coed Bach Washery Power Station Planning Application,as well as a notice of the WOS Annual Meeting on the 8th. November.

13 Treasurer’s Report

See above

14) Arrangements for the AGM

This takes place at 7.70 pmon Wednesday October 22nd at the National Wetlands Centre.The notice will be posted to members along with the minutes of last year’s meeting and the Newsletter by the middle of September.There is no need for elections this year nor for any amendments to the Constitution.The plan to split the duties of the County Recorder will be put to the membership for formal approval.

15) Club Web Site

The Quality of the site was again commented upon and favourable comparisons made with others.The hard work and professionalism of the Web Master was acknowledged.Though those present had experienced little difficulty in submitting sightings it was recognized that others had and it was felt that some had been discouraged from submitting.However it was also felt that these glitches had now been ironed out.

There was discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of a on line forum but there was no decision reached for the present.

16) AOB

There was none

17) The next meeting will take place on Tuesday 18th November.The Venue was provisionally set as Salem Village Hall.Derek will let Owen know the contact details and then the venue can be confirmed.