Annual Return to the Charities Commission - Trustees’ Annual Report
Charitable Incorporated Organisation Name:
Natural Sciences Collections Association (NatSCA)
Registration Number:
1186918
Address:
c/o Yvette Harvey, NatSCA Secretary
Royal Horticultural Society
RHS Garden Wisley
Woking, Surrey
GU23 6QB
Trustee Names:
Trustees for the reporting period 1/2/2021 - 31/1/2022:
Trustees between 1/2/2021 to AGM elections on 27/5/2021:
Jack Ashby
Clare Brown
Amanda Callaghan
Jan Freedman
Jen Gallichan
David Gelsthorpe
Isla Gladstone
Yvette Harvey
Kirsty Lloyd
Lucie Mascord
Holly Morgenroth
Bethany Palumbo
Glenn Roadley
Paolo Viscardi
Donna Young
Trustees between AGM elections 27/5/2021 and end financial year 31/1/2022:
Jack Ashby
Clare Brown
Jan Freedman
Jen Gallichan
David Gelsthorpe
Isla Gladstone
Yvette Harvey
Lucie Mascord
Laura McCoy
Holly Morgenroth
Bethany Palumbo
Glenn Roadley Laura Soul
Paolo Viscardi
Donna Young
Structure:
NatSCA is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation run by elected volunteer trustees from its membership. NatSCA is managed according to a Constitution of a Charitable Incorporated Organisation with voting members other than its charity trustees. This states that NatSCA must have a minimum of nine and maximum of 15 trustees. Named trustee roles to ensure key functions operate are: Chair, Secretary, Membership Secretary, Treasurer, Editor. Ordinary member trustees support NatSCA’s delivery of training, conference, social media and online blog, website, advocacy, conservation, awards and bursaries.
At every AGM one-third (or number nearest to one-third if not a multiple of three) of the trustees retire by rotation according to those who have been longest in office. Vacancies are advertised to the membership and wider NatSCA community through our website, email lists and social media channels, and filled by decision of the members at the AGM.
Annual Activities and Objectives:
NatSCA supports natural science collections and the people who work with them, to improve care, access and enjoyment for all. We are UK-based but welcome international members and users.
NatSCA’s objects are to:
(1) to advance the education of the public in the care and use of natural sciences collections and specimens.
(2) to promote for the benefit of the public the highest standards in the preparation, care, conservation, management, interpretation and research of natural sciences collections and specimens.
(3) For the benefit of the public to promote the science of natural sciences collections conservation and curation.
The CIO’s objects are achieved through: training workshops, seminars & conferences; peer-reviewed journal; networking opportunities; website & sector resources; member bursaries; member project grants; advocacy.
NatSCA’s achievements and performance 1/2/2021 - 31/1/2022
The following report is a record of the Annual General Meeting of the Natural Sciences Collections Association (NatSCA) 2022, at which trustee annual reports detailing what has been achieved by NatSCA for public benefit were presented to our members. Minutes and annual reports from NatSCA’s AGMs are also published in print and online in our Journal of Natural Science Collections.
Annual accounts are included below in the Treasurer’s report.
Following the 2022 AGM we have now co-opted a Treasurer with an accountancy background who will prioritise supporting NatSCA trustees in understanding our post-pandemic financial model and developing a new reserves policy.
NatSCA AGM 2022
- 6.00pm BST, 7[th] June 2022
Hybrid meeting:
SPNHC Edinburgh, Lecture 2, Appleton Tower & Zoom
ZOOM link emailed to members
AGENDA
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Apologies for absence
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Matters arising from Minutes of AGM Thursday 27[th] May 2021, held on Zoom as published in Journal of Natural Science Collections 10 : 146-154 (2022)
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Reports
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Election of NatSCA committee
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Any other Business
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Vote of thanks
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Next AGM venue
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Close
AGM
- Apologies for absence
Holly Morgenroth, Amy Geraghty
- Matters arising from Minutes of AGM Thursday 27[th] May 2021, held on Zoom as published in Journal of Natural Science Collections 10 : 146-154 (2022)
Proposal to accept the minutes of the 2021 AGM, including any amends from matters arising, as an accurate record:
Proposer: Paolo Viscardi Seconder: Glenn Roadley
Please ensure you are a paid-up individual member of NatSCA to propose, second or vote at our AGM. Institutional members are non-voting members. If you are attending via ZOOM and would like to propose or second, please write your full name in the conference ‘chat’ channel. Many thanks.
- Reports:
Secretary’s Report: Yvette Harvey
Eight Zoom committee meetings have been held between February 2021 and January 2022. Trustees have faced challenges at work and home over the past year due to the global pandemic, affecting meeting attendance. Please see below ( - denotes special leave and green denotes a non-Trustee period):
| ii.2021 | iv.2021 | v.2021 | vii.2021 | Viii.2021 | x.2021 | xi.2021 | i.2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jack Ashby | y | y | y | y | y | y | y | |
| Clare Brown | y | y | y | y | y | y | ||
| Amanda Callaghan |
y | |||||||
| Jan Freedman |
y | |||||||
| Jennifer Gallichan |
y | y | y | y | y | y | y | y |
| David Gelsthorpe |
y | y | y | y | y | y | ||
| Isla Gladstone |
y | y | y | y | y | y | y | y |
| Yvette Harvey |
y | y | y | y | y | y | y | y |
| Kirsty Lloyd | y | y | y | |||||
| Lucie Mascord |
y | y | y | y | y | y | ||
| Laura McCoy |
y | y | y | y | y | |||
| Holly Morgenroth |
y | y | y | y | y | y | ||
| Bethany Palumbo |
y | y | y | |||||
| Glenn Roadley |
y | y | y | y | y | y | y | |
| Laura Soul | y | y | y | y | y | |||
| Paolo Viscardi |
y | y | y | y | y | y | ||
| Donna Young |
_ | _ | y | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
Treasurer's Report: Holly Morgenroth kcounts sumrnary 01.02.3J21- 31.01.2022 Kome 20Xk21 tiOnS costs P(ewousYeais Curreni Year bank Curreni Year Fuwre Year5 CommiiteeE Webgie z stsDone Posiage Dara Protec nses 95 537 867 73 22 35 35 Personal Subs¢rl Uor PfewoLJsYears 12 64 S,(¢7 Workshops Bacs2020 5A55 437 Curreni Year WronE3mount FutLJre Year5 437 Conference 113 2019 2021 200 Work$ho Income Entotnolo 200 75 Publicatiom & Information Promiion Ba4cs2020 1279 20201ouinal piint & pogia£e 2019Jouifbd piint&posts l.S92 1,748 Confuoncelncorne (haritable Bill PeitiiFth)d Buisaiies Secioi 2020 20X 240 240 DonaD¢ns Donations Other oth Mi5C. 17 Unallocated TOTALlhD)ME Exces5Kome OVLY OUTSTMtXNG EXPENrxruRE BP. B0èIÉsAtrdÉén2021 BP.La I SS Great 8rrtan>)20 BP- Teeth- KCL 2020 JoL¥rAI DeCeMrmeetr É 1165 01 (r21 Cutertde £21 sitalc £ 22475 £ IUK) £ 43.734 123 31.01.3)22 £ 48,791 EXPECTED INCOME £ 48.791 £ 42441 NB Ad A¢ted erfe31 D1.2Q2 441
Charity Commission report for signing after AGM approval
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees:
Isla Gladstone 7th June 2022
Yvette Harvey 7th June 2022
Accounts will be signed when agreed at AGM.
Proposer: Karen Manton Seconder: Laura McCoy
Membership Secretary’s Report: Clare Brown
For 2021 the membership statistics are as follows:
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334 members (59 institutional, 274 personal), this is 28 fewer members than 2019-20.
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Around 80% of our membership is UK based, we also have members in 20 other countries.
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153 members chose to receive a hardcopy of the journal
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There were 13 free/complimentary mailings of the journal either for legal/copyright reasons or networking ( British Library LDO, British Library CRO, GCG, Smithsonian Institute Library Gift and Exchanges, ACE, SPNHC, MA, Zoological Record, plus five copies to Agency for the Legal Deposit Libraries).
The slight drop in membership numbers is probably due to the spike last year’s Decolonisation conference attracted. This online conference in 2020 allowed members free access and we had nearly 70 new members join us in the two months running up to the conference on 19th November.
The number of people taking a hardcopy of the journal has dropped again, down 17 copies on last year.
I would like to thank everyone who has supported me with the membership work over the last year, Holly Morgenroth, Glenn Roadley and Justine Aw in particular.
Editor’s Report: Jan Freedman
This year we have produced two Volumes of the Journal of Natural Science Collections. Volume 9 was published in November 2021. This special Volume focuses on papers from the 2020 Decolonising conference and papers include allyship in museums, decolonising mineral collections, examining the colonial history of a Victorian game hunter, and decolonising the way we talk about Australian mammals. This special Volume is open access, and has been published online only (www.natsca.org/jonsc-vol-9). There is no hard copy option available for this Volume.
Volume 10 of the Journal of Natural Science Collections has been published and is available both online and in print. Members who requested a hard copy of the Journal will have received it by now, and a password was given to all members to access the online articles. Volume 10 was published a little later than planned due to several key people contracting Covid. Thankfully the individuals are better and back to their good health. Volume 10 includes articles about collections research, conservation, and using collections through display and events.
I would like to thank the Editorial Board for their assistance in finding expert peer reviewers for the articles; Bethany Palumbo, Paolo Viscardi and Rob Huxley. I would like to give a special thanks to all the reviewers who have spent so much time on going through each article and providing constructive feedback to improve the quality of them for publication. I am extremely thankful for their time, especially during the last year with the Covid pandemic.
I have received two submissions for Volume 11 which is due to be published in January 2023. If you are interested in submitting an article for the Journal, or have an idea about an article you would like to write, please contact the Editor (Editor@natsca.org).
Chair’s Report: Isla Gladstone
1[st] February 2021 – 31[st] January 2022
NatSCA has continued to adapt over the past year to virtual working and ongoing sector challenges resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. The trustees have been meeting monthly over Zoom, and continuing to explore new ways of working and how we can best support our members and wider community.
Our two trustees who joined at the 2021 AGM, Laura Soul and Laura McCoy, have developed a new trial offer called ‘Lunchtime Chats’ – aimed at increasing regular engagement with members and taking advantage of new online capabilities. The Chats are intended to be an informal gathering on Zoom, where members can talk about something of professional interest – perhaps an exciting development at work, a project they would appreciate community advice on, or a technique they’d like to demonstrate. The idea is to provide a friendly and informal slot, outside of a formal conference or training workshop. The talks are on the last Thursday of every month, aiming to range from around 10 to 30 minutes in length with time for questions at the end. In addition to the talks, the training group is looking to past events and surveys to develop ideas for a return to seminars and practical workshops in 2022/23.
In May 2021, we delivered our second virtual conference – this time on ‘Changing the World: Environmental Breakdown and Natural Science Collections’. The presentations from this conference are now available online on NatSCA’s website.
Our conference group, led by Glenn Roadley, has also been preparing for the 2022 conference. We are partnering with the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) and Biodiversity Heritage Library for a hybrid in person and digital conference in Edinburgh in June. Recognising the international opportunities this brings, but also the significant cost of a larger conference for attendees, we are delivering a significant bursary offer of five bursaries of up to £250 each towards in person attendance and ten bursaries of £115 each to cover virtual attendance [Update: 10 in person and 2 digital bursary applications were approved in March 2022, as though the distribution differs from the original number of bursaries offered, the total value falls within the original budget]. We have also condensed our key delivery at this conference into one day, to enable members to attend at a one day rate. This includes our AGM and two symposia: ‘Long time no see – updates from the natural science community’ and ‘Civically engaged museums – transforming public programmes to stay relevant’.
Our financial support activity also continues through the Bill Pettit Memorial Award. Three projects were awarded £5675 in 2021: Conservation of a Bateman ichthyosaur specimen at Sheffield Museums Trust, River Otter Beaver Taxidermy at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum Exeter, and re-imagining Marvellous Molluscs at the University of Aberdeen. After inevitable delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic,
these have now been completed. They have been written up for the NatSCA blog, where you can get a taste of the benefits they have achieved. Our thanks to David Gelsthorpe for administering these grants, and everyone we have worked with on them. The Bill Pettit award is currently paused whilst we recruit new trustees and volunteers to support its running.
NatSCA continues to support collections at risk, for example through letters of support to senior stakeholders. However, our priority in advocating for natural science collections remains supporting understanding of their scientific and societal relevance - through our platforms, resources and partnerships.
This year we have been partners in an important AHRC-funded project to scope a UK digital infrastructure for natural science collections, led by the Natural History Museum London. Here we are enabling project communications and highlighting NatSCA’s legacy data on UK collections, to support as broad a reach as possible. The project scoping phase will provide an overview of UK collections and digital capabilities. We will also be supporting future phases, to secure longer-term funding and infrastructure.
NatSCA is currently a partner in a new AHRC networking project called ‘People and Plants’ led by National Museums Scotland, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and the Powell-Cotton Museum. This one year project, which runs to December 2022, will include opportunities for members to attend funded workshops to explore ‘reactivating ethnobotanical collections as material archives of Indigenous ecological knowledge’, along with members of the Museum Ethnographers Group.
In spring to autumn 2021, NatSCA was also a partner in a seed funded NERC/AHRC project called ‘Environment and Empire in the Museum’, represented by trustees Jack Ashby and David Gelsthorpe. This consisted of a network, video series and workshop bringing together natural scientists, historians and curators working with natural history collections, to help consider particular challenges faced in exploring the hidden histories of environmental science.
We have also continued to represent natural science collections through mechanisms such as the steering group of the Subject Specialist Network Consortium, where Paolo Viscardi is our representative.
NatSCA’s blog has continued to gain readers, with the number of visits and views to our pages both higher compared to previous years. Blog editor Jen Gallichan reports that the highest number of visitors come from the UK, although we are attracting a good audience from our colleagues in the USA, Australia, and parts of Europe. 2021 saw the most striking increase in engagement from our colleagues in India, as well as increased numbers of views from colleagues in Australia, Ireland and Canada. The most viewed posts in 2021 focused on collections and conservation projects. These included ‘Private bone collections: the good, the bad and the illegal’, ‘Giant
Sequoia at the Natural History Museum’ and ‘Telling the truth about who really collected the “hero collections”’. A total of 48 articles were posted.
NatSCA’s website has had fairly consistent traffic across the period according to trustee Glenn Roadley, with a few spikes in traffic around April, May and September. Overall figures for the year are up compared to 2020-2021. Website updates have included new journal articles and 67 sector job vacancies. Following the 2021 NatSCA conference, a new ‘Natural Science Collections and Environmental Action’ hub was added under the 'Resources' section. Several broken links to external resources have been repaired after being flagged by members.
4. Election of NatSCA committee:
Trustees form a steering committee with obligations to ensure NatSCA meets our mission, ensure good governance and conform to Charity Commission regulations.
Below are the nominees for NatSCA trustee positions standing for election at this AGM. The Membership Secretary has confirmed that those proposed, those proposing and those seconding are all current personal members of NatSCA. No term will exceed three years without re-election.
Below is the nominated candidate for Membership Secretary:
| Nominee | Position | Proposed | Seconded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clare Brown | Membership Secretary |
Milo Phillips | Rebecca Machin |
There is one vacancy for Membership Secretary and one nominee.
Below is the nominated candidate for Editor:
| Nominee | Position | Proposed | Seconded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan Freedman | Editor | David Waterhouse | Yvette Harvey |
There is one vacancy for Editor and one nominee.
Below is the nominated candidate for Treasurer:
| Nominee | Position | Proposed | Seconded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Treasurer |
There is one vacancy for Treasurer and no nominees. As we have not received nominations for this position, NatSCA will seek to appoint a Treasurer who has financial skills and experience following the AGM, to be ratified at the 2023 AGM.
Below are the nominated candidates standing for Ordinary Member positions on the committee:
| Nominee | Position | Proposed | Seconded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jennifer Gallichan | Ordinary Member | Harriet Wood | Yvette Harvey |
| Tannis Davidson | Ordinary Member | Jack Ashby | Natalie Jones |
| Amy Geraghty | Ordinary Member | Paolo Viscardi | Nigel Monaghan |
| Patti Wood Finkle | Ordinary Member | Yvette Harvey | Isla Gladstone |
There are four vacancies for Ordinary Members and four nominees.
Proposal 1: we propose one ‘en bloc’ vote for all six nominees (one nominee for Membership Secretary, one nominee for Editor, and four nominees for ordinary member positions).
Proposer: Kate Andrews Seconder: Jack Ashby
Membership vote: Yes
This will be a hybrid poll, with a greater than 50% vote required to accept the proposal. Please remember that only paid up individual members are able to vote at NatSCA’s AGM.
Proposal 2: all six nominees (one nominee for Membership Secretary, one nominee for Editor, and four nominees for ordinary member positions) to be accepted as trustees.
Proposer: Laura McCoy
Seconder: Natalie Jones
Membership vote: Yes
This will be a live digital Zoom poll, with a greater than 50% vote required to accept the proposal. Please remember that only paid up individual members are able to vote at NatSCA’s AGM.
5. Any other Business
6. Vote of thanks
NatSCA would like to thank everyone who has been involved in delivering our activities in 2021-22 for sharing their time, expertise and content.
We would like to thank the trustees named in the Chair’s report for delivering key activity, as well as all trustees for contributing to the overall running of NatSCA. This includes behind the scenes roles: Treasurer Holly Morgenroth, Secretary Yvette Harvey, Membership Secretary Clare Brown, and Conservation lead Lucie Mascord. We also thank Justine Aw for highly valued external technical support.
Jen Gallichan and the trustees would like to pass on heartfelt thanks to the great group of volunteers who compile our monthly Digital Digests including Glenn Roadley, Olivia Beavers, Milo Philipps, and Clare Dean. Our Editor Jan Freedman has shared thanks to the Editorial Board for their valued support: Bethany Palumbo, Paolo Viscardi and Rob Huxley.
NatSCA would like to extend special thanks to those trustees stepping down from committee this year. Donna Young will be retiring following a long period of special leave, having been part of the NatSCA committee since its merger of the Biological Curators Group and Natural Sciences Conservation Group. Donna has been instrumental in successful delivery of our conferences, as well as successful ongoing running of NatSCA. We would also like to recognise the fantastic contributions of our long-standing Treasurer Holly Morgenroth, who is stepping down this year. Both will be very much missed. Former Chair Paolo Viscardi and SPNHC representative Bethany Palumbo will also be stepping back as trustees, but will be retaining roles for NatSCA as co-opted Subject Specialist Network Rep and SPNHC Rep respectively. We look forward to working with both of them.
- Next AGM venue
To be announced
- Close
The meeting closed at 6.35pm