25 years at Sussex Wildlife Trust - Filma Dyer

Filma Dyer started working for Sussex Wildlife Trust on 8 December 1997. We caught up with her about how 25 years at the Trust have been

Tell us a bit about yourself

I was born in Henfield 61 years ago, at the family home. In my 20s I moved to Hove and then in 1988 went to live in Mombasa for a year as my partner had a job there. I spent two years in Manchester, but came to live back in Henfield in 1991 with my daughter Holly, and I've lived here ever since.

I saw the job of Education Department Secretary for the Trust advertised in the Evening Argus and came along for an interview (in what's now the kitchen at Woods Mill). I had to do a 10 minute typing speed test, got the job (working for Mike Russell, Head of Education) and have been here ever since.

But it wasn't my first time at Woods Mill. Liz (Francis - Business Support Officer HR) and I, who have been friends since we were four years old, used to come here as Girl Guides when we were about 12 and stuff envelopes for members. It was the run-up to Christmas and we'd be invited to have mince pies. We'd sit in the fireplace in what's now the Hot Desk room. The Reserve Warden was Charlie Coleman back then and he lived on-site.

What's changed?

I’ve worked in a few offices in my time here and I’m now back working in the office I started in 25 years ago. It used to be part of the live-in warden's lounge!

My job title is now Business Support Officer (Delivery) mainly supporting the Communities and Wildlife team’s administrative duties, including uploading the events, courses, Forest School and Wild Beach Training to the website and administering all the bookings. Although the department name has changed over the years, my work here has always been for the delivery team trying to get the message out there that we need to educate and engage the next generation to look after our wildlife.

I remember fondly the Family Fun Days we had here at Woods Mill every year and to celebrate the millennium we buried a time capsule near the gate to the meadow on the reserve in 2000. Five years later we dug it up and added more items to it. To my knowledge it is still there! I'm not sure when or if it will ever be dug up and opened.

I have seen many changes in my time here. There were just over 20 members of staff back then. Now we have just over 120. I never dreamed that would happen.

We'd sit and have coffee where the bike shed now is. This was before the new two storey extension was completed and opened in March 2000 which now houses our membership team and the Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre.

Technology was so very different. There were no mobile phones, or emails. We used to send fax messages through the telephone network. I’m sure some of our younger generation would not know what a floppy disk or a fax machine is? Now we can work from home, make phone calls through our PCs, have face to face meetings on Teams/Zoom.

There are a few other staff at the Trust that have been here for more than 20 years, Steve Tillman, Henri Brocklebank and Richard Cobden. Steve Webster, Woods Mill Reserve Manager, was here when I started, left for quite a number of years and is now back.

Has working for the Trust changed you?

Well I've come to have a greater understanding about wildlife over the years. From a little scary experience of a Poplar Hawkmoth, I went on to buy myself a moth trap to gain more knowledge of our moths.

I'm proud to have been part of the organisation for so long and to have been able to witness how much we do - obviously all of the education, adults and children, working with schools and young people, all the reserves we support, projects such as kelp restoration, as well as shouting from the rooftops about why wildlife matters.

We still do need to educate our young people, because they must continue to carry on the legacy. We also need to keep making sure the government is listening to why protecting wildlife matters.