Dear Conch Soc members I feel very honoured – and not a little apprehensive – at having been elected as your President at the last AGM. As many of you don’t know me, I thought I should introduce myself to you.
I have been a member of Conch Soc for around 15 years. I have mostly been involved with marine molluscs, and do quite a lot of collecting on beaches, and sorting through shell sand and struggling to identify tiny shells. As one of my daughters lives in Australia, I have become interested also in Australian sea shells (the picture shows me and one of my grand-daughters sorting shells from a beach near Sydney).
In professional life (I’m still working), I work as a scientist for English Heritage. By training I’m an archaeologist and a zoologist. I started by working on animal bones from archaeological sites, but now deal more generally with science, archaeology and building conservation and history.
I’m particularly committed to building links between amateurs and professionals – I believe this has much to offer for increasing our understanding and enjoyment of molluscs and their shells. One important element of this is amateur involvement in research. Amateurs have contributed far more than they sometimes realise to our knowledge of molluscs, and there is a great deal that we can do which is interesting and worthwhile without needing sophisticated equipment – often things that professionals can’t do because they can’t spend the time, or revisit a study site as often and for as long as a particular project really needs.
I’m committed also to conservation; for molluscs, as for the historic environment, to conserve things effectively we need to understand and appreciate them.
I start without any very specific personal aims for CS for the next three years; many good things are already happening. I hope we can encourage more members to take an active part in the Conch Soc’s activities – not just by coming to meetings and field meetings, but also by using and contributing to our publications and the web site, and to activities like recording.
I hope very much that you will suggest other things that are important to you and that you think are important. Please write to me, e-mail me or ‘phone me with any comments or suggestions. They will be very welcome, and I promise to reply (and will try to reply as quickly as I can).
With all good wishes for the summer field season,
Happy Shelling,
Bas Payne
e-mail: president@conchsoc.org .uk; phone: work hours: 0207 973 3321; evenings 0207 706 3512; weekend: 02392 232 011; mob: 07889 808 183