Group Leader's Report March 2008

As many of you are now aware I have expressed my wish to stand down as leader and at the time of writing this report mid March, no candidates have put their names forward.  By relinquishing the leadership I hope to have more time for family, home, some RSPB projects and my own bird watching.  I intend to make myself available for election to the Committee and if the new leader agrees to look after fund raising. 
The Committee, “Your Committee” works very hard to bring you a balanced, informative and entertaining programme.  This is very costly and as we have little or no support for fundraising activities or volunteering events it has been very difficult to see how we can honour the Groups aims:

• Help to conserve wild birds
• Help to conserve habitat
• Encourage conservation
• Make people aware of the need for conservation
• Support the work of the RSPB both locally and nationally

The only way I can see how we can support the RSPB with our current level of apathy towards volunteering is to use the RSPB name to obtain sponsorship.  Unfortunately my progress in this direction has been very slow due to the workload resulting from not having sufficient committee members in place for some responsibilities. However, I have done some work on this and hopefully this will start to bear fruit in the very near future.
The increase in 2007/2008 subscriptions thought unnecessary by some, has meant that we have finished this year in a financially healthier state then last year.  This gives us the opportunity to make a very modest donation to the RSPB conservation work.  However, with the committee being much smaller then I would have liked the workload has been very high this year.  I would have liked to have had a publicity officer, a fundraiser and a special event organiser in addition to the current committee posts.
On a more positive note I was very pleased to see that a significant numbers elected to pay their subscriptions by standing order, which I hope will make the Membership Secretary’s life a little easier.  If you don’t pay by standing order now please consider doing so, it should make life little easier for you and the group and hopefully will reduce the risk of an embarrassing situation occurring in December if your subscription isn’t paid.
I would like to make a plea, even if you are reading this after the AGM, for you to ask yourself the question “can I spend a couple of hours a week helping run the Group”.  You wouldn’t necessarily have to be on the committee and it could make all the difference to the committee’s workload.  If the answer is “yes” please let a member of the committee know.
After our hog roast in September 2006 many people have said that we should to do this, or a similar social event every year.  As you are aware I tried to organise a hog roast last year but this collided with several events and many members’ holidays so it had to be postponed.  The hog roast will now be held at Abbey Farm on Saturday 7th June at 5pm, please read the advertisement in this Harnser, on page X for more details.  Your committee look forward to seeing you there.  Any suitable raffle prizes will be very welcome on the day.
Finally, it would be very remiss of me not to thank the many people who have helped the group and me to survive.  From those members who serve tea and bickies at the indoor meetings, those helping to deliver the Harnsers, the members who organise the pin badge sales and of course to the committee passed and present, a very big thank you to you all.
Hope to see you at the Hog Roast.

Ken

Profile of Ken Bayliss