Trustees and key post holders

Jim spent many years working as a warden for the Youth Hostels Association in northern England before running a village shop and Post Office for five years. Over the last 20 years he has worked for two different national charities, firstly as a fund-raiser and latterly as a witness service manager in the York Courts. His interest in natural history started with birds. He was a bird ringer for 30 years, secretary for the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union Bird section for 10 years, and has been involved in bird survey and recording at local and national levels. Jim's interest in spiders was triggered by attending a course at the former Kindrogan Field Studies Council Centre; he now does most of his spider collecting in and around VC62. He became treasurer of the BAS in 2018 and has served in that role ever since.

Luke has had a keen interest in UK wildlife from a young age. Started off birdwatching and engaging with the British Trust of Ornithology, taking part in voluntary work on Bardsey Island aiding in ringing Manx Shearwater and doing daily bird surveys during the yearly Young Birder’s weeks. Around this time his passion for entomology and arachnology grew and starter to contribute to the islands arachnological records. Originally from the Wirral he also grew a fondness for brownfield sites! Where a Pan-list for his local reserve, Bidston Moss began. Over the years his passion for arachnids grew stronger as well as for macro photography, documenting and photographing every arachnid he could find. Now a student at Edge Hill University, studying Ecology and Conservation he aims to develop these entomological skills further with a primary focus on arachnology.

Meg grew up in the rural Cotswolds and has always had an interest in natural history. She studied Biodiversity Conservation at Nottingham Trent University, where she began recording invertebrates as a hobby. Meg has contributed to several wildlife conservation projects and currently works as an ecologist. She has a special interest in harvestmen and has been organising the BAS harvestmen recording scheme since 2019. She was elected to BAS Council in 2021.

After a successful career in education, Paul opted for voluntary redundancy in 1997 and established an independent ecological consultancy specialising in arachnological and entomological surveys. His work has included establishing the invertebrate charity Hymettus and developing spider and other invertebrate identification courses for the Field Studies Council, University of Birmingham and Manchester Metropolitan University. This new career was based on a lifelong interest in invertebrate recording that has involved spells as newsletter editor for both the Conchological Society and the British Myriapod and Isopod Group (BMIG), Chairman of the Suffolk Naturalists Society and BMIG and he is currently National Organiser for the Millipede Recording Scheme. He is county recorder and SRS Area Organiser for Suffolk and has served on BAS Council as an ordinary member and as Vice-president and President.

A retired academic from the Universities of Manchester and Kansas, Paul researched the palaeontology of arachnids and other chelicerates for over 50 years. Paul joined the Council in 1983 as Distribution Manager (to 1986). He served as Vice President 1994–1997 and 2000–2001, and as President 1997–2000. He has been editor of the Society's academic journal Arachnology since 2011, and is an honorary member of the Society.

Richard works as a species specialist at a Local Environmental Records Centre in Wales. He is an active contributor to the Spider Recording Scheme, with a particular interest in montane and wetland spiders, and also undertakes taxonomic research on African theraphosids. He became a Council member in 2002, Editor of the BAS Newsletter in 2004 and National Organiser for the Spider Recording Scheme in 2021.

After a career of fifteen years in the retail jewellery industry, Tylan has taken a break to focus on a lifelong passion of discovering and identifying British spiders and spends much time volunteering with local conservation groups to help widen the profile of the UK spider fauna. He has recently completed a degree in environmental resource management and currently works for Natural England in the Cornwall and Devon area team. He is the County Recorder and Spider Recording Scheme Area Organiser for Cornwall, and can most often be found looking for spiders on rather beautiful, but precarious, sea cliffs.

His mugshot shows the face of a man who has just found a third British site for Gnaphosa occidentalis.