We had a very successful AGM last Saturday with the highest ever attendance at a meeting - 95 members and guests! There were a series of fascinating talks including Bob Cowley talking about the population of dung beetles on Lundy and Grant Sherman updating us on his study of the Lundy Guillemots.

Committee changes

At the business meeting, Keith Hiscock stood down as Chairman and Alan Rowland was elected in his place. Belinda Cox was elected as Vice Chairman. Diana Keast stepped down from the committee and remains as our President.

Keith was elected as a committee member and has taken on the editorship of the Annual Report. Our thanks to Tim Davis who has stood down after six years as Editor. Two new committee members joined us:

  • Frances Stuart joined the LFS in 1994, the year she first visited Lundy. She was previously on the committee from 2002 to 2009 and was Honorary Secretary from 2004 to 2009. Frances has been supporting the wardens for some years guiding walks and working with school groups, on and off the island. Professionally, Frances is a qualified teacher and ecologist. She has worked in a range of educational settings and now specialises in environmental education, working mostly with nature conservation charities. She also has experience of charity management and governance.
  • Chris Pawson is head of psychology at the University of the West of England (UWE). He has professional interests in developmental and clinical and community psychology; but also in animal behaviour including the urban gulls of Bath and the Wheatears of Lundy. He regularly takes students and colleagues to Lundy to pursue animal behaviour studies and to continue his own work on flight responses in wheatears. As a consequence of his visits he has become a fully fledged Lundyphile.

Other news

At the meeting, Chris Dee demonstrated this new LFS website, which has been enhanced with lots of new information as well as a new design.

Frances Stuart described the voluntary Engagement Ambassadors scheme that was being set up by Lundy in conjunction with the church project. It has existed informally for some years with a small number of volunteers helping to support the island by guiding walks and visiting schools for example. More volunteers are needed and if you are interested, please get in touch with Frances This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

At the end of the meeting, the auction of donated items raised £382. Our thanks to Roger Chapple who was auctioneer and Belinda Cox, his glamorous assistant, who stepped in for Alan Rowland who was unwell.

Next year's AGM will be on Saturday 9th March at the Boniface Centre, Crediton so please put the date in your diary. We are also considering whether we can hold the 2021 AGM on Lundy during our 75th anniversary year.

Members who were present on Saturday were able to collect their copies of the new LFS Journal and the Discovering Lundy newsletter. If you weren't at the meeting, copies will be posted to you over the next couple of weeks.

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