The Committee for Wales organises a meeting every year in a different county of Wales; it usually lasts several days and includes a programme of excursions, talks and book sales, as well as an AGM.
Annual Meeting, Exhibition and AGM 2025
The 2025 Wales Annual Meeting & AGM will be held in Denbighshire from 29-31 July. The venue will be the Rhyd-y-Creuau FSC Centre, on the banks of Afon Conwy opposite Betws-y-Coed.
Accommodation is in single or twin occupancy rooms which are either en-suite or with easily accessible bathroom facilities. The field centre is located on the A470 between Betws y Coed and Llanrwst. The nearest railway station is at Betws y Coed on the Conwy Valley Line which connects with the North Wales main line at Llandudno Junction. The station is 1.5 – 2km flat walk from the Centre.
More information, including information on the programme and exhibition, is available on the event page.
Wales Annual Meeting & AGM 2024
The 2024 Wales Annual Meeting & AGM ran from Friday 5th to Sunday 7th July, based at Swansea University, Bay Campus, South Wales, SA1 8EN. The theme was brownfield and coal spoil habitats, otherwise known as open mosaic habitat on previously developed land. Or perhaps in the old days and less generously – ‘wasteland’. Some of the most diverse habitat, currently, and not just for flowering plants – invertebrate and fungi diversity is often high at many sites.
BSBI Wales AGM 2023
The reorganised AGM was held on 11th November at 10am by Zoom.
All members in Wales were able to attend and vote. In addition members could nominate individuals to join the committee. Nominations for membership of the Committee had to be in writing, with the candidate's consent, signed by two members and sent to the Chair, John Palmer (jpp@totalise.co.uk).
Herewith are the AGM Agenda and Chair's report. A link to join the meeting was sent to all members in Wales and to all Welsh VCRs.
BSBI Wales Annual Meeting 2023
Update 31/07 - Meeting Cancelled
The organising team are sorry to report that the accommodation for the Wales Annual Meeting has been cancelled at short notice by the provider due to a health and safety issue. Given the lateness of this notice, the decision has been taken to cancel the planned meeting and AGM in Montgomeryshire. Alternative arrangements will be made for the AGM and all ticket bookers will be refunded. For any additional queries, please contact sarah.woods@bsbi.org.
The 2023 BSBI Wales Annual Meeting, exhibition and AGM together with the associated field excursions, lectures and workshops will take place from 2nd to 4th August at Gregynog Hall (near Newtown) in Montgomeryshire. The agenda for the AGM is available here.
There will be a wetlands theme to this event - here is the draft programme.
Bookings for the 2023 Wales Annual Meeting have now closed. If you are interested in joining the meeting as a resident, please contact the Organising Secretary, gillian.foulkes@yahoo.co.uk in case any more places become available due to cancellation. If you wish to participate as a non-resident there is a waiting list, but you can ask to join this by emailing the address above.
BSBI Wales Annual Meeting & AGM 2022
The 2022 BSBI Wales Annual Meeting, exhibition and AGM together with the associated field excursions was held on Friday 10th - Sunday 12th June 2022 based at Bangor University.
Around 50 participants enjoyed excellent talks by Robbie Blackhall-Miles on Conserving Wales Rarest Plants and Colin French who charted the work involved in producing the recent Flora of Cornwall.
The weekend included the following field visits to local sites of botanical interest:
- Treborth Botanic Garden
- The Great Orme – limestone habitats
- Moelyci – wet grasslands
- Cors Bodeilio- species rich fen
- Cwm Idwal – upland vegetation and arctic alpines
- Morfa Aber- coastal vegetation
We are very grateful to the owners of these sites and excursion leaders for facilitating what were very enjoyable visits. Reports of field visits can be accessed here and will be available in the BSBI Yearbook (members-only) and Welsh Bulletin in due course.
Wales Annual Meeting 2021
Due to restrictions in Wales around Covid, the Committee for Wales had to do things differently in 2021 so they organised the first ever online Wales Annual Meeting & AGM! It was held on Saturday 3rd July 2021 and attracted 36 participants. The great advantage of online events, however, is that recordings could be made of all the talks: these are available to watch (for the first time or again) by following the links below.
Wales Annual Meeting 2021 programme
Welcome & Introduction by BSBI Chief Executive Julia Hanmer
Conserving upland plants: a great talk by Barbara Jones about conserving and restoring upland plants
Grassland plants of the British and Irish lowlands: Stuart Smith talks about the work underlying the recently published BSBI book on Grassland plants of the British and Irish lowlands
Welsh AGM 2021: Stephanie Tyler chairs the 2021 Welsh AGM.
BSBI Wales Annual Meeting & AGM 2020
The Committee for Wales took the decision to cancel the 2020 Annual Meeting and all the planned excursions and to hold the 2020 AGM via email.
BSBI Wales Annual Meeting & AGM 2019
In 2019, the BSBI Wales Annual Meeting & AGM was held in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, and was organised by Richard and Kath Pryce, the joint County Recorders for Carmarthenshire. The meeting ran from Tuesday 21st to Thursday 23rd May and attendees also explored the highlights of the county's flora during three field days. These were to Burry Port, Capel Dyddgen and Pembrey Burrows taking in coasts, woods and both acid and basic meadows. Some of the plants seen are pictured on this page (hover over the image to see the caption). You can read more about the Annual Meeting field trips here.
Presentation from the 2019 Annual Meeting
Click on the link to view or download the presentation: An introduction to Validation from the Wales Meeting 2019
BSBI Wales Annual General Meeting 2018
In 2018 the Welsh AGM was held over the weekend of 17th-19th August in Cardiganshire at Aberystwyth on the University Campus, with a superb range of species and habitats within easy access. The line-up of speakers included Ray Woods, and there were workshops on plant identification (including vegetative keys with John Poland), exhibits (coastal plant variants and Forget-me-nots etc.) and visits to the University Herbarium, Botanic Gardens and landscaped grounds.
