BCARM

Records management is an essential component of a botanic garden. BCARM is the BGANZ Collections and Records Management group aimed to provide support for staff in botanic gardens managing plant collections.

They do this by:  

• fostering collaboration and advocating for best practices in collections and associated records management (collections management) across the BGANZ membership 

• identifying professional development needs and sharing expertise to enhance collections management capability 

• scanning the environment for current and emerging issues, and trends that may influence or impact on collections management 

• providing harmonised responses or recommendations to generic collection issues across the BGANZ membership. 

• reporting and providing recommendations to the BGANZ Member Committee on significant matters. 

The group will be working on: 

• facilitating common standards and best practice for living collection policies, plans, strategies and records management 

• providing professional support for collection development strategies and managing associated issues such as climate change, invasive species etc 

• harmonisation of national collection holdings (metacollections) and/or duplication of wild-collected, rare or threatened species 

• supporting common weed risk assessment approaches and the development of supportive tools/methodologies to enable better management 
• developing contemporary learning and interpretation resources that highlight the value of living collections 

The committee is made up of members from Australia and New Zealand – Sheree Parker (Geelong Botanic Gardens), Amelia Martyn Yenson (Australian Seed Bank Partnership), John Sandham (Botanic Gardens of South Australia), Donna Thomas (Ballarat Botanical Gardens), Tex Moon (Dandenong Ranges Botanic Garden), Wolfgang Bopp (Christchurch Botanic Gardens) and Amanda Shade (Kings Park and Botanic Garden).

Sheree is the current Convenor of BCARM.