The Church Stretton branch of the Shropshire Ornithological Society (SOS) is facing closure.
All of our board members are planning to resign at our AGM on Monday, January 27th, 2025 for personal reasons. We intend to run our pre-booked talks on February 24th and March 24th, but if we can’t find new board members to replace us we will not return in September.
The board is made up of a Chair, Secretary, Treasurer and one or more extra volunteers. However, that sounds more official than it really is. We are not “trustees” as the local branch is not a registered charitable organization. We merely manage the local branch for the main society. It is possible that fewer volunteers could run the branch if the jobs were divided up differently. At present, responsibility is apportioned in this way:
Chair:
- Introduces speakers and arranges for or gives the vote of thanks
- Holds a board meeting once a year to enable discussion of any issues
- Chairs the annual AGM where they report on the activities of the past year.
Secretary:
- Communicates with and books speakers for the five talks which are held each year.
- Opens, closes and supervises set up of the hall for each event.
- Greets the speaker and makes sure they have what they need to present their talk.
- Records the minutes of the annual AGM and assists the Chair as needed.
- Arranges display around the town of a small number of posters to advertise the talks.
Treasurer:
- Manages the funds of the branch which come from the main society and from non-members attending the talks
- Liaises with the treasurer of the main society.
- Pays the speakers
- Collects entrance fees from non-members at meetings.
- Produces the publicity posters for the Secretary.
Other Volunteers:
- Help put out and put away chairs
- Serve tea/coffee and biscuits before the meeting
We hope that some of the people who have attended our meetings and enjoyed our talks will step forward to take on and share these tasks. Please attend the short AGM at the end of January when we are looking forward to an entertaining talk about the amazing work of “Caring for God’s Acre”. If you can’t attend, but want to help, please contact me by phone or email.
Joan Arnfield – Board Member
01694 724170 or joanarnfield@gmail.com