GONHS Annual General Meeting

Membership supports Society's Council

GONHS (The Gibraltar Ornithological & Natural History Society) gave a strong mandate to its Council during the Society's Annual General Meeting held last Thursday evening.

At the meeting, and as provided by the Society's Constitution, elections took place to the Society's Council.  The membership overwhlemingly re-elected the outgoing Council, by secret ballot.  GONHS Council consists of twelve members, including a number of ex-officio members who represent particular sections or areas of expertise.

Following the election, GONHS Council membership, as appointed for the next two years, is made up of:

Paul Acolina, John Balestrino, Keith Bensusan, John Cortes, Jean-Paul Latin, Leslie Linares, Charles Perez, Vincent Robba, Eric Shaw, Harry Van Gils, Jill Yeoman and Albert Yome.  The Council will meet early in the New Year to appoint the Society's General Secretary from within its membership.

At the meeting, outgoing General Secretary, John Cortes, presented his Annual Report, where he highlighted the activities of the past year, and presented plans and concerns for the coming year.

While pleased with the achievements of the Society during 2007, labelling the last two years as "possibly the busiest in the Society's 32 year history", he also expressed disappointment in certain areas and predicted that development would continue to be the biggest threat to the natural environment in Gibraltar for the foreseeable future.  He stated that GONHS had to "continue to work on this problem, with both Government and developers", and said that the Society's Council, if re-elected, would continue to do so.