The Society’s 2020 AGM was held virtually on 12th December.

It was confirmed that the proposals circulated to Members with the 2019 Bird Report would be implemented. Details are as follows:

1.  Regular indoor meetings at Ruishton will cease. Once we are able to, we plan to hold two Member’s days each year, one in the spring, the other in the autumn. Ruishton and Cheddon Fitzpaine village halls will be the chosen venues. It was agreed that there was scope for some virtual talks for Members, information on which will be published soon.

2.  Field meetings will continue because they are invaluable, especially to make new Members welcome. It was hoped that numbers attending could be increased further. Holding some meetings outside of the County could be an added attraction. New leaders would be welcome. Once COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted sufficiently, we will give out further information on future meetings.

3.  We will launch two editions each year of a new electronic newsletter, between each Members’ Day. It will still need contributions for it to work. Restricting circulation to email will enable the Society to offer a benefit to Members.

4.  The Committee needs to increase the subscription to cover the increasing costs of producing and issuing the Somerset Bird Report. So from 1st January 2022, the subscription will increase to £18, which still represented good value.

In addition we will be looking into ways in which we can attract younger people to the Society and generally make social media work better for us and . We will also be looking into how the Society should operate in the modern era and how we can support bodies such as SERC and SWT as they gather evidence to support the production of the “State of Nature in Somerset”

We will keep Members informed of developments.