MINUTES OF THE DONCASTER NATURALISTS SOCIETY COMMITTEE MEETING
Held by ZOOM on Thursday 28 January 2021 at 3 pm.
Present: Nora Boyle (in the chair); Geoff Carreck; Les Coe; Louise Hill; Colin Howes; Margaret Prior; Joyce Simmons.

1 Minutes : the minutes of the previous meeting of 3 December 2020 were accepted, with the proviso
that the current officers were to continue in post. Although this was implicit in the minutes, this was not
stated. The e mail sent out had made this clear to the membership.

2 Matters arising:
Editors: Colin had emailed 13 potential editors for the Denaby Ings Project and had been pleased with
the responses. Two e mails were undeliverable and one recipient had declined on health grounds. There
was no need to consult editors on this committee. He would speak to Chris Firth (fish) when the system
was up and running. See the Appendix to these minutes.
AGM : Margaret had invited questions from the membership that they might have wished to pose at the
AGM, but none had been posed.
2021 Meetings : Joyce had spoken to Jim Horsfall about a Potteric visit but plans had been abandoned
due to the lockdown.
Museum: Nora had received a belated reply from Anne Marie Knowles. The missing Dorothy Bramley
oeuvre was unobtainable at present since the General Public are not allowed in the Museum during
lockdown.
YNU Zoom : Margaret had written to the membership about this facility. The next subject would be the
Brown Argus on 11 February.
Nora suggested the Society have its own Zoom meeEng having enjoyed watching an illustrated talk on
the New Forest organised by Grimsby RSPB. Louise suggested a review of last summer as a trial run.
Other possibilities suggested were a rerun of Joyce and Paul’s Brockadale exposition or any other
recommended talk. For the last possibility we would have to provide a fee of the order of £50.
Margaret would canvass the views of the membership. Nora would talk people through Zoom if
necessary. We discussed the maximum number of people allowed to attend a Zoom meeting in case that
might be a problem. Louise thought 100. The YNU work on that figure. Nora has checked and 100 is
correct.
Nora pointed out that if we intend to use Zoom for the rest of the year there was an offer of a 20%
discount equivalent to approximately £3 a month. The commiSee decided not to take up that offer and
conEnue paying approximately £15 monthly
Louise is doing a YNU Zoom session on Lindholme/Hadield Moor in April.

3 Methods of Recording:
Les had tried out a new recording system called “Living Record”, initially on his garden birds and then on hide sightings at Potteric Carr. He was impressed and wondered if it could be used for the Denaby Ings survey. He had spoken to the designer, who said that he would need the GIS files from the YWT – Jim Horsfall was quite happy to provide these. Plotting records was very easy, but it was not possible to give quantities or say what a compartment (as defined on the site map) consisted of. There was no cost at the moment. The system had been used in Dorset, where every 1km square has a list of plants.The designer (Adrian Bicker)will set up the system and assist users via Zoom. It could be extended to YWT records.
Several members pointed out that costs would inevitably accrue for support and/or updates once the
system was established. Charges might also apply once the designer had got his foot in the door.
Louise referred to an article in “Conservation Land Management” about i-Records, which uses GIS not
grid references . i- records were not easy for validation purposes.We needed to consult Bob Marsh. He
used Recorder, which was a painful process whose days were numbered – it now had no supporter and
has to pay for updates.
Colin said that Les’s system cut through the Ordnance Survey grid system, but Red Data Book data, at
least for invertebrates, used grid squares. Louise thought it should be possible to align GIS (Geographical
Information System) with grid squares.
Louise remained sceptical, although she could see the merits of compartments over grid squares. She
suggested that Les continue trialling on a personal capacity. She would speak to Simon Pickles for his
view. She had concerns about the security of personal data, but Les said that personal details were not
necessary for logging in.
Colin conceived the project as multiple observers sending in records to editors by whatever means. Les’s
system was of interest to YWT but not for stray observers sending information in by grid reference or
compartment.
Adter this rather diffuse technical discussion, the Committee resolved that Les, Louise, Bob Marsh,
probably the YWT, and ? the NE Yorks Data Centre should meet to discuss the recording system.

4 Website:
Les had suggested that members could send in photos from places of interest for display on the website.
Name, locality and date should be specified – and the status of their membership. Non-members are
allowed to submit photographs and are be identified as Guests on the website. Les thought the idea of
allowing non -members to submit photographs might draw in new members. Les had indicated that
photographs acceptable for the website should have been taken in the wild. “Places of Interest” was
qualified as anywhere as long as it is within a day’s round trip from Doncaster.
The idea was approved.

5 Subscriptions :
These were due. Margaret would point this out in her e mail.For the Eme being, non-payers would not
be cut off from information, at least until we reactivated. Nora has created a new membership
application form which Margaret would send out.
Nora pointed out that several copies of the Naturalist were unsold.

6 Any Other Business:
Future public meeOngs would be discussed at the next Committee Meeting.
Les asked if we supply the list of past presidents from 1990. Louise suggested asking Derek to look at the
Minutes Books. Nora had previously left a message for him but had had no reply. Nora has now spoken
to Derek who has agreed to look through past programs for the information.

Joyce had been sent an e mail by Jim Horsfall concerning 378 plants of interest, categorised as to
scarcity. Jim and Alastair Fitter were concerned about these species in Yorkshire , and wanted records of
where they were. Members took note.

7  Date Of Next Meeing: 9 March 2021 at 3pm.

APPENDIX
Colin had received replies accep1ng editorships from the following:
Adrian Norris (Mollusca)
Mike Denton (Coleoptera)
Stuart Foster (Hemiptera,Neuroptera,Odonata)
Harry Beaumont (Lepidoptera)
Andrew Grayson (Diptera)
Ian Andrews (Symphyta)Sharon and Peter Flint

In house editors (implicit acceptance):

Tony French (History and Ornithology)
Paul and Joyce (buSerflies)
Tom and Nora (plant galls)
Louise (Vascular Plants)
Bob Marsh (Coleoptera)
Colin (spiders)