A perspective at year 26

My address is chiefly concerned this year with the policies, development and principles of our Society. In attempting this review, I am particularly conscious of the fact that the Society has had its 25th anniversary; and that at last year's AGM, both the first President and the Immediate Past President addressed us on the history of the Society and made mention of the emergence of a dichotomy of interests between concern for ecology as a scientific discipline, and the more general topic of concern for the environment. Like those two speakers, it is not my task to take sides, nor my role to remind you o of two basic truths of the nature of organisations: that any Society is the integrated sum of the interests, prejudices and enthusiasm of its members; and that no matter what the rules state, if a Society has the right people with the right interests at heart, the right course will be followed.