Foreign
Bird Federation Meeting - 22nd November, 2009
Eight
delegates representing seven affiliated Societies attended the scheduled
Foreign Bird Federation meeting at Wednesbury, West Midlands on 22nd
November 2009. In the absence of the chairman, Bob Clarke, the vice-chairman
Clive Cotton opened the meeting with a brief report. Sadly, secretary
Bryan Reed was also unable to be present due to the hospitalisation
of his wife, but sent a short written statement read out on his behalf
by Nigel Hewston, who also agreed to take the minutes. Treasurer Dennis
Webster reported that overall the Society was in a reasonably good
financial position. In this report he had split the accounts into
separate sheets for the income and expenditure due to running the
Society, and that relating to income and costs associated with the
important publication "The FBF Register of Birds Bred in the
UK Under Controlled Conditions", the 2005-08 edition of which
is to be published very shortly. Ideas for raising additional income
were also discussed.
A
major item on the agenda concerned actions taken by the chairman in
October, in which he had written to two of the FBF's delegates, David
Paine and Dennis Webster, removing them from the list of FBF delegates
to the NCA. The vice chairman was also removed from the approved list.
Because of the sensitivity of this issue, Ernie Gallimore kindly agreed
to take the chair for this item. A letter from Steve Nesbitt formally
resigning as a delegate to the FBF and as the Society's publicity
officer as a result of the actions taken by the chairman was read
out, as was a critical letter from another affiliated Society. Sadly,
Steve's decision to resign also impacts the NCA, where he has had
to stand down as CBS Officer, a post in which he was beginning to
have a real impact. After much discussion, it was unanimously agreed
that the chairman had exceeded his authority in removing delegates
from the pool of FBF delegates to attend NCA meetings, and that the
full pool as agreed at the 2009 AGM would stand.
Some
FBF affiliated Societies feel that there has been a lack of communication
from the FBF in recent months. To help Bryan Reed during his wife's
illness, it was agreed that Dennis Webster would undertake the job
of communicating with the affiliated Societies until the 2010 AGM,
which will be held on March 14th 2010.
