BRITISH ORCHID COUNCIL
Registered Charity Nº 1002945
Web Site -
Minutes of Ordinary Meeting held on Sunday, 2nd September 2007, at Strawberry Bank Hotel, Meriden
Officers/specific roles / In attendance / Apologies receivedPresident / Joyce Stewart
Chairman / Sue Lane
Vice Chairman / Anne Rutter
Hon Secretary/ Chair Conservation Subcommittee / John Spires
Hon Treasurer / Iain Wright
Minutes Secretary / Celia Wright
Chairs Judging Subcommittee / Johan & Clare Hermans
Chair Communications Subcommittee / Ian Parsons
Slide/CD Librarian / Tina Stagg
Website Manager / Graham Smith
Organisation represented
Birmingham & Midland Orchid Society
Bournemouth Orchid Society / Graham Smith
Bristol & West of England Orchid Society / Ian Parsons
British Orchid Growers' Association / Ian Plested / Janet Plested
British Paphiopedilum Society / Brian Walker
Cambridge Orchid Society
Central Orchid Society / John Spires / Mike Bull
Cheltenham & District Orchid Society / Leon Habgood, Tom Price
Cheshire & North Wales Orchid Society / Iain Wright, Denys Morten
Chester Zoo
Chiltern Orchid Society / Betty Barber, Lydia Cobb
Cotswold Orchid Society / Janet Newson
Cumbria Orchid Society
Darlington & District Orchid Society / Chris Barker
Devon Orchid Society
East Midlands Orchid Society / Max & Celia Hopkinson
Eastbourne Orchid Society
Eric Young Orchid Foundation
Glasgow Botanic Garden
Hardy Orchid Society / Celia and Iain Wright
Harrogate Orchid Society
Hinckley & District Orchid Society / Keith Bates / Richard Flemming
Lea Valley Orchid Society / Michael Potter, Neville Dunn
Mid-Sussex Orchid Society
Mid-Wales Orchid Society
North Bucks Orchid Society
North East of England Orchid Society / Jean Barker / Tom Houghton
North Hampshire Orchid Society
North of England Orchid Society / Steve Manning, Ken Russell
Orchid Society of Great Britain / Anne Rutter
Pleurothallid Alliance – UK / Steve & Frances Manning
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Royal Horticultural Society
Scottish Orchid Society / Chris Barker
Sheffield & District Orchid Society / Cedric & Silvia Maunder, Richard Baxter
Solihull & District Orchid Society / Bill Bond, Zigis Urdzins, Anthony Johnston
Somerset, Wiltshire & Dorset Orchid Society
South East Orchid Society / David Thurtle
South Wales Orchid Society / Alan Gregg
South West Orchid Society / Ian Parsons
Southern Counties Orchid Society
Suffolk Orchid Society
Sussex Orchid Group
Thames Valley Orchid Society
Wessex Orchid Society
West Cornwall Orchid Society / Ron and Kit Lindsay
Worcestershire Orchid Society
Standing Note from Minutes Secretary -
The names of those recorded as being present are taken from an Attendance List circulated during the Meeting.
At the start of the meeting, John Spires spoke in appreciation of Colin Evans, Council Representative for Worcestershire Orchid Society, who sadly died in mid July. The Council then observed one minute's silence in his memory.
Sue Lane welcomed Anthony Johnston to the meeting. Anthony replaces Zigis Urdzins as one of the two representatives of Solihull Orchid Society. Zigis was thanked for his past service in this role.
2.Minutes of Ordinary Meeting held on 3rd June 2007
These were agreed without further amendments and signed by Sue Lane.
3.Matters Arising not elsewhere on the Agenda
There were no matters arising not on the agenda.
4.Correspondence
John Spires reported
"I have received a few junk mails, mostly from organisations advertising conference venues (totally unsuitable for our purposes) and others who are all trying to sell us things we don’t need.
Phone: The usual questions about culture and where to obtain orchids, compost, etc., and also about finding speakers on orchid subjects.
Letter and E-mail: I've received the latest list from Orchidbooks), also another advertisement for a virus-testing kit. Both these items were tabled. An interesting enquiry from someone who wanted assistance in identifying an orchid found on common land in the Midlands. When she sent me a photo it turned out not to be an orchid at all, but, I think, wood sage or something similar.”
John also tabled a flyer for anew website, Garden Centre Television Ltd, but it does not seem relevant to BOC.
5.Treasurer's Report
Iain Wright reported
“We have £1929.99 in the current account and £23, 935.04 in the NSI deposit account. With a total of £25,935.03 to hand, our finances are comfortable, to say the least.
Council may remember that at the last meeting, I announced that National Savings and Investment were to close the Treasurer account which we use as a deposit account, effective as of 10th August. As we needed a new deposit account, I asked for any information about good deposit accounts suitable for a charity such as ourselves. I am grateful to Brian Walker of the British Paphiopedilum Society and to Richard Baxter of Sheffield and District Orchid Society who both pointed me in the direction of CAF Bank.
CAF Bank is a trading subsidiary of the Charities Aid Foundation, a registered charity committed to the organised giving of funds to charities. The bank is registered with Companies House, is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority and is a member of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. It offers both a current account and a deposit account to registered charities.
The current account uses the facilities of HSBC to clear its cheques. All of the normal transactions with the Bank are free and the charges for unusual things like stopping a cheque and a letter to an auditor seem perfectly modest at £7 and £10 respectively. The account pays interest at a gross rate of 4.2% (as of 28/8/07).
The deposit account pays interest typically three quarter of a percent higher than this, presently 5.17%. Monies can be deposited directly into this account but can only be moved by electronic transfer to our designated bank account. There are no charges applicable for the level of investment that we might have in this account.
There is a facility to have a cashcard on the current account but this would not be appropriate for BOC. What would be appropriate is the free internet banking facility that is offered. This would allow your Treasurer to monitor the amounts in the accounts online at any time. It can be set up in such a way as to prevent any payments being made from either of our accounts online by only designating one user. CAF Bank itself stipulates that two are required for online payment authorisation.
I therefore wish to propose that we change our banking arrangements, implementing the closure of the NSI account immediately, applying for CAF Bank CAFcash (ie current) and CAFGold (ie deposit) accounts and, when these are set up, gracefully closing of our current Lloyds TSB account.
If this is agreeable to Council, we would also need to pass the following formal motion as required by CAF Bank.
“The Members considered the Account Opening Application Form and other information which the Bank has provided and resolved that the Organisation:
1(a) appoint the Bank as the Organisation's bankers; and
(b) cancel the Organisation's existing mandate to the Bank (except in relation to cheques and other instructions given before the Bank receives this resolution);
2accept the conditions of business for the time being applicable to its accounts and dealings with the Bank and confirm such acceptance to the Bank by delivering this bank mandate to the Bank.
3authorise any individual named below in 'Signing Instructions' (an 'authorised person') either individually or, if relevant, with other authorised person(s) in accordance with the information contained in 'Instruction Format' below to;
(a)enter into any other agreements with the Bank which they consider to be in the interests of the Organisation from time to time;
(b)give instructions concerning the operation of the Organisation's bank accounts and otherwise communicate with the Bank in each case in writing or verbally or by computer, in accordance with the banks applicable conditions of business and this mandate; andregister the Organisation for the Bank's online banking service.”
This suggestion was unanimously supported. Iain will put the new arrangements in place.
6. CITES
John Spires reported
"I attended the SUN plants meeting at Kew in July which was as usual not very informative.
On fees, DEFRA are still working on a new scheme based on full cost recovery to suit HM Treasury’s requirements, and this will eventually be submitted to interested parties for consultation. Unit cost at present is £70 per application. It is minuted that no increase will take place until at least October 2008 but the impression is that it could be rather later than this.
Feedback from COP 14 indicates some tidying up of the exemptions regarding orchid hybrids but no progress in extending the exemption to other Appendix II hybrids.
There is an ongoing consultation on ports of entry with a view to harmonising UK with EU regulations."
John tabled a DEFRA consultation document on points of entry. It was agreed that the hard copy we have should be sent to the Eric Young Foundation who would have an interest in this, unless they are already on the distribution list. It was also agreed that John will write in response saying that we have no specific points to make. Members can access the report at or obtain a hard copy from Stacey Hughes - Tel 0117 372 8685 or Email
7.Congresses and Weekend Events
a.22nd BOC Congress, Weston Super Mare, 28 September – 1 October 2006
Ian Parsons read the final report which is attached to these minutes. Council members expressedtheir thanks to Ian for all his hard work organising such a successful Congress.
b.23rd BOC Congress, Devon, 2008
The next Show Committee meeting in 2 weeks time should approve the draft information, the invitations to societies/individuals to put on displays and the trade invitations. This will then be circulated to all societies, invited traders and registrants from the Weston Congress who indicated that they would like this information when they registered for Weston.
8.Sub-Committee Reports
a.Judging Sub-Committee
Contacts - Clare & Johan Hermans E-mail -
Johann and Clare Hermans sent their apologies. This brief report was read on their behalf:
“The next judging symposium will be one-day at the RHS garden Wisley, Surrey on Sunday 7th of October 2007.
Dr Brian Edwards has resigned from the scheme for Health Reasons; he has been a valued member since 1989 and will be missed very much.
Future events
- On the 1st and 2nd of March 2008 the Eric Young Orchid Foundation in Jersey has agreed to host a judging symposium.
- There will be a one-day symposium on Sunday 15th. June at the Peterborough International Orchid Show, at the East of England County Show.
- There will be BOC judging at the next BOC Congress at Dawlish Warren on 24-26 October 2008, hosted by the Devon Orchid Society.”
b.Congress Sub-Committee
Contact - Sue LaneE-mail -
Sue reported that two societies are interested in organising the BOC Congress in 2010. When they have made definite proposals, this will be discussed in Council.
c.Communications Sub-Committee
Contact- Ian
Ian Parsons reported
1.Current Activities
The Communications Sub-Committee is still active in the following areas.
Grower’s and Buyer’s Guide
The new edition of the Grower’s and Buyer’s Guide was published in August. This always requires a good deal of work – often at the last moment! So far no complaints have been received, but several entries were printed unchecked and not proof read. This was due to very late receipt of these entries.
Web Sites
Graham Smith continues to keep the BOC web site up to date, including the latest Diary of Events. The web site is .
Also, the Orchid Specialist Group (OSG). The web site is now
And the Orchid Conservation International site, available at .
Similarly, The World Orchid Conference Trust site. This web site can be found at .
2.Newsletter
After the last meeting, when a suggestion was made to promote the BOC via a Newsletter, I took note of the request to ask specialist societies for articles. I have yet to receive anything! Efforts will be made to contact people again with requests for articles, with the aim of producing a Newsletter during the next quarter.”
PLEASE SEND AN ARTICLE IF YOU CAN. Reports of events would be welcome as well as any other information that members think would interest society members.
d.Lecturers’ Panel
Contact - Anne RutterE-mail
Anne Rutter was unable to attend the meeting but sent the following report –
“Firstly my apologies for not being present in person again but this time I am on a walking holiday in Portugal.
With regard to the Speakers list another three months has past uneventfully. There have been no changes therefore I have not sent the usual quarterly up date for the website.
Generally at this time of year I would email all the speakers for any changes they would wish to make but as I chased them last quarter to ask about PowerPoint presentations I do not propose to bother them again at this time.
I haven’t received any recommendations for good new speakers for many months now. Don’t forget I am relying on your recommendations and the list is only as good as you make it.”
e.Slide Collection
Contact - Tina
Tina Stagg was unable to attend the meeting, but sent a brief written report –
“The prepared slide lecture has been borrowed twice during the quarter. There have been no donations.”
f.Conservation
Contact - John
John Spires said that no enquiries had been received and that he had nothing to report except for an update from “1% for orchid conservation”.
9.Any Other Business
a.Peterborough. Sue expressed thanks to Brian and his helpers for an excellent, efficiently run show. The organisers will be inviting those who supported them this year to exhibit again in 2008. There will be more awards next year but otherwise only minor changes.
b.Due to illness and periods of absence due to holidays, Anne Rutter has withdrawn as Vice Chairman. John Spires has volunteered to be Acting Vice Chairman until the AGM in March 2008. He would appreciate a volunteer to be Acting Secretary from the next meeting until March. From the next AGM, a new Chairman will need to be voted in. Members interested in the role of Acting Secretary are asked to email John, Sue or Celia.
c.BOGA put up a stand for BOC Congress 2008 at their Orchid Fair in Glasgow and received some interest.
d.Golden Guide - some entries were received late and were therefore unable to be proofread, making errors more likely. There was discussion on how to improve this in future years. Golden Guides were taken from today's meeting by those present. The remainder will be delivered or posted.
10.Date and time of the next meeting
The next meeting will be held at The Strawberry Bank Hotel, Meriden on Sunday 2nd December at 1.45pm.
There being no further business, the Meeting was declared closed at 3.05p.m.
Minutes Secretary:Celia Wright
The Windmill, Vennington, Westbury, Shrewsbury SY5 9RG
Tel:01743 884576
E-mail:
British Orchid Council
Congress 2006 Final Report
Venue : Weston-Super-Mare
Author : Ian Parsons
Date : 30th August 2007
Final Report
This report closes the business of the BOC Congress 2006 held at Weston-super-Mare.
The Congress took place at the Winter Gardens, and the facilities were booked from the Thursday evening (28th September 2006) through to the Sunday evening (1st October 2006).
By 18.00 on Friday 29th September 2006 setting up and staging was completed. The Registrants Buffet and Preview Evening followed.
The judging took place on Saturday morning (30th September), and was completed before opening to the public at 11.00.
During the Congress, a series of lectures was arranged, covering the Saturday and Sunday of the Congress.
The Registrants Dinner was held on the Saturday evening in the Royal Hotel adjacent to the Winter Gardens.
Venue
The venue for the event was the Winter Gardens Conference Centre, which is run by the local council (North Somerset District Council), and provides facilities ideally suited to a congress.
We received a great deal of help from the staff at the Winter Gardens, and thank them for all their hard work before, during and after the Congress.
The facilities included the use of all the halls, the ballroom, and the bar. The Winter Gardens provided the food for the Registrants Buffet on the Friday evening, and the Judges Breakfast on the Saturday morning. Tables and chairs were provided as part of the cost of the venue.