60 THE ESSEX NATURALIST
Report of the Council of the Essex Field Club—1971
Council
The Council of the Club met six times during the year and
can again report that the steady progress of the preceding year
has been maintained.
Mr W. R. Budge, Dr A. M. Davidson and Mrs K. Birkmire
retired as members of Council according to the rules of the Club.
At the Annual General Meeting Mr R. Cowlin took over the duties
of Minuting Secretary and Mrs Davidson, Mr J. Tollfree, Mr A.
C. Wheeler, Mr M. Parker, Mr S. Harris and Mr K. Hoy were
elected as ordinary members of Council.
Membership
The membership of the Club has remained steady, there be-
ing 307 members on 31st December 1971, a similar number to
that of 1970.
Meetings
A total of 38 meetings were held during the year as follows:
General Meetings incl. Annual General Meeting — At
West Ham—4; High Beach—1; Chelmsford—1; in the
held—6.
Group Annual Meetings—4
Group Annual Dinners—1
Informal Meetings—22
The informal meetings were as follows:
Botany—4
Geology—5
Ornithology—7
Mammalogy—4
Conservation—1
Ecology—1
Of these the Ecology meeting was held jointly with the London
Nat. Hist. Society.
Although most of the indoor meetings were poorly attended
the majority of the field meetings were still very well attended
and the following meetings are worthy of special mention.
The AGM of the Mammal Group in which a competition of
slides of British Mammals was won by Stephen Harris. The AGM
of the Geology Group in which Roy Masefield was presented with
the Group Hammer as geologist of the year and Dr Davidson was