November 24, 2022

THE ARNOLD MCGILL MEMORIAL LECTURE IS TO BE HELD ON 6TH DECEMBER. 2022

November 23, 2022

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING – 6 DECEMBER 2022

The Club’s Annual General Meeting will be held on 6 December, 2022.

Here are the minutes for the previous meeting:-

Birding NSW

Annual General Meeting

7 December 2021

held via Zoom conference

The AGM was held under the rules for AGMs determined by the State Government during the COVID-19 emergency. These rules allowed for teleconference AGMs.

The meeting commenced at 7.35 pm

Attendance: T Karplus (in the Chair), C King, L Hall, J Katelaris, P Katelaris, E Karplus,

M Johnstone, G Ball, D Vickers, I Bailey, T Wilson, D Payne, G Robinson,
T Nixon, A Pidgeon, R Pidgeon, A Brophy, S Kwok, K Vernon, A Richards,
D Murty, J Christie, E Dark, A Ng

Apologies:   nil

Draft Minutes of the 2020 AGM meeting:

The draft minutes of the 2020 AGM meeting were accepted as a true and accurate
record on the voices, without dissent.

Business arising from the minutes:

There was no business arising from the minutes.

President’s Report:

T Karplus said that the club activities over 2021 had been curtailed by the
restrictions imposed by the State government in response to the COVID-19
pandemic.. He said that no regular outdoor activities either in Sydney or on the
Central Coast had been possible during the June to October lockdown, and that club
meetings in Sydney were held by Zoom during the year, and intermittently face-to-
face on the Central Coast. He said that the club committee had maintained monthly
meetings throughout 2021 via Zoom. He noted that all speakers over the year at the
Sydney branch had presented their talks remotely but that the Central Coast branch
had been able to have some face-to-face lectures on either side of the lockdown.

T Karplus said that the Zoom format had enabled some members who had not been
able to attend meetings in person to take part virtually. He added that recordings of
most of the talks given in Sydney over 2021 were available on the club website.

T Karplus said that the 2021 Annual Photographic Competition had attracted 15
entrants who had submitted 115 images. He congratulated all the prize-winners and
he thanked all the club members who had assisted with the competition, especially
the judges. He noted that the prize-winners’ images were on the club website and
were also in the December issue of the newsletter.

T Karplus said that the 2021 Twitchathon in NSW had been a great success with 33
teams (cf. 26 in 2020) and 93 team members (cf. 79 in 2020). He said that once
again BIGnet had run the NSW event as it had in 2020 due to the inability of
BirdLife Australia to participate because of the Melbourne lockdown. He said
that an ad hoc BIGnet committee had been formed to co-ordinate the event, with an
emphasis on publicising the Twitchathon on a dedicated website and on social
media. He thanked the members of this committee for making the event a success.
He said that c. $28k had been raised to support N Carlile’s Gould’s Petrel project on
Montague Island (cf. $27k in 2020 for G Maurer’s project on the impact of the 2019
bushfires on bird species in NSW KBAs).

T Karplus said that he was grateful to the many volunteers who had done work for
the club over the last year on the committee, as leaders of field outings, and in
various other roles for the club. He listed the members who had contributed as
committee members over the last year and the leaders of the Central Coast branch,
in particular M Scobie, the co-ordinator of the branch, A Benson, who chaired the
meetings, C Port, who organised the outings, and J Clark, who was the liaison
person between the two branches of the club.

T Karplus then listed the leaders of the field activities that were carried out in Sydney
and on the Central Coast. He said that A Richards continued to lead regular
campouts from Sydney and that M Scobie, A Morris and A Benson arranged the
campouts for the Central Coast group between them. He noted that unfortunately it
had not been possible to run the Nestlings’ Outings in 2021.

T Karplus also listed the members who had contributed to the activities of the club in
various roles, both at club meetings and at other events organised by the club.

He thanked all those who participated in the club’s surveys at three KBA sites and in
Centennial Park, and in particular the organisers of these surveys, viz. E Karplus for
the South-West Slopes KBA survey (Grenfell), Brisbane Water KBA (N Carson),
Tuggerah Lakes (D Hocking) and Centennial Park (A Richards).  He added that the
Richmond Woodlands KBA and the Mudgee-Wollar KBA surveys would be done in
2022 by I Bailey.
Treasurer’s report:   

L Hall tabled the Annual Financial report.

He noted that subscriptions from members were stable and comprised the bulk of the
revenue of the club. He said that the newsletter continued to be the major expense of
the club. He said that while there had been a deficit of $2k last year, there was a
surplus of $2.9k this year due to less outlays on grants for research projects. He
noted that members funds at the end of 2021 were $69.3k compared with $66.4k at
the same time in 2020.

He asked if there were any questions about the financial statements. There were no
questions.

The draft motions “That the Treasurer’s report be accepted” and “That L Hall
(Treasurer) and D Dallimore (Public Officer) be authorised to sign the accounts and
to send the annual return to the NSW Office of Fair Trading on the club’s behalf”
were proposed by L Hall and seconded by T Karplus and both motions were passed
on the voices.

Business arising from the Treasurer’s Report:

There was no business arising from the Treasurer’s Report.

Election of office-bearers and committee members:

T Karplus said the committee had only received written nominations and seconders for
office-bearer and other committee positions from current committee members.

He asked for any nominations from the Zoom floor. There were no other nominations.

T Karplus said that in the absence of other nominations, the current committee was
elected for the next year.
 New Business:

There was no new business.

Correspondence:

There was no correspondence.

Other Business:

There was no other business.

The meeting closed at 7.50 pm

November 11, 2022

ALTERED DATE FOR THE FEBRUARY CLUB MEETING

Please not the February Club Meeting will be a week later than usual:

Tuesday 14 February Club Meeting: The Henry Carmichael Theatre, Level 1, The Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, 280 Pitt Street, Sydney at 7:30 pm. “Olfactory misinformation: Using “fake news” to protect shorebirds from invasive predators”. Speaker: Dr Catherine Price.