The Scottish Bat Workers Conference 2013
Anne Youngman, our Scottish officer writes ……
Hurrah, the Scottish
Bat Workers Conference 2013 is now done and dusted for another year ….. After a
short break to draw breathe it’s time to reflect on how it went and to start
planning for 2014.
So how was it? Read
onto find out more.
Battleby Conference
Centre
The event was held at the Scottish Natural Heritage
conference centre at Battleby near Perth. This is an ideal venue; great
facilities for talks and workshops, helpful staff and is set in perfect bat habitat.
It even has its own bat roosts in the buildings and in centrally heated bat
boxes.
Battleby Conference centre
Biggest so far - The
venue was packed almost to capacity with just over 140 attendees. I was a bit
worried that with so many people we’d never get the toilet, coffee and lunch queues
processed in the available breaks. However there were no signs of people either
fainting from hunger or standing cross legged so I believe everything flowed
smoothly.
Workshops galore – there
were 9 workshop options to choose from with (hopefully) something for everyone,
no matter what their particular batty interest or level of skill. The needlefelting workshop produced some new
bat species (never before seen in Scotland
or the world for that matter)
Heather Macfarlane with the “MacFarlane’s
Mango” bat
“Amazing Lisa”
Lisa Worledge was a real star. When Kate Barlow was unable
to lead the Sound analysis workshop Lisa was rapidly promoted from workshop
assistant to workshop leader and rose brilliantly (if slightly nervously) to
the occasion.
More beautiful bat girls enjoying Sound Analysis
Other workshops included:
Introduction to Analook
(lead by John Haddow)
Raffle, Sales and
displays – The raffle made £90.00, however it was not featured very
prominently so next year I will make the prizes more obvious and hope to raise
even more money towards the Scottish Bat Project.
During break times attendees were able to watch;
* a film by Stuart Pritchard showing the bats in
the centrally heated bat box ,
· *another film featuring the Scottish species
champions ( Made by Scottish Environment LINK)
· *a rolling power point by John Haddow showing
this summer’s work on Arran “Looking for Leislers”
The Fifes
Knitted Nature project displayed whole ecosystems of knitted plants,
animals (including bats of course) and fungi, representing all the biodiversity
action plan species in the Kingdom of Fife.
Fifes Knitted Nature
species delighted and charmed attendees
Delegates were able to stock up on Christmas presents. Jackie O’Hara brought an assortment of her
own hand made cards, bags and other bat related delights, while the beautiful
cards by Lyn Wells (Artful creatures) sold out completely.
Unfortunately I think the lovely batty clock by crafty clocks was rather overlooked
by delegates (there was so much else to see). However If you’d like to order a
clock before Christmas and enter “Bat Conference“ in the comments box when you
make your order a donation will be made to BCT for each bat clock sold.
Feedback – from
the conference was very positive, of the 65 feedback forms returned 41 rated
the day as EXELLENT overall, 17 as Good, no lower ratings were given (and some
people forgot to turn over the page!)
However I won’t rest on my laurels, next year the delegates list will be
sent out a little earlier and the raffle will be made more obvious.
It only remains to say some HUGE THANK YOUs, to everyone
who delivered a talk or workshop and to the caterers and staff at Battleby who
looked after us extremely well.
See you next year J on 8th
November.
Time flies!
Anne Youngman
Scottish Officer, BCT, December 2013
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