Hi all
While I personally don't find Bruce's approach helpful or constructive, he raises several questions that I'm happy to answer (I've been away for several weeks so only just catching up now):
1. DPITB content and topics. There are quite a few points to make here. First, there were multiple concurrent sessions so what I and each other person saw was only part of the totality of the presentations. I didn't take notes either. If this had been a professional scientific conference run by paid staff and scientists, there probably would have been published proceedings that could usually be purchased. But that is well beyond what could be expected for an event organised, presented and run on a volunteer basis. So any insights and reports will rely entirely on those attending spending the time to provide such. I have a lot on over coming months and am unlikely to be a contributor in that regard. Anyway, I'd rather spend time out with my camera! So it's over to all attendees for any reports including anyone who wants to write a little piece for the newsletter (hint, hint)! For those presenters who provided written 'paper' versions of their talks, I suspect Rob Parker (our newsletter editor) will be eyeing some of them for possible inclusion in future newsletters. Many of the presentations I saw wouldn't work well as written papers. They were more inspirational pieces about birds and the art of bird photography. Having said that, one possible exception is Georgina Steytler's presentation on bird photography which is encapsulated nicely in here winning Tom Oliver Award entry. I'd encourage all to have a look as it is both inspiring and contains some excellent advice.
2. The Annual General Meeting. This is mainly an opportunity for members to have a say on who is elected to the committee. General business is not normally conducted at AGMs. That was largely true of this AGM although there was some discussion about the renaming of the biannual conference. As for what was covered, minutes would normally be made available to members at some point (at least before the next AGM) although I don't know when that will happen.
3. Committee business and 'secrecy'. There is no conspiracy. Our president Graham Cam endeavors to report this each newsletter. If any member has specific questions that they would like answers to, please feel free to contact me or another committee member. We welcome any feedback and ideas although there is no guarantee we will decide to run with an idea or act on a concern - we need to be careful not to spread our efforts too thinly.