Report of the Essex Field Club for 2001-2002
newsletters (issues 1 -29) have been scanned in, and are down loadable as pdf files, and the contents
and selected abstracts are available for recent issues of the Essex Naturalist and Newsletter. Information
about current surveys being undertaken or supported by the Club are given, together with forms to
allow members and others to submit data and observations. These surveys include ladybirds, some
easily recognisable spiders, and the Oxlip survey being undertaken as part of the Essex Biodiversity
Action Plan for that species. More surveys are to be added, with the intention of setting up interactive
databases of Essex taxa, to allow access to basic data, and to provide the facility for people to submit
new records to our Club's recorders. Verification of records is a major issue here. As always our
County Recorders will have to adjudicate where problems arise, and people providing records may be
required to submit voucher specimens or other verifiable evidence. The Club is indebted to Peter
Harvey for the tremendous amount of work the setting up of this site has entailed.
The Botany Group website is in an advanced stage of preparation, and continually updated datasets for
Red Data and Scarce Plant species (with adequate safeguards) should be going on line as a linked site
in the new year, and will hopefully take the pressure off our BSBI recorder for information on threatened
sites.
Collections and library
The Field Club has at last retrieved the remaining rare books from its collections stored at the Old
Dispensary in Romford Road, Newham, and these are now being sorted and catalogued in preparation
for decisions being made as to their future. The Corporation of London has not as yet been able to
resuscitate its former plans for a joint Museum with the EFC at High Beach, and Council is therefore
actively pursuing possible alternative scenarios for its headquarters and collections. With completion
of the transfer of the collections the Club's agreed share of the Passmore Edwards Museum fund,
amounting to £9262, has been handed over by the London Borough of Newham.
Membership and Finance
The Club has had a phenomenal increase in membership over the last two years, having acquired some
140 new members since November 1999, following on from a long period of stagnation with a
membership hovering around 200. A particularly pleasing outcome of the Annual Exhibition meeting
was the hand delivery of over 100 copies of the Essex Naturalist, saving the Club some £175 in
postage/packing costs. This saving has been so significant that Council has decided on a publication
date for Essex Naturalist No: 19, just prior to the 2002 Exhibition meeting, so that an even more
significant saving can be made.
A subcommittee was set up by Council to investigate ways of increasing our membership still further
so that eventually we will be able to finance our publications and collection storage without relying on
our investment income. It was decided that for the time being an increase in subscriptions would not be
recommended and that the Club would make a determined effort to increase its membership by
stimulating its current upward trend. Placing our leaflet in libraries etc., has not been nearly as effective
as personal contact, and although we also need to keep up the supply of pamphlets to local libraries
and Wildl ife Centres, members are encouraged to show our new style Newsletters and Essex Naturalist
to as many potential members as they can. Our membership leaflets arc being circulated to Natural
History groups in London and the surrounding counties to encourage wider participation and support
for the Club's activities and, as reported above, our new Web site with its on line membership facility,
now fully up and running, will hopefully encourage the younger generation of Naturalists to join.
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 19 (2002)
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