THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB
DEPARTMENT OF LIFE SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY OF EAST LONDON
ROMFORD ROAD, STRA TFORD,
LONDON, E15 4LZ
ISSN 1466-562X
NEWSLETTER NO. 29 May 1999
PRESIDENT'S PAGE
I was very pleased to see the size of the turn out for the AGM, the hall at Chelmsford was
filled. I would like to thank Council for its achievements over the last year and am sorry
to lose David Bloomfield and Chris Romer, whose terms of office ended. 1 am veiy
pleased to welcome Annette Ford, Mark Hanson and Martin Heywood onto Council. Ted
Benton's talk on bumblebees in Essex was particularly well received as was made clear
by the many questions that followed.
In the coming year I would like to highlight the many activities going on within the Field
Club. We have a very full programme, with about 50 meetings, for the coming year. I
thank Tony and Judith for so successfully chasing up leaders and co-ordinating the
programme. There is also much activity in other areas. We have good relationships with
other natural history societies both within Essex and in adjacent counties and many of our
meetings are held jointly with them. This 1 would like to see continuing and developing.
The Field Club is also represented on several county and national bodies such as EBAP,
BSBI and RIGS. I am not sure that the nature and value of this work is being fully
transmitted to you as members. I hope to highlight these matters in coming Newsletters.
EBAP was explained in the last Newsletter and RIGS elsewhere in this issue. I hope also
to keep you informed about the activities and achievements of these bodies.
I am also looking forward to developments with our publications. I anticipate that you
will receive fuller Newsletters and an expanded Naturalist. I am particularly indebted to
Peter Harvey, Jes Dagley, Ken Adams and Chris Gibson who have been promoting ideas
that you will appreciate as the Newsletters and Naturalist come out. The Field Club will
be associated with two other publications during the year, John Dobson's book on The
Mammals of Essex and Ted Benton's on The Bumblebees of Essex.
Obviously the Field Club has much vitality and 1 hope you will finds at least some of its
activities during the coming year suit you.
Peter Allen
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 29, Mayl999