Butterfly Conservation AGM and Members Day

This year the Butterfly Conservation AGM and Members Day was held at Cheltenham Racecourse so we drove up on Friday afternoon and stayed at the local Travelodge (£20 booked well in advance). 

view over the racecourse

The event was very well organised by the Gloucestershire Branch and attended by 250 BC members from all over the U.K. The formal presentations by BC officers at the morning's AGM were professional and interesting and gave great confidence in the way BC is managed.

The afternoon presentations were varied:-

Mike Barry, Head of Sustainable Business at M&S, who are a BC partner, gave a impressive presentation on what Marks and Spencer are doing for sustainability. More power to them, they appear to be leading the way and we hope other major retailers will rise to the challenge.

The state of butterflies in the UK: the results of the BNM survey 2005-9 by  Jim Asher, Council member and Chair of Conservation Committee

Crystal the Small Miracle: Engaging children with butterflies by Sonia Copeland Bloom who writes children's books. (Orlando Bloom's mother - see Sue's blog for photo)


Studies of Fritillaries in Gloucestershire by Matthew Oates, Nature Advisor to National Trust. Matthew regularly broadcasts about butterfly matters on radio and TV:

Matthew Oates

Conserving butterflies and moths in the south-east woods by Dr Dan Hoare, BC Regional Officer, SE England:

Dan Hoare

Marsh Awards for Conservation Projects. The West Dean Estate, West Sussex, received one of the six awards.


Mike Dilger, BC Vice President and presenter on the One Show talked about his background studying moths in Ecuador and showed clips from his One Show programmes which featured Butterflies:

There were many stalls which featured everything to do with the butterfly world including books, plants, photos and apparatus of various kinds. I bought too many books!

Richard Lewington, butterfly illustrator extraordinaire

We also met up with Neil Hulme, retiring chair of BC Sussex. We enjoyed the day very much and look forward to next year's AGM on November 17, 2012, probably at Nottingham.