Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen
Before I give my Treasurer’s report I would like, on behalf of the Federation Management team, to thank you, the members of the North Staffs Federation, for the magnificent support you have given us, in terms of birdage and of the decisions we have had to take during the 2024 season.
Secondly, I would like to thank Leon and Brian for their continued support in the difficult decisions that have had to be taken during the year.
Now to my report
As you all know the appointment of a new Management team for the Federation came about rather late in the day, in fact we only had a matter of two or three weeks to prepare the Fed for the season ahead.
I certainly wouldn’t say it has been easy taking on the Treasurer’s job at such short notice but I have managed to get through the season without too many hitches with the help of the race secretary Leon.
The situation we inherited was, to say the least, challenging with no race programme having been registered with the RPRA and a transporter that had not been MOT tested and that turned out to be unroadworthy.
This meant that we had to arrange a race programme, which proved difficult because some of the race points we wanted to go to were now fully booked on the dates we wanted to go there.
The transporter needed considerable work doing on it to ensure it passed the MOT test and therefore, we had to make alternative arrangements for transporting our birds if racing was to become possible. Sadly, this meant we had to cancel our first race and reinstate it later in the year.
However, we managed to come to an arrangement with the Midland National Flying Club to hire one of their transporters and a trailer for our early races at a cost of £1,400.
After these early races our own transporter had been repaired and had passed the MOT test but those repairs had come at a cost of just under £12,000. This may seem to be extremely costly and some may say that we should have sold the transporter and bought a new/second hand vehicle. This would have been easier said than done. Firstly, without the repairs the vehicle could only have been sold for scrap and secondly at that time of the year (the start of a racing season) there were not many suitable transporters up for sale. So, on purely commercial grounds the decision was made to carry out the repairs and keep the transporter.
A few other small repairs have been carried out on the vehicle during the season at an approximate cost of £2,300 and we are planning to have it MOT tested ready for next season prior to putting it to bed for the winter.
So, it has been a costly year for the Federation with, apart from the cost of the transporter, the increases in recent years of the remunerations for the Treasurer, Secretary, Race Secretary and Assistant Secretary – a total of £6,400.00 – not having been covered by the income from subscriptions. A situation that will have to be rectified for next year.
Additionally, by losing the income, approximately £5,500.00 for transporting other Federations during the racing season, which we have had for a number of previous years, it certainly hasn’t helped matters.
There was also one cost that I hadn’t expected and had never experienced in the 50 plus years I have been involved in racing pigeons and that was the paying of some members to help load the crates on to the transporter!
On a happier note, I can conclude by informing you, with the exception of one race we, or rather you, made a healthy profit on all races. Which justifies the unpopular decision, amongst some, to increase the crate charge to £17. Sadly, this profit failed to totally cover the substantial costs incurred on the repairs to our vehicle and the high remunerations for some Officials recommended and agreed by the members, before we took over.
I hope I have managed to serve you well during the season.
North Staffordshire Federation News 