Wild Land News no 53, Summer 2001

AGM 2001 - Business Report Article

There was a good turnout of members and guests came to the Covenanters Inn in Aberfoyle in mid May for the AGM of the Group. This is the second year that the AGM has been held in May, and it is proving more popular for members. There was the option of having a day walk beforehand and a bar supper with the Steering Team.

The Steering Team Co-ordinator, Alistair Cant gave a resume of the activities of the Team over the last 12 months, highlighting the gains such as National Parks, the Lingarbay Superquarry rejection and progress on Scottish Executive legislation such as Land Reform and Telecom masts. On the downside, the fiasco at the Shieldaig hydro scheme public inquiry, owing to the developer pulling out just before the Reporter was due to report, caused great annoyance. The dilution and changing of the SNH Access Forum proposals also gives great concern, as what is in this part of the land reform bill has serious flaws.

Alistair stated that there is a clear need to be ever vigilant, to maintain a close dialogue with your MSP, and to raise issues with friends, colleagues and the media.

There was good news to tell about the establishment of the Scottish Mountain Forum and the proposed International Year of the Mountain (IYM2002) project worker (see elsewhere in the magazine), This initiative came over concern over the proposed sale of the Cuillin and the lack of a co-ordinated recreation/conservation body response.

Alistair concluded by saying the next 12 months have even more challenges, and priorities for the Group include: expanding the new website; devising a new membership leaflet; and hopefully helping organise an event for IYM 2002.

Tim Ambrose gave a brief review of the Annual Accounts, which are healthy. The rise in subscription rates has brought more income which can be ploughed into the website development, a new leaflet and possibly IYM work. There was a good discussion at this point about the need to use funds productively and not just let them accumulate. This met with general support.

The current steering team were all re-elected. Anyone interested in joining the team was encouraged to come forward, either now or any future date, as there are places for more team members. Contact Alistair or any of the Team for more information. The formal meeting then concluded and the talk by Bob Aitken followed (see the separate report on this).