Tom Nightingale 
Richard Porter Chairman, Conservation Research Committee 
Dr Michael RW Rands Chairman 
Richard Webb Turkey Officer 
Mrs Hilary Welch 
Co-opted Members 
Mrs Irene Hutson Postal Clerk 
Ms Chris Tucker Membership Secretary 
Mrs FE Warr Sales Officer 
Geoff R Welch Librarian 
Others 
Mike I Evans Middle East IB A Co-ordinator 
Rod P Martins Turkish Bird Report Co-ordinator 
Retiring Council members 
This year's AGM saw the retirement by rotation of two long-standing and 
outstanding members of OSME Council. 
Simon Albrecht has served the Society faithfully since its inception. For 
a number of years, he painstakingly and thoroughly dealt with and 
developed OSME's sales and throughout his time as a Council member 
he has always brought a great deal of original thought and perceptiveness 
to meetings, from which the Society has benefited. We shall miss his 
contributions in no small measure, but have no doubt he will remain a 
committed member of the Society. 
Geoff Welch has also made a quite outstanding contribution to OSME. 
His thoughtful and considered rennarks are always sharp and to the px)int 
and in his own quiet way he has contributed a great deal to the Society 
over the last few years. Together with his wife, Hilary, Geoff has worked 
wonders as joint Honorary Secretary and as Librarian, where his 
meticulousness and hard work have served the Society far beyond the 
call of duty. Council has agreed to co-opt Geoff for a further year, and he 
is happy to continue to look after the library for this time. 
Sadly, we also lost one Council member and one co-opted member this 
year. Chris Bowden, who was Chairman of the Conservation Research 
Committee, and Elizabeth Smith, who was co-opted as Membership 
Secretary for a while, left the UK to work on the ICBP Kupe Mountain 
Forest conservation programme in Cameroon. They both made lively 
and productive contributions to OSME, and we wish them well with 
their efforts in Cameroon. 
We are very grateful to all these individuals for helping to shape OSME's 
growth and development. 
Mike Rands 
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