Hull Geological Society

 Secretary's Annual Report for 2021-2022

This was the second year of Covid restrictions and I was thinking that we had not achieved very much, however looking at the minute book and website I find that I was quite wrong!

Over the last year we have held the following meetings - 6 field meetings and geology walks; 9 lectures, Club Nights and seminars on Zoom; 7 Club Nights on Facebook; 6 research field meetings; a conservation visit to Rifle Butts SSSI; an exclusive evening visit to Dinostar; and we have recently restarted evening lectures. At one of the meetings I presented Graham Kings with the Felix Whitham Memorial Medal for his work leading the Bisat Research Project. I thank Mary Howard for organising some of the meetings. Some other planned meetings were postponed or cancelled due to Covid restrictions, technical problems or the unavailability of speakers due to illness.

Ten new papers were published in Humberside Geologist on-line in 2021 and many previous articles from Transactions of the Hull Geological Society and Humberside Geologist have been republished on our website. I thank Jan Silva for help with the papers from Transactions. Several pages from our archives and new pages about local geology have also been added to the website.

Ten new members were elected to membership of the Society. We have had three resignations. Sadly we have to record the passing of Kenneth Walker, Mavis May (Honorary Life Member), Paul Toffolo, Barrie Heaton (Past President, Honorary Life Member and formerly the Secretary of the East Yorkshire RIGS Group).

Arthur Speed invited members to give their views on the future direction of the Society and your priorities are -

• Attract new members, particularly younger people

• Encourage student membership

• Restart activities after Covid

• Closer links with other societies  

• Hold discussion sessions during club nights.

• Develop the relationship between the Society and University

• Start a project to get members involved

• Restart courses on Geology

• Field meetings to a wider variety of sites lead by “new faces”.

 I hope that we are on the way to achieving some of those aims and if you would like to help please do get in touch.

 Peter Carpenter volunteered to take up the new role of Membership Secretary and on his behalf I thank members for confirming their contact details for his new membership list. Rodger Connell resigned from the Committee after eleven years. Mary Howard volunteered to become the “new member” on the Committee. The Harker Geological Society has agreed to send a delegate to our Committee meetings. Jan Silva and Mary Howard volunteered to join our team of editors for Humberside Geologist. The Committee decided to waive the annual subscription for second year for continuing members and on behalf of the Committee I thank the members who have sent donations towards our funds.

Looking ahead - the Committee has decided that we will continue to run a mixture of virtual and actual events. I do appreciate that some members do not have access to the internet and that some choose not to use Zoom or Facebook, but it does mean that ‘out of town’ members have the opportunity to participate in some of our activities when they live too far away to attend evening lectures in Hull, or prefer not to drive after dark.

I wish to thank the Committee, Officers and Editors for their help in running the Society; also the speakers and event organisers for their contributions. I also thanks the Treasurer for reclaiming the Gift Aid on members’ subscriptions and donations and the members for agreeing to the Gift Aid; Stuart for arranging two Roadshows later this year; and Department of Geography, Geology and the Environment at the University for continuing to support the Society and host our meetings. Most of all I thank all Society members for your continued participation in our events. Your suggestions for future events are always gratefully received. This is your geology club – please make the most of it!

Mike Horne. Honorary General Secretary. 11^th and 17^th March 2022

Copyright - Hull Geological Society 2023

Registered Educational Charity No. 229147

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