Get to know your committee.
The FBKA Management Committee helps coordinate the running of the association. We hold five formal committee meetings each year. The following members currently hold positions on the committee, please do come and say hello at any of our meetings.
Graham Read (President, CIO Trustee, Yellow Legged Asian Hornet Team Lead)
Graham started his beekeeping in 1997 when he took a course with John Hamer at Merristwood College, he has kept bees continuously and been a member of FBKA since that time. He currently manages 15 colonies in and around Fleet and Church Crookham. His wife and now adult children have become rather used to bees in the garden (and sometimes the house)! He is currently FBKA President, Asian Hornet Team Leader and a Trustee. He helps teach the FBKA beginners course, mentors new beekeepers and administers 2 of the FBKA member apiaries. He regularly gives talks to local groups, including schools, scouts, guides and local care homes and administers the FBKA Facebook group. He is past editor of Hampshire BKA BeeTalk magazine and has run beekeeping sessions at a World Scout Jamboree in Japan. Graham is also an active member of local Scouting.
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Richard Stuart (Chair)
Richard has been keeping bees since 2010, taking his beginners course with Reigate beekeepers in Surrey. He was instantly hooked, got his first colony of bees in that first summer, and has been keeping bees ever since. He joined Fleet Beekeepers in 2015 when he moved to Odiham. He currently has around 10 colonies in two apiaries, one in Odiham and one in North Warnborough. While the bees are not kept at his house, his garage and garden shed have been taken over by assorted beekeeping equipment! He was “invited” to take on the chair of Fleet Beekeepers at the most recent AGM, a role he was very happy to accept, and is looking forward to supporting the club and sharing his love of beekeeping.
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Andy Nicholson (Secretary)
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Chris Semprini (Treasurer & CIO Trustee)
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Mark Cooper (Committee Member)
Mark is also a HBA Trustee and HBA Yellow Legged Asian Hornet lead
Mark, along with his wife Claire, started beekeeping in 2018, learning his newfound hobby with the Fleet Beekeepers Association. He has gradually built his apiary up to 5 colonies at the end of 2023. During 2024 he increased the size of the apiary to 20 colonies, a significant expansion. Marks is also an active member of Fleet Lions Club.
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James Donaldson (CIO Trustee, Membership Secretary and New Apiary Colony Manager)
James has been a beekeeper since 2005 and looks after 15 colonies near Fleet. He qualified as a Master Beekeeper in 2021 and holds the Microscopy certificate. He is heavily involved in teaching beginners locally and also teaches for the BBKA. He mentors and assists candidates preparing to take: Module exams; the ‘Basic’; and other higher-level assessments. He speaks regularly at local BKA meetings and county conventions and delivered a lecture at the National Honey Show in 2024. James is also a BBKA Correspondence course tutor, an assessor for various practical assessments and he marks Module exams for the BBKA. He is the current Membership Secretary of FBKA and, until recently, was Secretary. He is a past Chair and Trustee of Hampshire Beekeepers’ Association.
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Carly Hooper (Education Manager)
Carly has been beekeeping for twelve years having joined Fleet Beekeeping Association’s Beginner course in 2012. She is now involved in the delivery of that course, mentor others in their beekeeping & run beekeeping experiences for the non-beekeeping public with her fifteen hives. She also has a beeswax based skincare brand & is passionate about sharing the plight of bees through her brand’s social media presence.
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Fung-Ling Leung (New Training Apiary Manager)
Fung is the new Apiary Manager at the new site. She started beekeeping in 2022 and currently has seven hives at a local farm.
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David Morgan (Shop & Existing site Apiary Manager & CIO Trustee)
David first joined FBKA in 1981 at the invitation of Geoff Galliver. Family life and work got in the way and membership was short lived. He re-joined much later in retirement in 2012 and trained at the newly established FBKA Hook Training Apiary. Having got ‘Hooked’ on beekeeping he took on the roles of Association Training Apiary Manager and Committee member in 2013. This year he will relinquish the role as Training Apiary Manager when we relocate to our new site. Since 2014 David has also been our Shop Manager/Shop Keeper/ Shed Store man, all titles used in our 103 years of continuous trading, supplying our members with their beekeeping essentials. Unofficially, he is also the Club’s Archivist holding an assortment of FBKA ephemera. He doesn’t like throwing stuff away!
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Terry Morgan (Committee Member)
Terry started beekeeping in 2017 when his wife Claire attended that year’s beginners’ course, with Fleet Beekeepers and roped him in to help. They currently own and manage 7 hives in two private gardens and farmland, between Yateley, where we live, and Fleet. He currently helps David Morgan manage the existing Training Apiary.
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Mark Browne (Committee Member)
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All committee positions are elected each year at our AGM in February – details of how to seek election is sent to all members in January each year.
In addition to those above, many many other members generously give their time and are involved in many of the club’s activities, including regularly helping at the shop, keeping the association apiary in good shape, assisting at monthly member meetings, helping train & mentor beginners and engaging with the community (at village fetes, schools, local groups, etc.). In addition there are lots of behind the scenes activities that help our association run smoothly.
If you’re interested in getting involved with running the association and/or volunteering to help (whether as a member of the committee or not), please get in touch.