## **Annual Return to the Charities Commission -** ## **Trustees’ Annual Report and Accounts** ## **For the Year Ending 31 January 2025** ## **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 ## **Trustees in post for the period 1 February 2024 to 31 January 2025:** Jack Ashby Eimear Ashe Clare Booth-Downs Amy Geraghty (retired at AGM 18 April 2024) Isla Gladstone (Co-Chair) Clare Brown (Membership Secretary) (re-appointed at AGM 18 April 2024) Belle Buchanan-Smith (Treasurer) Yvette Harvey (Secretary) Natalie Jones (appointed at AGM 18 April 2024) Tannis Davidson (re-appointed at AGM 18 April 2024) Patti Wood Finkle (re-appointed at AGM 18 April 2024) Laura McCoy Emma Murphy Emilie Pearson (appointed at AGM 18 April 2024) Jan Freedman (retired as Editor at AGM 18 April 2024) Glenn Roadley (Editor) (appointed Editor at AGM 18 April 2024) Jen Gallichan (Co-Chair) Natural Sciences Collections Association. Registered Charity 1186918. Website: **www.natsca.org** ## **Structure & Governance:** 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 or Co-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 objectives 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. These are achieved through a combination of; training workshops, seminars & conferences; peer-reviewed journal; networking opportunities; website & sector resources; member bursaries; member project grants; advocacy. ## **NatSCA’s achievements and performance 1 February 2024 to 31 January 2025:** The following report is compiled from an extract of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Natural Sciences Collections Association (NatSCA) held on 8 May 2025 and additional commentary, where relevant. At the AGM the 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. The Annual Accounts included below in the Treasurer’s report and were approved for signature at the AGM. Natural Sciences Collections Association. Registered Charity 1186918. Website: **www.natsca.org** ## **Secretary’s Report: Yvette Harvey** Ten Zoom committee meetings and one hybrid Away Day (October) have been held between February 2024 and January 2025. With the exception of August 2024, all meetings had 11 or more trustees present and lasted c. 1 hr 30 mins. The typed minutes were prepared and distributed amongst the Trustees via a shared Google Drive. ||ii.
2024|iii.
2024|iv.
2024|v.
2024|vii.
2024|viii.
2024|ix.
2024|x.
2024|xii.
2024|i.
2025| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |**Jack Ashby**|Y||Y|Y||Y|Y|Y||Y| |**Eimear Ashe**|Y|Y|Y|Y|||Y|Y|Y|Y| |**Clare**
**Booth-Downs**|||||Y|Y|Y|||| |**Clare Brown**|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y||Y|Y|Y| |**Belle**
**Buchanan-Smith**|Y|Y||Y|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y| |**Tannis Davidson**|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y||Y|Y|Y|| |**Pat Wood Finkle**|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y||Y|Y| |**Jan Freedman**|Y|||||||||| |**Jennifer**
**Gallichan**|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y||Y|Y| |**Amy Geraghty**|Y|Y||||||||| |**Isla Gladstone**|Y||Y|Y|Y||Y|Y|Y|Y| |**Yvete Harvey**|Y|Y|Y||Y|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y| |**Natalie Jones**||||Y|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y| |**Laura McCoy**|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y||Y| |**Emma Murphy**||Y|Y|Y|||Y|Y|Y|Y| |**Emilie Pearson**||||Y|Y|||||| |**Glenn Roadley**|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y| |**Total No.present**|13|11|11|13|12|10|13|11|11|12| Minute taking was shared between Yvette Harvey and Eimear Ashe, the former is very grateful to the latter for stepping in and helping. Natural Sciences Collections Association. Registered Charity 1186918. Website: **www.natsca.org** ## **Treasurer’s Report: Belle Buchanan-Smith** ## **Detailed Income & Expenditure with variance to prior year** ||**FY2023/24**|**FY2024/25**||| |---|---|---|---|---| ||**12m to**
**31-01-2024**|**12m to**
**31-01-2025**|**Variance**|**Percentage**
**change**| |**Income**|**£22,105**|
**£20,802**|
**-£1,303**|
**-6%**| |Donatons|£5|
£29|
£24|
486%| |Publicatons|£6|
£64|
£58|
966%| |Insttutonal Subscriptons - Current Year|£1,992|
£1,880|
-£112|
-6%| |Insttutonal Subscriptons - Next Year|£80|
£40|
-£40|
-50%| |Personal Subscriptons - Current Year|£4,115|
£3,865|
-£250|
-6%| |Personal Subscriptons - Next Year|£20|
£130|
£110|
550%| |Conference Income - Atendees|£14,585|
£13,334|
-£1,251|
-9%| |Conference Income - Trade Stands|£650|
£1,050|
£400|
62%| |Conference Income - Prior Year|£0|
£190|
£190|| |Workshop Income|£652|
£220|
-£432|
-66%| |||||| |**Cost of Charitable Actvity**|**£14,708**|
**£12,332**|
**-£2,376**|
**-16%**| |Publicatons and Postage|£2,466|
£1,505|
-£961|
-39%| |Conference Costs|£1,028|
£1,429|
£401|
39%| |Conference Catering|£6,844|
£7,486|
£642|
9%| |Conference Speakers Fees|£1,368|
£589|
-£779|
-57%| |WorkshopCosts|£286|
£36|
-£250|
-87%| |Bill Pet Fund|£2,100|
£0|
-£2,100|
-100%| |Bursaries - Conference|£616|
£1,287|
£671|
109%| |Bursaries - Workshops|£0|
£0|
£0|| |||||| |**Administraton Expenses**|**£2,587**|
**£1,641**|
**-£946**|
**-37%**| |Web Hostng & Domain|£180|
£240|
£60|
33%| |Sofware & Website|£287|
£299|
£12|
4%| |Website Development|£0|
£0|
£0|| |Postage|£0|
£19|
£19|| |Data Protecton|£35|
£35|
£0|
0%| |Bank/Finance Charges|£128|
£122|
-£6|
-4%| |Commitee Travel & Subsistence|£1,957|
£926|
-£1,031|
-53%| |||||| |**Surplus/(Defcit)**|**£4,810**|
**£6,829**|
**£2,019**|
**42%**| |Reserves brought forward:|£47,785|
£52,596|
£4,811|| |**Reserves carried forward:**|**£52,595**|
**£59,425**|
**£6,830**|| Natural Sciences Collections Association. Registered Charity 1186918. Website: **www.natsca.org** ## **Commentary on the Financial Year:** NatSCA has made a £6,829 surplus this financial year (FY23/24: £4,810), increasing our reserves to £59,425. Income reduced by 6%-7% across both the conference and memberships. However this has been offset by reduced spend in the year; with no new Bill Petit awards paid out and lower committee travel & subsistence. The outturn for the conference can be seen below with a reduced surplus compared to the prior year. This is a deliberate result of maintaining the pricing at FY2023/24 levels and increasing bursaries offered. The same price is being held for the current year, to maintain attendance and enabled by the surpluses in prior years. |**Adjusted Conference Outurn**|**FY2023/24**|**FY2024/25**|**Variance**|**Percentage**
**change**| |---|---|---|---|---| |Income|£15,235|£14,574||| |_Late income_|_£190_|_-£190_||| |**TOTAL INCOME**|**£15,425**|**£14,384**|**-£1,041**|**-7%**| |Costs|£9,240|£9,504||| |Bursaries|£616|£1,287||| |_Deposit for 2025 conference_|_£0_|_-£350_||0%| |**TOTAL FORECAST COSTS**|**£9,856**|**£10,441**|**£585**|**6%**| |**Net Surplus from Conference**|**£5,569**|**£3,943**|**-£1,626**|**-29%**| The adjusted surplus and reserves position shown below accounts for timing of payments made around the end of the financial year. This results in a net reduction in the surplus due to the Journal publication paid shortly after the end of the year. |**Cash at Bank**||| |---|---|---| |b/f Natwest|£47,785|£52,596| |b/f PayPal|£0|£0| |**b/f Total**|**£47,785**|**£52,596**| |c/f NatWest|£52,596|£58,581| |c/f PayPal|£0|£844| |**c/f Total**|**£52,596**|**£59,425**| |**Cash Surplus/(Defcit)**|**£4,811**|**£6,829**| |**Prepayments or Accrued Income:**||| |Conference 2025 depositpaid in advance||£350| |Conference Income received in arrears|£190|| |**Accruals or deferred income:**||| |Journal publicaton paid in arrears|-£1,470|-£2,870| |Memberships paid in advance|-£100|-£170| |**Adjusted Surplus/(Defcit)**|**£3,431**|**£4,139**| |**Adjusted Reserves Positon**|**£51,217**|**£56,735**| Natural Sciences Collections Association. Registered Charity 1186918. Website: **www.natsca.org** ## **Reserves Policy:** The trustees have reviewed the level of reserves required, based on spending commitments and timings, and consider that reserves in the region of £20,000-£25,000 would be sufficient to ensure a secure basis for the continued operation of the charity and delivery of **.** objectives Current reserve levels are more than twice this amount and the trustees are working on plans to utilise excess funds to the benefit of members and the wider Natural Sciences Collections community. Initial plans over the next 3 years include: - Improvement of the online offering via updates to the NatSCA website and resources - Increasing training and workshops, based on member feedback - Offering additional bursaries to assist with the cost-of-living crisis, and low training budgets - Commissioning a research piece to assist with advocacy in the sector to help demonstrate the value of our collections. The trustees will review reserve levels a minimum of 6 monthly, to monitor available budget for opportunities for additional areas of work, member and public support, and advocacy. The Bill Petit Award was also re-launched this year with 3 successful projects awarded a total of £6,500 due to be paid out in FY25/26. ## **Annual Accounts** The following accounts were presented and approved for signature by the members at the AGM. Natural Sciences Collections Association. Registered Charity 1186918. Website: **www.natsca.org** ||**Charity Name**|||||**No(if any): **|**No(if any): **||| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ||**Natural Sciences Collections**||||**Association**|**1186918**|||| ||**(NatSCA)**||||||||| ||**Receipts andpayments accounts**||||||||**CC16a**| ||**For the period**
**from**||**Period start date**
**01/02/2024**||**To**||**Period end date**
**31/01/2025**||| ||||||||||| ||**Charity Name**|**Charity Name**|**Charity Name**|**Charity Name**|**No(if any): **|**No(if any): **||**CC16a**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ||**Natural Sciences Collections Association**
**(NatSCA)**||||**1186918**|||| ||**Receipts andpayments accounts**|||||||| ||**For the period**
**from**|
**Period start date**
**01/02/2024**||**To**|**Period end date**|||| ||||||**31/01/2025**|||| |||||||||| |**Section A Receipts andpayments**||||||||| ||**Unrestricted**
**funds**|**Restricted**
**funds**||**Endowment**
**funds**||**Total funds**||**Last year**| ||**to the nearest £**|**to the nearest £**||**to the nearest £**||**to the nearest £**||**to the nearest £**| |**A1 Receipts**||||||||| |**Institutional Subscriptions**|**1,920**|**-**||**-**||**1,920**||**2,052**| |**Personal Subscriptions**|**3,995**|**-**||**-**||**3,995**||**4,155**| |**Workshops **|**220**|**-**||**-**||**220**||**652**| |**Conferences**|**14,574**|**-**||**-**||**14,574**||**15,235**| |**Donations**|**29**|**-**||**-**||**29**||**5**| |**Publications**|**64**|**-**||**-**||**64**||**6**| |**_Sub total(Gross income for_**
**_AR)_**|**20,802**|**-**||**-**||**20,802**||**22,105**| |||||||||| |**A2 Asset and investment sales,(see table). **||||||||| ||**-**|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**| |**_Sub total_**|
**-**|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**| |||||||||| |**_Total receipts_**|
**20,802**|**-**||**-**||**20,802**||**22,105**| |||||||||| |**A3 Payments**||||||||| |**Running costs**|**1,641**|**-**||**-**||**1,641**||**2,587**| |**Workshops **|**36**|**-**||**-**||**36**||**286**| |**Conference**|**9,504**|**-**||**-**||**9,504**||**9,239**| |**Publications & Information**
**Provision**|**1,505**|**-**||**-**||**1,505**||**2,466**| |**Charitable Activities : Bill**
**Petit Grants**|**-**|**-**||**-**||**-**||**2,100**| |**Charitable Activities :**
**Bursaries**|**1,287**|**-**||**-**||**1,287**||**616**| |**_Sub total_**|**13,973**|**-**||**-**||**13,973**||**17,294**| |||||||||| |**A4 Asset and investmentpurchases, (see table)**||||||||| ||**-**|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**| |**_Sub total_**|**-**|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**| |||||||||| |**_Total payments_**|**13,973**|**-**||**-**||**13,973**||**17,294**| |||||||||| |**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**|**6,829**|**-**||**-**||**6,829**||**4,811**| |**A5 Transfers between funds**|**-**|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**| |**A6 Cash funds lastyear end**|**52,596**|**-**||**-**||**52,596**||**47,785**| ||**59,425**|**-**||**-**||**59,425**||**52,596**| Natural Sciences Collections Association. Registered Charity 1186918. Website: **www.natsca.org** |**Section B Statement**|**of assets and liabilities at the end of theperiod**|**of assets and liabilities at the end of theperiod**|**of assets and liabilities at the end of theperiod**|**of assets and liabilities at the end of theperiod**|**of assets and liabilities at the end of theperiod**|**of assets and liabilities at the end of theperiod**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |**Categories**||||**Unrestricted**
**funds**|**Restricted**
**funds**|**Endowment**
**funds**| ||**Details**|||**to nearest £**|**to nearest £**|**to nearest £**| |**B1 Cash funds**|NatWest Current Account|||**58,581**|**-**|**-**| ||PayPal Account|||**844**|**-**|**-**| |||||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||**_Total cash funds_**|||**59,425**|**-**|**-**| |(agree balances with receipts andpayments account(s))||||OK|OK|OK| |||||**Unrestricted**
**funds**|**Restricted**
**funds**|**Endowment**
**funds**| ||**Details**|||**to nearest £**|**to nearest £**|**to nearest £**| |**B2 Other monetary assets**|Deposit for 2025 Conference|||**350**|**-**|**-**| |||||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||||||**Cost**
**(optional)**|**Current**
**value**
**(optional)**| ||**Details**|||**Fund to**
**which asset**
**belongs **||| |**B3 Investment assets**|||||**-**|**-**| ||||||**-**|**-**| |||||||| ||**Details**|||**Fund to**
**which asset**
**belongs **|**Cost**
**(optional)**|**Current**
**value**
**(optional)**| |**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**|||||**-**|**-**| ||||||**-**|**-**| ||||||**Amount due**
**(optional)**|**When due**
**(optional)**| ||**Details**|||**Fund to**
**which**
**liability**
**relates**||| |**B5 Liabilities**|Advanced Memberships|||Unrestricted|**170**|**01 Feb 2025**| ||Journal Publication|||Unrestricted|**2,870**|**21 Feb 2025**| ||Bill Petit Awards 2025|||Unrestricted|**6,500**|**31 Jan 2026**| ||||||**-**|| |||||||| |Signed by one or two trustees
on behalf of all the trustees|Signature|||Print Name||Date of
approval| |||||Isla Gladstone||08/05/2025| |||||Yvette Harvey||08/05/2025| Natural Sciences Collections Association. Registered Charity 1186918. Website: **www.natsca.org** ## **Membership Secretary’s Report: Clare Brown** For 2024 the membership statistics are as follows: - 265 members (59 institutional, 206 personal). - This is 13 fewer members than 2023-24 (16 fewer individuals and 3 more institutions). - Around 75% of our membership is UK based, we also have members in 19 other countries. - 103 members chose to receive a hardcopy of the journal. - In addition 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). Membership numbers have dropped very slightly from 2023. However, this was not by a great deal and so the decline in membership numbers is following its year-on-year trend of slowing down. Membership rates usually increase with our offer of training events and in-person conferences and so our plans for these in 2025-26 should help with our numbers. Uptake of the hardcopy of the journal is stable, with most people choosing to look at it online. I would like to thank everyone who has supported me with the membership work over the last year, Belle Buchanan-Smith, Eimear Ashe and Justine Aw in particular. Natural Sciences Collections Association. Registered Charity 1186918. Website: **www.natsca.org** ## **Editor’s Report: Glenn Roadley** Following the 2024 NatSCA AGM and my election to the role of Editor, a meeting was held between myself and former Editor Jan Freedman to hand-over the role. Jan kindly offered advice and encouragement, and will continue to offer support going forward as part of the Editorial Board. Jan also set up introductions with the Editorial Board, who generously volunteer their time to find peer reviewers for each submitted paper. We had nine submissions for Volume 13, with eight being published in the Journal of Natural Science Collections and one published in NatSCA Notes and Comments. Volume 13 of the NatSCA Journal was published (initially online) on January 16[ th ] 2025, achieving the planned January release window. Many thanks to Justine Aw for her assistance in getting the Journal online, and to Clare Brown and Belle Buchanan-Smith for their role in facilitating the printing and posting of physical copies to members. As preparing the Journal for publication in time for January has always been a challenge, the deadline for submissions for Volume 14 has been brought forward from July 31[ st ] to June 30[ th ] 2025. Natural Sciences Collections Association. Registered Charity 1186918. Website: **www.natsca.org** ## **Co-Chairs’ Report: Jen Gallichan and Isla Gladstone** There have been many positives for NatSCA in 2024. We have sustained a successful programme of events and publications, and are helping advocate for future opportunities for UK natural sciences collections in the DiSSCo UK initiative. In an environment of continued financial and workplace pressures for the sector, we have been able to support the community through opportunities for connection and knowledge sharing using our platforms. We have provided financial support by subsidising costs, providing increased bursaries and reviving our small grant funding stream (Bill Pet ). NatSCA’s 2024 **conference** ‘ s’ _Trials and Triumphs: sharing practice across the museum sector_ aimed to celebrate triumphs and amplify success in museums, but also share pitfalls and lessons learned. The conference was generously hosted by the Oxford University Museum of Natural History on 18th and 19th April. We also continued to offer the option to attend online thanks to the hard work of Glenn Roadley and Justine Aw, which has been welcomed for accessibility. Conference lead Patti Wood Finkle reports that the conference featured 10 lightning talks, 15 full length talks, and a discussion panel. There were 96 attendees on Thursday, 89 on Friday, and six online. The Oxford team hosted 15 store and exhibit tours for participants. Evaluation compiled by Jack Ashby showed the conference highly met attendee expectations. 29% of survey respondents had not attended a NatSCA conference before. Planning for 2025’s conference started in summer 2024. Titled: _“Making a Difference:_ ” and to be hosted at The _Showing the Positive Impact of Natural History Collections_ Manchester Museum, University of Manchester, as well as online. **Training** lead Laura McCoy reports that online training event “ _An Introduction to Natural Science Collections Georeferencing_ ” was delivered on 22[ nd ] November 2024 in partnership with DiSSCo UK. The training was presented by Krisztina Lohonya, Malcolm Penn and Hillery Warner of the Natural History Museum London. An introduction to the subject, plus discussions around data accuracy and management helped attendees get to grips with the subject ahead of DiSSCo working with partners across the UK. It was well received, with 82 of the 95 tickets reserved and NatSCA getting good feedback. The training was free for members and £10 for non-members. In person training was also developed for _“A Practical Introduction to Museum Disaster Management”_ . This was one of the most-requested topics in a survey to members to understand priorities for training. The training will be delivered early in NatSCA’s 2025 year, on 7th February at RHS Wisley, by Jane Thompson-Webb, Head of Conservation for Birmingham Museums Trust and who Chairs Icon’s Care of Collections Group. Ticket costs will be subsidised approximately 50% by NatSCA. Natural Sciences Collections Association. Registered Charity 1186918. Website: **www.natsca.org** Our Lunchtime Chats have continued, with topics ranging from advocacy for Earth Science collections, to the importance of pathology in natural history collections. Following a complaint about one talk this year the NatSCA committee have improved our Code of Conduct procedures for speakers. It is becoming more difficult to find speakers for Lunchtime Chats. Please do speak to our training team Laura McCoy or Emma Murphy: training@natsca.org if you would like to talk about a training topic or delivering a Lunchtime Chat. **Blog** Editor Jen Gallichan reports that it has been another good year for the blog. Visits and views to the page are consistently attracting over 2000 views a month (an average of 70 views per day) and it seems we have a loyal and interested readership. The numbers of subscribers and readers engaging with the articles is not increasing dramatically but at a slow and steady rate. We continue to attract the highest number of visitors from the USA and UK. It is a positive sign to see that we continue to attract a lot of visitors from as far away as India, Canada and Australia. Over 42 blogs were posted throughout the year covering a range of topics from collections moves, public engagement projects, engaging collections with the climate crisis, conservation, and exhibitions. The blog is very much driven by what our readers choose to submit and share with us, and this model has so far been very successful and led to a great diversity of articles. Looking forward, it would be good to build on this, and to investigate how we can better use the blog to signpost our readers to references and training materials, and to consider a series of guest posts contributing on specific topics. NatSCA **Website** lead Glenn Roadley reports that website traffic once again peaked around late April, coinciding with the NatSCA 2024 conference. The conference also resulted in two top ranking pages – the original conference page for delegate information and registration, and the subsequent resources page containing recordings of the conference presentations. Website updates have continued to include sector job vacancies, updates to committee member profiles and the addition of the 2024 conference material. NatSCA’s current website has been in use for over 10 years. It lacks many quality-of-life and accessibility features of more modern websites, particularly the ability to respond to a user’s screen size – changing shape to ease navigation on tablet or mobile. Its content has also grown substantially over that time, with several areas now requiring consolidation and updating. Furthermore, the NatSCA blog website is a different site entirely, detached from the main site. As such, development has started on a new website, which aims to migrate all existing features and content of the current site, whilst also integrating the blog posts and providing a more modern browsing experience. The design of the website is complete and all content has been migrated with the exception of blog posts and publications. Due to Glenn’s reduced capacity following election to the role of Journal Editor, it has been identified as a priority to fund external assistance to complete this work. Natural Sciences Collections Association. Registered Charity 1186918. Website: **www.natsca.org** **Bill Petti** co-ordinator Tannis Davidson shares that NatSCA was delighted to be able to support three natural science collections projects for a record total of £6500 in 2024-25, marking the return of the award following a hiatus since 2022. The projects that support collections care, access and engagement are ‘Bugs in Our Drawers – Securing the National Entomology Collections of the Isle of Man’, ‘Collections Move Project at Southend Museum’, and the Kaupii footprint trace fossil footprint case in Lymm. Thank you to all who applied for the Bill Pet award this year. The quality of applications was extremely high. The three projects receiving funding were all outstanding in terms of their plans to provide collections care and conservation and improve accessibility of collections to visitors and researchers. Work on these projects are underway, and we look forward to hearing more about them upon completion in the NatSCA blog or Journal of Natural Science Collections. It remains a difficult time financially for many individuals and organisations. NatSCA has significantly increased our bursary offer both in terms of number of bursaries and total amount offered to support members to attend our events. We have also subsidised conference and training costs, and re-launched our small grants programme the Bill Pet and Award. We are also able to write letters of advocacy for specific **collections at risk funding bids** , please contact: chair@natsca.org. Through platforms such as our conference, we will continue to platform best practice that helps to sustain collections, and offer opportunities for connecting with colleagues for mutual support. In terms of **national network projects** , NatSCA has continued to support work to develop a national digital research infrastructure for natural science collections called DiSSCo UK (Distributed System of Scientific Collections UK). We hope to support participation and benefit for small to large collections across the UK. We have also represented NatSCA with the Museums Association, as well as continuing to connect with UK Subject Specialist Networks including the Geological Collections Group and Insect Collection Managers Group. Natural Sciences Collections Association. Registered Charity 1186918. Website: **www.natsca.org** ## **Election of NatSCA trustees** 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 are the nominated candidates standing for **Ordinary Member** positions on the committee: |**Nominee**|**Positon**|**Proposed**|**Seconded**| |---|---|---|---| |Jack Ashby|Ordinary Member|Erica McAlister|Hannah Cornish| |Isla Gladstone|Ordinary Member|Jennifer Gallichan|Holly Morgenroth| |Laura McCoy|Ordinary Member|Jack Ashby|Pat Wood Finkle| |Eimear Ashe|Ordinary Member|Pat Wood Finkle|Yvete Harvey| |Emma Murphy|Ordinary Member|Jamie Maxwell|Paolo Viscardi| |Efstrata Verveniotou|Ordinary Member|Yvete Harvey|Lu Allington-Jones| There are six vacancies for Ordinary Members and six nominees. Below is the nominated candidate for **Co-Chair** : |**Nominee**|**Positon**|**Proposed**|**Seconded**| |---|---|---|---| |Tannis Davidson|Co-Chair|Isla Gladstone|Jen Gallichan| There is one vacancy for Co-Chair and one nominee. **Proposal:** We propose one ‘en bloc’ vote for all remaining nominees (six nominees for Ordinary Member, one nominee for Co-Chair). ## _**All proposals were passed with the required 50% at the AGM; Tannis Davidson was duly appointed as Co-Chair and the six ordinary members as listed above were agreed for appointment or re-appointment.**_ Natural Sciences Collections Association. Registered Charity 1186918. Website: **www.natsca.org** ## **Vote of thanks** NatSCA would like to thank everyone who has been involved in delivering our activities in 2024. This includes all those who have contributed Lunchtime Chats, training and conference talks, blogs, articles, applications, questions, expertise, support and more. We would like to thank NatSCA’s trustees for all of their hard work on key activities and for contributing to the overall running of NatSCA. All of our trustees are invaluable to the delivery of our activities, supporting named leads in their roles. In 2024 we welcomed new trustees Natalie Jones and Emilie Pearson. In 2025 we would like to thank Clare Booth Downs, who is stepping down from committee but will be continuing to support NatSCA in a volunteer capacity. 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 Digest including Olivia Beavers and Milo Philipps, and Ellie Clark. They continue to regularly contribute to the monthly newsletter, which has been a great way of signposting the community to events, jobs and training opportunities. Many thanks to our Journal Editorial Board, Paolo Viscardi, Bethany Palumbo, Verity Burke, Emilie Pearson, Lisa Winters and Jan Freedman, whose assistance in managing the peer review process is indispensable, and to our anonymous reviewers who have worked hard to ensure the Journal is of a high academic standard. Particular thanks for Jan Freedman’s supportive handover as out-going Editor, and to Lisa Winters, who will be stepping down from the Editorial Board this year. The NatSCA committee would like to extend special thanks to Isla Gladstone who is stepping down as Co-chair this year. Isla has been a fantastic Chair, successfully steering us through the Covid years and the change to a CIO. She is thankfully returning to committee as an Ordinary member and will continue to provide her much appreciated advice, support and experience. NatSCA’s strength is in being community-led, and we value your contributions towards this past and future. Please do get in touch if you are interested in volunteering for NatSCA or in how our committee works: chair@natsca.org. Natural Sciences Collections Association. Registered Charity 1186918. Website: **www.natsca.org**