Olive Ndungu

Hi everyone, Olive here, your current treasurer, and I'm eager to continue serving the Botanical Society! This year has been fantastic, and I'm committed to ensuring our financial stability for another successful year.

Voting for me guarantees:

- Continued subsidised and free events

- Increased funding: charging a modest £3 paid membership will allow the society to access more types of funding from the union.

- Annual budget and funding applications submitted well ahead of the deadline

Beyond my role, I also have a few general proposals for the society. These include:

- Creating a calendar of biodiversity monitoring events, like the big garden birdwatch, pollinators surveys, and city-wide iNaturalist ID challenges! We could host group ID trips in green spaces around London to participate. This would be a great way to contribute to London's wildlife protection through monitoring.

- Increasing collaboration with Environmental Society - the RSPB big garden birdwatch crossover event was one of my favourites of the year! More collaboration means more people attending our events, and potentially the opportunity to host events in the secret garden!

- More member-driven events: Regular feedback will shape our activities, ensuring a balance of educational (e.g. plant ID classes) and creative (e.g. wreath making) events.

- A hardier plant for next year's houseplant race :/ as a historically successful houseplant owner I was saddened to see my first basil plant, Leaf Leaf, wilt days after bringing it home. Next year we'll ask members for suggestions

Thank you for considering me to be your treasurer for another year!