Minutes

(1) Welcome and apologies

Matthew Jebb, Chairman of the Board, welcomed all those present.
Apologies for absence had been received from Hugh Angus, Wolfgang Bopp, Paul Hanson, Steve Waldren, John Watkins and Nicholas Wray.

(2) Minutes of the Ninth Annual General Meeting

Minutes of the meeting held on 5 April 2005 at the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, had been sent out with PlantNetwork Newsletter 28, in August 2005, and were approved.

(3) Report for the year to 31 March 2006, by Matthew Jebb, Chairman of the Board

Projects
Natacha Frachon continued compiling information for the Target 8 project. She spent the year travelling to a number of gardens, having received a bursary from the Royal Horticultural Society. We received grants from the Stanley Smith (UK) Horticultural Trust and the Friends of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh to support the continuation of this work. In November the preliminary stage of the work came to an end, and we are now hoping to promote the project amongst our member gardens. The Board would like to express its thanks to Natacha and David Rae for all the preparatory work they have done on behalf of PlantNetwork.

Meetings The spring conference entitled Practical Plant Conservation was held at the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin in April 2005. This was a follow up to our previous conference at Reading. A set of 8 sub-targets were developed at the end of this meeting, which form the practical steps of getting the Target 8 project activated and running. The Tree Forum meeting at Kew in June looked at ways to propagate and conserve the plants grown from seed collected by Ernest Wilson a century ago. The Autumn conference was held by the University of Birmingham Botanic Garden in September, and was entitled Historic and Cultural Significance of Plants in Cultivation, producing an eclectic and informative set of talks. As with all our conferences, the PowerPoint presentations are now available on the website, and provide a useful record of the meetings. The second Tree Forum meeting looked at Development Plans for Arboreta, and was held at the Harcourt Arboretum in October of 2005. In November, DEFRA ran a Training Day for PlantNetwork, on Plant Health and Reducing Risk when Importing Exotic Plants into Collections at the Central Science Laboratories at York. Also in November the Propagation forum held a day at Chester Zoo on Orchid Propagation. Finally our Spring conference was held at Harrogate, on Sustainability of Horticultural Practices.

Membership Membership has been somewhat static over the past 2 years, and while we appreciate our potential audience is finite, an active drive to increase membership will be undertaken by the board.

(4) Accounts for the year to 31 March 2006

The accounts for the year to 31 March 2006 had not yet been audited. Copies of the audited accounts would be available on request from the PlantNetwork office later in the year.
During the year we received two donations to support the continuation of the target 8 project by Natacha Frachon at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Stanley Smith (UK) Horticultural Trust gave £ 4,000 and the Friends of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh gave £ 2,000.
As in previous years, there was an expenditure (excluding project costs) of approximately £ 29,500. Subscription income was slightly raised to £ 16,000, and income from conferences, forum groups and sales produced a further £ 17,500. Thus at the end of the year a small surplus of ca. £ 4,000 was produced, allowing us to carry forward ca. £ 36,500. We now have an adequate operating reserve to ensure that the network can continue to function for at least 12 months if funds become limiting.
Critchleys, of Greyfriars Court, Paradise Square, Oxford, was appointed as auditor for a further year.

(5) Election of officers to the Board of Trustees

The Articles of Association of the Company require one-third of Board members to retire at each AGM; they may stand for re-election. Pamela Smith, Mark Sparrow, Steve Waldren and Nicholas Wray retired from the Board. Stewart Henchie was elected and Pamela Smith, Mark Sparrow, Steve Waldren and Nicholas Wray were re-elected to the Board.
Matthew Jebb was thanked for all that he had done over the past year as Chairman of the Board.
The meeting closed at around 6.30pm.

Presentation