Newer members (and maybe some older ones!) may not be aware that January is when new members of Council take up their positions. This year we say goodbye to our president for the past 2 years, Agneta Burton, and welcome Liz Kungu, who has this message for members:

I want to thank Agneta for all her hard work in guiding the BBS over the last two very strange years, when so much of the Society’s work has had to be postponed or placed online, but as can be seen from all the information on this page, behind the scenes the work of the Society continued unabated. A very successful autumn meeting and AGM held in north Wales in September 2021 is surely a sign of the improving times to come.

Looking forward to the coming year, there is still some uncertainty as to how many of the field meetings will be able to take place, as the planned visit to Hungary has already been postponed again, due to uncertainty about international travel with the new Covid variant.

However, we do expect that the much-anticipated week field meeting on Jura, originally planned for 2020, will eventually take place in 2022.

The greater flexibility and smaller numbers participating in local meetings has meant that many of these could restart as soon as Covid restrictions allowed and these have been continuing throughout 2021. There are now 22 local recording groups scattered across Britain and Ireland and I highly recommend joining your local group if you are interested in learning about bryophytes. Personally, I find that a good dose of bryotherapy (a term coined by a fellow bryologist) in these difficult times can be very beneficial. These meetings provide the opportunity to meet up outside with friendly, like-minded bryologists, learn from each other and add to our knowledge of bryophyte distribution, you never know what you will discover. If there isn’t a group in your area, how about starting one yourself.

Liz Kungu, January 2021