Presented by the Past President, Dr Peter Skelton, for the President, at the Annual General Meeting in the Ecology Centre, University of Sunderland, on 25 March 1998.

Please accept my apologies that I am unable to attend this year's AGM. If all goes according to plan, I should at this moment be preparing to board a plane from Lima to London, after a collecting trip in South America. I would like to start by thanking Mark Davies very much indeed for arranging this meeting, and sending my best wishes for its success. Thanks also to your past president for once again taking the chair.

The State of The Society

At the end of 1997 the membership of The Society stood at 308, of which 9 were new members, while 7 had resigned during the year and 6 lapsed. As always, I would encourage you all to publicize The Society and to recruit new members, especially among students.

Meetings

The Society has organized, or been jointly involved in, four meetings over the past 12 months.

The 104th AGM was combined with a field meeting this year, and took place at the Queen's University of Belfast on 4th April. Although the attendance was not high, those that did make the journey to Belfast were rewarded by two excellent field trips arranged by Dai Roberts, the first to Strangford Lough and the second to the beautiful country near Cookstown to see the native pearl mussel Margaritifera in its natural habitat. The stated aim of The Society is to encourage the study of molluscs, and one of the most effective ways in which we can achieve thisis by encouraging students of malacology who are at the beginning of their research careers. Therefore, the `Young Malacologists' Forum' was a most important innovation for The Society. This meeting was held at the Natural History Museum, London, on 25 September, and ably organised by Alex Ball. It provided an opportunity for no less than 14 students and post-doctoral researchers (both British and foreign) to present short accounts of their projects, while others showed posters. The Forum was a great success, promoting wide discussion and useful interaction, and also recruiting new members for The Society. The enthusiasm and high standards shown by the participants bodes well for the next generation of malacologists, and it is planned to make this an annual event.

Meanwhile, an earlier generation of malacologists was remembered at the second of the successful meetings on Malacological Pioneers, entitled `Gentlemen and Players', and arranged by Elizabeth Platts and Robert Cameron. This one-day meeting on 22 November was held jointly with the Conchological Society, the Linnean Society and The Society for the History of Natural History. It was the most well attended of our meetings during 1997, attracting an audience of almost 100 to the rooms of the Linnean Society in Piccadilly, and about half of that number to a dinner afterwards.

In contrast, at the latest meeting, entitled `Molluscs and Molecules', nine speakers gave accounts of diverse aspects of the application of the latest techniques of molecular biology to the study of molluscs. This was arranged by your President, at the Natural History Museum, and attracted a diverse audience of about 60, including visitors from Europe, and a high proportion of non-members.

I would like to thank all those who organized or in any way assisted with the arrangements for these meetings.

I would like to remind you that The Society is planning an important international meeting on all aspects of the biology of an unjustly neglected, but increasingly popular, group of molluscs, the bivalves. This will take place over three days in September 1999, at the University of Cambridge. It is anticipated that this will result in the publication of an important book, to rank with the acclaimed Origin and evolutionary radiation of the Mollusca, which was the outcome of our centenary meeting in 1993.

Publications

The Journal of Molluscan Studies continues to maintain its place in the forefront of journals devoted to our discipline, thanks to the expert editorship of John Taylor. The four parts of volume 63 comprised 563 pages and 55 papers. Of particular significance was the inclusion of the proceedings of a symposium on `Molluscan Phylogeny', which was part of the Twelfth International Malacological Congress held at Vigo in 1995. The provenance of the papers (country of first author) is dominantly European, with 38% from continental western Europe, 27% from the United Kigdom and Ireland, 15% from the USA and Canada, 7% from Australia and New Zealand and a further 13% from Africa, Asia, former Soviet Union and Israel. During 1997, 95 papers were submitted for publication and around 40% of these were rejected for various reasons. The Editor would like to express his thanks for the continued support and efforts of the Associate Editors - David Brown, Peter Mordan, Elizabeth Platts and David Reid.

The Society's Bulletin continues to be excellently produced by Stuart Bailey, and appears in February and August. I thank both John Taylor and Stuart Bailey for their hard work on The Society's publications, and all who have contributed to them, whether as authors or referees.

A second important innovation for The Society in 1997 has been the setting up of our own World Wide Web site, based here in Sunderland, for which we are indebted to Mark Davies. This site includes information about The Society and its meetings, its publications and their contents, a complete reproduction of the latest issue of the Bulletin, links to other malacological sites, and even colour pictures of real molluscs. I would encourage all of you with access to the Web to admire it for yourselves.

The Society's Awards

The Society makes three awards each year: the Annual Award for an initial contribution to malacology, the Sir Charles Maurice Yonge Award for an outstanding paper on bivalves published in the Journal, and the Centenary Research Grants for malacological research. The announcements of the winners of the 1997 Awards will be made later in the proceedings. I would just remind you all please to publicize our Awards, especially the Annual Award and the Research Grants, which are both particularly relevant for students.

The Officers and Council

Finally, I would like to express my warmest thanks to all those Officers and Members of the Council who have assisted with the smooth running of The Society, especially to those Council Members who are retiring: Vice-President John Crothers, and Ordinary Members Paul Rodhouse and Stephen Ridgway. In particular, I thank those long-serving Officers of The Society, our Treasurer Dai Roberts and Secretary Georges Dussart, for all their continuing hard work and dedication.

Dr David G Reid, President