The committee has two permanent posts, a Chairman and a Secretary: they are appointed by the board of "British Birds". There had been no fixed term for these appointments before 2008, however, a three-year fixed term, with a limit of ten years, was introduced with the change of chairman in that year. The current chairman, the committee's seventh, is Adam Rowlands; the six previous chairmen were Philip Hollom (1959–72), Ian Wallace (1972–76), Peter J. Grant (1976–86), Peter Lansdown (1986–93), Rob Hume (1993–97) and Colin Bradshaw (1997–2008). The committee's secretary is Nigel Hudson, appointed in 2007. Its previous secretaries were G. A. Pyman (1959–61), Christopher M. Swaine (1961–63), Denzil D. Harber (1963–66), F. R. Smith (1966–75), J. N. Dymond (1975–77), J. O'Sullivan (1977–78) and Mike Rogers (1978–2006).