Call for Candidates for the Chairperson of the British Ornithologists’ Club
The British Ornithologists’ Club would like to hear from anyone interested in applying for the position of Club Chairperson.
The BOC was founded in 1892 and is devoted to the study of avian systematics and species distribution, worldwide. It promotes the importance of avian taxonomy, both as an end in itself and as baseline information to drive efforts in avian science, conservation, and the promotion of biodiversity. It holds quarterly scientific meetings in central London, comprising talks followed by social suppers, sometimes in collaboration with the Linnean Society of London. It publishes the Bulletin of the BOC online and a series of regional checklists as well as other occasional publications. It is a registered charity.
The Club is seeking a new Chairperson to join the established team of Trustees from January 2026. The role is fully supported by the Club Secretary, Treasurer, Bulletin Editor, Meetings Secretary, Social Media Manager, Webmaster, and Mailing List Manager. The principal tasks include: organising and chairing Trustee meetings; working with the Trustees to further the aims and work of the club; developing financial strategy and reporting in collaboration with the Club Treasurer; preparing the Club’s Annual Report; liaison with the Charities Commission and other collaborating institutions; oversight of the Bulletin Editor; and contract negotiation with the authors and publishers of the Club’s publications, supported by the Club Secretary.
There is no stipend for the post, but legitimate expenses will be covered.
Interested parties should contact the Honorary Secretary, Andrew Richford, at andysrichford@gmail.com, in the first instance.
What we do
We are passionate about educating the public in the UK and world-wide in all things ornithological including avian systematics, taxonomy and species distributions. We provide a platform for the publication of open-access scientific information, via the Bulletin, as well as hosting discussions on key ornithological issues.
Publications
In 2020 we published, in the Checklist series, The Birds of Cuba. It is obvious, we think, that such a book should be available in Spanish, the language of Cuba, for the benefit (and pleasure) of all of its population, as well as many people in the wider Caribbean and South American region. For this reason, it’s a pleasure to make this available in an accessible PDF format. The essential parts of the text was translated by two of the original authors, Andy Mitchell and Arturo Kirkconnell and proofed by Nathaly O’Farrill. The translated version is available here.
Bulletin
The BOC produces a Bulletin four times a year in an open access online format available for viewing and downloading at BioOne. The list of the table of contents of each issue is available at the Bulletin Index page where you will also find the contents from earlier issue. These are available to view on the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) website.
The BOC Bulletin is available for viewing or download. You can view the table of contents, abstracts and references, full text or downloadable PDFs of individual papers as well as the complete issue at the BioOne Complete website.
Meetings
Details about our next meeting will be available here.
Blog
We publish blog posts which tell the stories of papers published in the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club and look at pertinent issues in ornithology. We have also started a series of blogs which document the biographies of the founders of The BOC.
Read the latest blog posts here: