Welcome to this November issue of the IALE UK newsletter. This month's newsletter mostly brings reports from recent events in memory of Bob Bunce: the symposium in Lancaster and the Lake District in September (see the event page here plus reports from day 1 and day 2) and the inaugural Bunce lecture, given by Keith Kirby earlier this month.
During our AGM on the 9th of November a new ialeUK committee was elected. We thanked Bella Davies for more than 20 years on the committee, in various roles including student representative and membership secretary. Thanks were also extended to Jonathan Porter and Chris Young, who will both remain active as ordinary committee members. Jonathan hosted the 2013 IALE Europe conference and the 25-year ialeUK conference in 2017 and actively represented ialeUK internationally. Chris was secretary since 2012 and organised the 2011 Landscape Ecology and Ecosystem Services conference. With some reshuffling, existing committee members volunteered to fill the committee roles: Marc Metzger, president; Vanessa Burton, treasurer; Jessica Neumann, secretary; and James Millington membership secretary and publicity officer. Chris Foster remains newsletter editor, Chloe Bellamy remains the Landscape Connections webinar convener, and Caitlin Lewis remains in post as student representative.
Recognising the voluntary nature of the committee and everyone's competing time commitments, the new committee will need to reflect where and how we can best support knowledge sharing and community building. Our online activities have been very successful, including the recent Bunce Lecture by Keith Kirby and the 2021 Landscape Ecology of Forests, Woodlands and Trees conference. However, the Bunce memorial activities also demonstrated the value of in person interaction. We hope to be able to run an in person conference again soon, but are still looking for a willing volunteer to lead the organisation. Perhaps we should find new ways to meet in person, e.g. though field meetings or thematic workshops? If you have suggestions for events or activities or are willing and able to co-organise or host and event with ialeUK, please email president@iale.uk. We hope to share some of our plans in the next newsletter.