Society News – notes from the Editor Andrew Perry A note from Martin Godfrey on Membership Subscriptions:
For many of us it started to feel like a return to normal this year, and it was great to see so many people attending field meetings, including some new faces. Prior to our site visits, we met online for our spring meeting where we were joined by Josh Styles who gave an engaging talk on the North West Rare Plants Initiative. It’s hard not to be inspired by Josh’s enthusiasm for rare plant conservation, and it was refreshing to hear some conservation success stories in a time when biodiversity loss is so prevalent.
After our COVID “subscriptions holiday”, this is a reminder that we will be resuming membership subscriptions from January 2022. The amounts have not changed; it is £15 for an annual subscription or £30 if you subscribe for three years. Unfortunately the General Data Protection Regulations no longer allow us to publish personal information, such as your names with your subscription renewal dates as we used to, but if you have forgotten when your subs are next due please email me at shropbotsoc@gmail.com and I will let you know.
With restrictions easing through the year, we were able to start botanising further afield again. I hope you were able to get out– if so, please don’t forgot to submit your records! As you may have read in the spring newsletter, we are now in a new ‘date class’ for recording (2020-2029) and so your current findings will help update the status of plants across the county. If you are feeling extra ambitious, perhaps consider tackling a ‘Shanklin’ next year? These are the monads (1km grid squares) that have no records associated with them. Read more about the experience of recording Shanklins from some of our members in this newsletter. Upcoming meetings: We are excited to announce the details of our winter meeting when Dr Fred Rumsey will be talking to us about Orobanche – the Broomrapes. The meeting will be held on Saturday 15th January, hopefully in-person at Preston Montford, with an online meeting as a contingency option if needs be. Another date for the calendar is our spring meeting, which will be held on Saturday 9th April when we’ll be welcoming John Martin to talk about mountain plants. As above, we hope to hold the meeting at Preston Montford. POSTPONED: Microscopy Workshop at Preston Montford, previously 20th November 2020, will be held next year, date to be confirmed.
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