African Wildlife & Environment Issue 78

WESSA BRANCHES

A SHORT HISTORY OFWESSA EDEN

Being the incumbent Secretary of the WESSA Eden branch, it has fallen to me to dust off the Branch files that have long languished in a cupboard and put this article together. It is a very brief history of the Southern Cape & George Branch, later George/Sedgefield Branch, and now known as WESSA Eden.

Christine Ridge-Schnaufer

• How to deal with matters concerning environmental conflicts • How to increase membership • How to raise funds • How to offer meaningful activities • How to obtain press coverage in the local paper Traditionally, there have been monthly meetings with either a speaker on an environmental topic which was a pleasant social event too, or an outing catering to a fit membership. Since 2008 we have used the Internet to circulate a monthly Newsletter which currently reaches about 4,000 individuals, including

Having found only a single page of Committee Minutes from April 1989, I started with the first question: 'When was the Branch founded?' Roz Schubert who joined WESSA in 1984 and has been on the Committee, more on than off, since then, and that is 36 years in all, is sure that the branch was started in 1983. This means that the Branch is now 37 years old. The Minutes in detail start in January 1992. On casting my eye over them I found amazing similarities to the present day issues:

Exploring the botany of Minwater Klein Karoo (2020)

48 | African Wildlife & Environment | Issue 78 (2021)