An Update from the Chair
Hello all, apologies for the lack of news lately. We have been working very hard to put everything in place to get our nature guide training course up and running. Thank you very much to those of you who have already expressed an interest in joining the course, we are excited to have you with us! I would like to use this post to update you all on our current progress and developments here at Biodiversity and Environmental Education Society.
As I'm sure you will be aware, the world has changed significantly in the past few months and thrown up new challenges that we are all having to contend with. Covid-19 has forced us to look again at our plans for how we run the programme and consider alternative options/formats. Making sure everyone on our course remains safe and healthy is our number one priority here at Biodiversity and Environmental Education Society. That being said we remain committed to delivering a high quality nature guide training course which gets people outside and learning about our biodiversity and natural history.
As you will have seen on our course page, the planned format for the course consisted of a classroom based theory session and an outdoor based practical for most subjects in the programme. The outdoor practicals should be largely unaffected (taking into account the social distancing rules I'm sure we are all now becoming accustomed to). Providing a safe and secure method of delivering the indoor theory sessions presents more of a challenge. The venues in Bury St Edmunds and Norwich we have planned to use are now either no longer available for hire or are imposing a maximum capacity of 5 people to a room, which is not suitable for our requirements. As such we are currently looking at alternative options, including:
finding other venues that are more appropriate to our needs
moving some or all of the theory classes to an online platform
restructuring the course to have some of the theory taught outdoors alongside the practical sessions
a combination of the above
We have been contacted by a number of you regarding making payment for the course. Whilst we greatly appreciate that you are ready to commit to becoming nature guides, we feel it is in the best interest of everyone involved that we do not accept any course fees until we can provide a finalised format and schedule for the course.
We plan to spend the next few weeks analysing the available options in order to make a decision on the best way to proceed with the course programme and hope to be able to update you all with more fixed details soon. In the meantime we welcome any feedback or concerns you may have (you can contact us at info@beeanatureguide.org.uk) and we thank you for your patience whilst we navigate this challenging period.
Stay safe
Anneloes
Board of trustees
In other news, there have been some changes on our board we would like to share with you. Jasmine has decided to step down from the board of trustees in order to focus on her studies ahead of going to university this year. We wish her all the best with her degree, she will remain involved with BEES in an advisory capacity so we can continue to rely on her enthusiasm and support for the project.
Joining us on the board are Lee Fletcher and our new treasurer Rob Colgan, learn a bit more about them here. We are grateful to have them aboard and have already set them to work helping to get the programme up and running.
We also have a new volunteer, Elena Sage who will be writing content for our blog and social media pages, keeping you updated on current biodiversity and conservation issues, both nationally and globally.
That's it from us for now, we will be in touch soon with further news and updates.
Best wishes and stay safe
The BEES team