John at home in Armagh Image: G. Faulkner |
Since then John has always found time in his busy schedule to keep News & Views readers updated about what he's been doing - even at Christmas 2015 and 2016!
So on 25th November 2017, the final day of his presidency, I managed to catch up with John again at this year's BSBI Annual Exhibition Meeting and Annual General Meeting at the Natural History Museum. It was very busy, with lots of people wanting to talk to the outgoing President, but he very kindly agreed to be interviewed before he handed over the reins:
John with Lodgepole Pine & Nordmann Fir Christmas 2015, Charlemont, Co. Armagh Image: G. Faulkner |
JF: Immensely! Having lived in Ireland for
all but two of my 50 years as a BSBI member, I’ve been exposed to only a
fraction of what goes on within our Society. There’s nothing like being at the helm to make you find out how the ship’s
community operates.
So, as well as being enjoyable and meeting many botanists for the first time, acting as President has been a great personal learning exercise. I do now feel much better informed about how BSBI works - and it does so extraordinarily well.
So, as well as being enjoyable and meeting many botanists for the first time, acting as President has been a great personal learning exercise. I do now feel much better informed about how BSBI works - and it does so extraordinarily well.
John presents the 2017 Presidents' Award to Tom Humphrey; BSBI Summer Meeting Image: L. Gravestock |
JF: There is no job description for
President, and only a few things that you absolutely must do. One of these is
to choose, jointly with the President of the Wild Flower Society, the winner of the
annual Presidents’ Award. It needs to be done with careful forethought, but
it’s not too onerous, and a great pleasure.
We’ve had really worthy winners in Clive Stace and Mick Crawley for their erudite yet highly readable New Naturalist book on Alien Plants, and now the award has gone to Tom Humphrey for his creative genius in developing the BSBI’s Distribution Database.
We’ve had really worthy winners in Clive Stace and Mick Crawley for their erudite yet highly readable New Naturalist book on Alien Plants, and now the award has gone to Tom Humphrey for his creative genius in developing the BSBI’s Distribution Database.
Another obligation is to chair the
meetings of BSBI Council. In itself this need not be a particularly burdensome
role, but I chose to make it a challenge. The members of Council are a talented and dedicated
bunch, but we need to do them justice by making the best possible use of them. Council
had been struggling to find its proper role since BSBI became a Trustee-led
charity. Developing a shared
understanding of Council’s role has been an important project in itself, but it
required a thorough look at BSBI’s needs and priorities as a whole.
John in the field talking to the next generation of BSBI members Image: G. Faulkner |
JF: It’s not something to attempt on your
own. The starting point was the Review, initiated originally by the Board of
Trustees, but picked up by Council as a forum for members’ interests in the
Society. We initiated a consultation of the entire membership, asking for their
views on a wide range of topics.
The response was superb. As you can imagine, ask a bunch of botanists for views, and you get an incredible range of ideas in response. Some were diametrically opposed, but they did give us many pointers.
Council then asked a small cross-section of willing members to act as a Review
Group, and sift through the replies and convert them into a coherent set of
proposals. I doubt whether they knew what they were letting themselves in for!
For a start they had a massive amount of material to read.
They then spent a weekend debating and deciding on the main points for their report, and a few more weeks refining and finalising it. Eventually the fruits of their labours emerged as a report to Council and Trustees entitled A society like no other and containing nearly 50 recommendations, which have been broadly accepted by Council and the Trustees as a basis for moving forward.
The response was superb. As you can imagine, ask a bunch of botanists for views, and you get an incredible range of ideas in response. Some were diametrically opposed, but they did give us many pointers.
John (centre) at a meeting of BSBI Publications Committee Image: L. Marsh |
They then spent a weekend debating and deciding on the main points for their report, and a few more weeks refining and finalising it. Eventually the fruits of their labours emerged as a report to Council and Trustees entitled A society like no other and containing nearly 50 recommendations, which have been broadly accepted by Council and the Trustees as a basis for moving forward.
Field meeting at Drumnaph NR, Co. Derry John on right Image: D. Rainey |
JF: None whatsoever! We have already
started to implement it and have an action plan in place covering all the recommendations.
The key point here is that so many members
contributed that there is a strong will to take it forward. The Review Group itself
had a deep interest in the success of BSBI, so it was determined that what went
into its report would be both ambitious and broadly acceptable. The report
reflected the views of members on the one hand and addressed the needs of the
Society on the other. Some of its recommendations have been acted upon already.
A case in point is the increased effort on fund-raising: our members will be
aware of this through the Atlas 2020 Appeal leaflet we sent out with the
September Issue of BSBI News. Others are underway: an
obvious example is the new-style BSBI
News, which members will see for the first time in January 2018. Some of the
recommendations are for the future: one which will be of great interest to
active recorders is the development of a post-Atlas 2020 recording strategy. All
BSBI members can see the report on the members’ section of the website (password required).
John (on right) with his predecessor (Ian Denholm); BSBI Summer Meeting 2016 Image: S. Stille |
LM: You implied that the role of BSBI
Council is now better understood. How has this come about?
JF: One of the recommendations was to write
a succinct description of Council’s role and make it available to all. The
review process itself has demonstrated how Council can draw together members’
views, and that has made defining its role that much easier. It has also helped
to crystallise ideas about the relationship between the Trustees, Council, and Committees. We are
working on a draft description of this relationship which of course needs to be
fully compatible with BSBI's charitable status. As soon as we have a final
version, we will share it with all our members via the members-only area of the BSBI website.
John (on right) with David Morris, County Recorder for Oxfordshire; BSBI Summer Meeting 2017 Image: P. Spencer-Vellacott |
LM: And
you’ve attended a lot of BSBI events!
JF: One of the privileges of being
President is that you are entitled – but not necessarily expected – to attend meetings
of all BSBI’s committees, and its Board.
I did set myself the goal of attending each of them at least once during my two
year period of office.
Happily I did eventually fulfil that aim, as well as going to the Annual Summer Meetings in 2016 and 2017, both Annual Exhibition Meetings/ AGMs, and all of the Council meetings. That amounts to quite a lot, especially when you take into consideration that all except the Committee for Ireland entailed crossing the Irish Sea. Fortunately, some were sufficiently close together in time that one crossing covered two meetings. I would really like to have gone on more field meetings in Great Britain, but with the exception of the Summer Meetings and one trip to the Hebrides, this proved impractical.
Happily I did eventually fulfil that aim, as well as going to the Annual Summer Meetings in 2016 and 2017, both Annual Exhibition Meetings/ AGMs, and all of the Council meetings. That amounts to quite a lot, especially when you take into consideration that all except the Committee for Ireland entailed crossing the Irish Sea. Fortunately, some were sufficiently close together in time that one crossing covered two meetings. I would really like to have gone on more field meetings in Great Britain, but with the exception of the Summer Meetings and one trip to the Hebrides, this proved impractical.
John and Dave Riley examining willows; Drumnaph NR, Co. Derry Image: S. Spratt |
JF: Yes and no! Thanks to the BSBI Database (DDb), I can
look up this question in the “my county” section of the DDb and get an
approximate figure for how many records immediately. It is unusual for anyone else to record in my
vice-county (H37 - Armagh), so the total number of records for the year closely reflects
my own efforts. The 2016 total for H37 was only slightly down on the previous
three years. This year’s figure,
however, is under a thousand. It looks as though I hardly ventured outside the
front door!
My MapMate, however, tells a different story.
What actually happened in 2017 was that I recorded in counties other than my own, as
I felt they were in much greater need of recording for Atlas purposes. MapMate
tells me that my total of records for the year was only slightly below my
all-time best, and that 75% of them were from Co. Louth, the adjoining county to
the south.
John looks in vain for open flowers on a Hairy Tare; St. Patrick's Church, Dundalk; New Year Plant Hunt 2017 Image: G. Faulkner |
Certainly, I am hoping to see more of her. Although
she is not a botanist, Gillian does often come with me on whole-day excursions,
like those in Co. Louth. We did a New Year Plant Hunt together in Dundalk this year. That was an ideal way of involving her, as she can contribute by finding
any flower without necessarily knowing what it is. (Come to think of it, I
didn’t know our first flower of that day either. It was a rather forlorn Hawkweed Hieracium
growing on walls around Dundalk Station, later confirmed by expert referee David McCosh as H. grandidens.)
John at home in Armagh Image: G. Faulkner |
LM So now you're ready to hand over the reins to Chris
Metherell – do you have any words of advice for Chris as he assumes the
presidency?
JF: No – Chris knows BSBI much better than
I do and it would be superfluous for me to offer advice. One suggestion
however: I had hoped to do more to project the image of BSBI on a wider stage.
Much of my activity has been focused internally. I feel BSBI would benefit from
being more externally orientated. We need to make ourselves better known,
perhaps as ”the BTO of botany”.
John in his garden in Armagh Image: G. Faulkner |
JF: Yes, it’s a great way to start a new
season. Maybe there will be 6” of snow in England to give us a competitive
edge!
LM: Well, we hope you enjoy getting back out
in the field next year and doing a bit more actual botany – we look forward to
hearing what you find! Thanks for talking to us today John and thanks again for all your hard work as President.
And with that readers I let John carry on enjoying the Exhibition Meeting and went to catch up with Chris Metherell, our incoming President. I'll be sharing my interview with Chris on these pages in the next few days.
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