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| A warm welcome for members from RSPB staff at Saturday's AGM in London |
DECLINING income from grants and sponsorship could put a squeeze on the RSPB’s activities including land acquisition, management of its reserves and educational outreach
This alert was sounded by honorary
treasurer Graeme Wallace at the society’s annual meeting held at the QEII
Centre in Westminster on Saturday,
Departure from the EU will certainly
lead to the forfeiture of grants from Brussels, while revenue from companies and other corporate
organisations is set to decline amid continuing post-Brexit uncertainty.
On the plus side, membership
continues to grow at about three per cent a year and currently stands at
1,222,985.
In tandem with this, trading income
- for instance, sales of goods - continues to rise as does legacy income.
Over the past 12 months, the
society’s funds have also been boosted by the sale of a surplus property for
£3-million, plus a further £3-million from its Stock Market investments.
Said Mr Wallace: “At year end, our
free financial reserves were £33.2-million - equivalent to 16 weeks of
expenditure.
“This is required to cover working
capital during the year and to provide some flexibility to adapt to a changing
and increasingly competitive funding requirement.”
Earlier, retiring chairman Prof
Steve Ormerod provided his customary upbeat review of the
RSPB’s progress for the year - for instance, its work with farmers to increase
the UK population of rare cirl buntings and its education
initiatives in Glasgow.
“Love of a nature and willingness to
defend it is our priority,”he declared.
Prof Ormerod’s successor is Kevin
Cox, from Devon, whose career has largely been spent in the
publishing industry.
The meeting heard that the
prestigious RSPB Medal has been awarded to the late Dick Potts, the
inspirational North
Yorkshire farmer and
former director-general of the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, who did
valuable work in highlighting how many farmland bird species, such as
partridges, were in freefall as a result
of intensive use of agro-chemicals.
The award was accepted by his widow,
Olga, who described Dick as “very modest” and “an eternal optimist” (who had a
passion for consuming knickerbockers glories!)
The meeting was chaired by RSPB president Miranda
Krestovnikoff who presented awards of merit to long-serving volunteers Mike Logan-Wood, Des and Carol Felix, Ann Burt, Robin Brown, Richard Tough and Elizabeth
Downes.
Several hundred members enjoyed both
the meeting and the opportunity to meet RSPB staff and buy goods, including
binoculars, Christmas cards and gifts plus birdfood. There were also free
goodie bags containing a mug, a pack of ground coffee and a tee-shirt.
One disappointment was that too
little time was allowed for questions, thereby both depriving individual members the opportunity to raise
points and other members to hear the
replies.
One question that was put concerned
windfarms and whether the society had compromised its capacity to oppose
controversial developments by virtue of accepting substantial monies from several
energy companies.
Conservation director Martin Harper
maintained the society reserved the right to speak out if it was
“uncomfortable” about proposals.
He said this was enshrined in an
agreement the RSPB had with Ecotricity - the company that has a special
relationship with the charity, not least in having a turbine at its HQ in
Sandy, Bedfordshire.
Another speaker expressed
exasperation that an anomaly in the English planning system had threatened a
vulnerable stone curlew population by granting consent for a 177-house
development on heathland near Thetford in Norfolk.
Following the meeting, some members
stayed for the afternoon programme in which Stuart Housden described his time
in charge of RSPB Scotland, Carolyn Robinson discussed the charity’s work in Wales, Hannah Ward
reported on efforts to increase the UK’s breeding population of black-tailed
godwits and was Ross Frazer provided an update
on the society’s proposed state-of-the-art visitor centre at Sherwood
Forest.
Next year’s AGM will be had at the
same venue on October 20.
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| Saying it how it is - staff members were on hand to brief members |
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| A 15 per cent discount was being offered on purchase of RSPB binoculars |
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| Roll up, roll up - buy your birdfood here! |
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| Is that a blackbird or a starling? Members try out the optics |
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| Pin badges of a range of bird species were in brisk demand |
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| Spreading the word - staff on the various stands could not have been more helpful |
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| Getting nature buzzing - that's what it's all about |
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| The grandkids will love this - a cuddly toy with the song of a thrush! |
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