Subscription increase
For the past few years the Essex Field Club has been operating at a loss. The Council of
the Club has given high priority to improving the standard of the Newsletter and the
Essex Naturalist and indeed we feel we have succeeded in this respect. We have also put
considerable effort into recruiting new members. For many years the Club staggered
along with a base of about two hundred members. This has increased to about three
hundred and twenty, partly due to active recruiting by leaflet and the website, but mainly
due to the attractiveness of our journals.
Our major expense is postage and publications and as one of our prime purposes is the
recording and dissemination of biological information, to cut back on these would be to
undermine one of our main reasons for being. We cannot continue to finance our
publications from our balances and a subscription rise has become essential. Our
membership fee has been fixed for five years and now a fairly substantial rise is needed.
The Council proposes to introduce the following rates from 1st January 2004.
Ordinary Member £15
Junior Member £10
Family Member £17.50
Institutional Member £20
We realise that in percentage terms these are considerable increases, but they only bring
us up to comparable societies and very few of these have comparable journals. There is
a danger that we will lose some of our hard earned members; we hope not. Our members
are some of the most knowledgeable field naturalists in the county and we need them all.
If you would like to comment on the proposed increase please contact: -
Del Smith, 12 Tring Gdns, Harold Hill, Romford, Essex RM3 9EP or email at
delsmith444@btinternet.com
A new group for the Essex Field Club - Herpetofauna Group
Jon Cranfield 14 Wiltshire Road, Eastleigh, Hants S053 3EZ
It was decided at the last EFC council meeting to approve the establishment of a new
species group concerned with Herpetofauna (Amphibians & Reptiles). The words
'herpeto' and 'fauna' actually translate into 'crawling' or 'creeping' 'animal' a little
unfortunate but as there are not many species of each group (around 9 natives excluding
the marine turtles) in the county. It was felt that the two groups should be lumped together
to make things simpler.
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 42, September 2003 3