Membership and subscriptions

At the end of 2000, our membership stood at 254, of whom 235 were ordinary and 19 were student members. 16 new members joined the Society during the year. At the same time the previous year, our nominal membership stood at 307, so these figures may appear to represent a significant loss. This is mostly due, however, to the deletion of members whose subscriptions were seriously in arrears, and who failed to reply, or to renew their subscriptions when asked. We owe special thanks to our acting Membership Secretary (and Vice President), Mark Davies, for tidying up our records and for carrying out the awkward task of recovering arrears. As our treasurer, Elizabeth Platts has explained, we hope that new procedures and the establishment of the post of Membership Secretary, discussed at our EGM, will prevent a backlog of this kind developing again, as well as helping us to step up recruitment.

It is with great regret that I note that one of our losses is due to the death late last year of Alastair Graham, one of the outstanding malacologists of the twentieth century. He served as our President, and also, for many years as the Editor of our Journal; his contribution to the Society is surely unique. [A tribute appears in this Bulletin.] J Francis M de Bartolomé, another distinguished and long- standing member, who was a major donor to the Centenary Appeal, also died in 2000. An obituary of Ted Trueman, whose death was reported at our last AGM, was published in the Bulletin last year.

Members will be aware that an EGM in November approved an increase in subscriptions to £40 for ordinary membership, and £25 for student membership; there was no increase last year and the increase accommodates the increased size of our Journal.

Meetings

The Society organised three meetings during the year; detailed accounts of these have appeared in the Bulletin.

The first was a well-attended meeting on April 8th at the Linnean Society, held jointly with the Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland, and with the British Shell-collector's Club. Entitled "Molluscs in the new Millennium", this examined the future of molluscan studies from many angles, and involved twelve invited speakers and some spirited discussions. Thanks are due to David Reid, who masterminded a complex programme.

Our second meeting, on 8th June, was held jointly with the Linnean Society, in their rooms, on "Pulmonate Land Snail Evolution and Diversity". Four speakers gave powerful demonstrations of the impact of sophisticated molecular techniques on our understanding of relationships within the group at scales from families to sibling species. Thanks are due to Peter Mordan for organising this stimulating and provocative occasion.

Our final meeting, held on 2nd November in the Natural History Museum, was the Molluscan Forum, a renamed version of the Young Malacologists' Forum which was held successfully in 1997 and 1998,but which, to our dismay, failed to recruit enough participants in 1999. Council nevertheless decided that helping those starting their malacological research was a crucial task-for the Society, and that we should try again.

I am delighted to report that the Molluscan Forum 2000 was a great success. There were 13 oral presentations and 7 posters,- student participants came from five countries besides the UK, and the standards of presentation were very high. Many more experienced members participated in discussions, and there was a good "buzz" in the breaks. Special thanks are due to Alex Ball, who made all the domestic arrangements work, and handled the diverse and complex AV requests with aplomb. Council have already booked the NHM for Molluscan Forum 2001; details are in the Bulletin and on the website. Please encourage students to sign up.

Publications

Volume 66 of the Journal of Molluscan Studies for 2000 contained 56 papers and research notes, totalling 581 pages. The provenance of the papers (country of first author) is dominantly European, with 45% of the papers from continental western Europe, 16% from the United Kingdom and Ireland, 18% from the USA and Canada, 14% from Japan and China, and a further 7% from Australia, South America and India.

The editor is extremely grateful for the continuing support and efforts of the team of Associate Editors - David Brown, Liz Harper, Peter Mordan, David Reid, and Mikael Thollesson, with special thanks to Elizabeth Platts who recently retired from the role after many years of editing papers concerning opisthobranchs.

Stuart Bailey has continued to edit and produce our Bulletin in a way that has aroused the admiration of people across the globe, with a ringing endorsement all the way from Australia. It reflects our activities and concerns in a readable and lively way.

We should note the publication in November 2000 of the 504 page volume "Evolutionary Biology of the Bivalvia"edited by E.M.Harper, J.D.Taylor and J.A.Crame as Geological Society of London Special Publication 177. 1-504. This contains 32 papers from the highly successful conference on "Biology and Evolution of the Bivalvia" held at Cambridge in September 1999, which was reported on at last year's AGM.

The Society's website has gone from strength to strength. 1999 saw a 20% increase in hits; 2000 has seen a 400% increase, with hits well into five figures. Many registrations and inquiries about the Molluscan Forum originated from it, and it is now a significant part of the means the Society has to fulfil its aims. Thanks are due to Mark Davies, who has set up and maintained the site for us on top of the work - involved in acting as our Membership Secretary.

The Society's Awards

The recipients of the three awards made by the Society each year are announced on page 18. The Sir Charles Maurice Yonge Award, for an outstanding paper on bivalves published in the Journal, does not require applications, but the Annual Award (for a distinguished initial contribution to molluscan studies), and the Centenary Research Award (for expenses in carrying out a piece of research) both depend on applications or submissions. While Council was very pleased with the quality of this year's winners, we are concerned that the number of applications has fallen over the last few years. Please encourage students to apply, and bring exceptional theses or early publications to our attention.

The Society and the future

The Millennium year was, predictably, a time when many organisations took stock- of their activities, and tried a bit of futurology, as we did at the April meeting mentioned earlier. The international character of our membership, of our institutional subscribers, and even of our meetings, combined with the excellent standing of our Journal, Bulletin and other publications, all suggest that we are fulfilling our aims usefully and well.

We cannot be complacent, however. There are many small but worthy societies that are encountering considerable difficulties, as the subjects that are at the heart of their concerns lose their appeal in the face of changing fashion and great competition for funds and esteem. The Institute of Biology published a wide-ranging report on the organisation of scientific societies late in 1999, a report which appeared to devalue the work of smaller societies, and perhaps especially those which concentrated on a particular group of organisms, and had a concern for systematics.

The Linnean Society has, therefore, initiated and hosted meetings for representatives of such societies, to identify areas of common concern, and of possible joint action, which might be missed (or dismissed!) in a larger forum dominated by medical, pharmaceutical and agricultural interests. Liz Platts and I have represented the Society at these meetings; we will report to Council, and through the Bulletin, as issues or proposals emerge. A recurring theme in these reflections has been the role of societies like ours in education, an issue that Council will consider in the coming year.

Officers and Council

On behalf of the Society, I should like to thank Elizabeth Harper for her services as Vice President. Elizabeth resigned her post during the year due to pressure of new duties at work. All my fellow Officers and Council members get my personal thanks for their services in what has been a very busy year for the Society. I am particularly grateful to my predecessor, David Reid, for continued advice and support.

Robert Cameron, President