Jam Donuts in the Office, an update from the CEO

15 May, 2023

Article by:
David McAuley, CEO, British Deer Society

2023 So Far

The first five months of every year are always an extremely busy time for the head office team. The preparation of our annual accounts, writing our annual report, preparing and circulating voting papers and the Spring Deer journal together with organising and running the annual AGM, it is fair to say it’s a busy period.

This is nothing we can’t handle! However, when you then add the extra work we undertook this year to develop a new purpose, prepare a three to five year strategy, plan a 60^th fundraising dinner, deliver a new online training programme, launch new £5 and £12 monthly Direct Debits, organise the Summer fundraising auction, run various staff and members’ training events, and still carry on with our general day-to-day work, it’s fair to say things can become slightly challenging and resources a little stretched.

Anyway, we’ve managed to deliver all the above, and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped us, our trustees, accountants, branches, advisors, members and most of all the small but dedicated staff team. In the words of those infamous philosophers, Sir Paul McCartney and John Lennon, “you get by with a little help from your friends”, and we did, thank you.

The AGM

On Sunday 14^th May 2023 we held our AGM. The voting in of our President, Chair, officers and accountants together with the approval of our accounts all received overwhelming support from our members. Three Trustees left the board with our Chairman giving them a glowing thank you for their dedication and support as volunteers over many years. It’s important to stress that they may have left the board, but these three will remain an important part of BDS for many years to come. The Chairman gave a report on the work he is doing to attract new trustees who will have the specialist skills we need to help us meet our new strategic aims.

A New BDS

As we move forward the society will exist to “educate and inspire everyone about deer in their environment.” This statement will help us to set the agenda for the next five to ten years.

Our aim is to create a resource centre of information, advice and services about deer and make these freely available to everyone. Training, Best Practice events, Virtual Resources, Education Programme and improved Policy & External Affairs will all form part of our new vision and mission. This year our AGM was run virtually on Zoom, but we plan to hold next year’s AGM ‘in person’ and run alongside some other interesting activities. We will update you later in the year when we finalise details.

Finally, you may ask yourself why is this email entitled “donuts in the office”? As I write this short update our head office staff are taking a short tea break and eating donuts. Sometime small things make a huge difference to encourage and inspire your team. Today it’s jam donuts.

Have a great weekend and please don’t forget to help support our work by donating on our website or bidding in our 2023 online auction, going live on Friday 19^th May 2023. There are several exclusive experiences available.

Thank you, David McAuley – CEO