Field Botany in 2013.

Spring seems to be in the air and BSBI is getting ready for the new season of field meetings. BSBI's Meetings Committee, which met in London last week, has already published its calendar of field meetings (the Irish calendar is here and the BSBI Scotland one is here) but we also looked at our Annual General and Exhibition Meetings. The latter takes place in November in London, but we are making plans for it now - are we efficient or what!

Photo: Uta Hamzaoui

We're wondering how to make the next AEM even better than last year's very successful event in Cambridge - at the British Antarctic Survey, which was pretty cool if you'll forgive the toe-curling pun. You can see some of the presentations here. We were at BAS because Jon Shanklin (aka Guy Who Found Hole in Ozone Layer) is Secretary of BSBI's Meetings Committee and arranged the venue for us - thanks Jon! We are keen to find great venues like this, for 150-200 people, for future AGMs and AEMs - please email me if you have ideas.

The AGM is always followed by at least one fieldtrip to an interesting botanical site - here's a photo (above) of some of us out botanising after the last AGM, in Reading. This year's AGM is in Anglesey and the fieldtrips look really good - more details on the Meetings page. The AGM is a real perk of BSBI membership!

Photo: Uta Hamzaoui

But the Exhibition Meeting is open to non-members, who are made very welcome. If you attend our AEMs, and exhibit at them, do you have any suggestions for further improvements? And if you don't attend - is it rude to ask, why not? Both Lynne Farrell (the Society's Hon. Gen. Sec.) and I are hoping to put something about the AEM into the next BSBI News. but we'd like hear your comments too: email us at publicity@bsbi.org.uk

Here is a photo of us at Meetings Committee last week, considering your feedback from last year's events - so you can see how seriously we take all this!