2014ConferenceExtra

A Member of the Round Table Family

Of Clubs

Conference returns to the south coast in 2014 and weare guaranteed a very warm welcome from theBournemouth team. The theme this year is 'Showtime'and there are plenty of surprises planned over the fourdays.

This newsletter includes information for those attendingany of the Conference events and/or the AGM. It willalso be of use for those that plan to watch the AGM asit is streamed to the club website (www.41club.org).Those watching on the internet will have the ability tovote in the trial on-line voting experiment we will beconducting. This year the on-line votes will not actuallybe included in the final decisions, but if the trial issuccessful then on-line voting will be available at futureAGMs.

We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible atBournemouth, and hope that as many others will viewthe on-line broadcast of the AGM.

Welcome to the 2014 Conference Extra Newsletter

National Conference and AGM Timetable

SHOWTIME PROGRAMME Event Venue Thursday

12.00 Box Office Opens Royal Bath Hotel (RBH) Green Room Opens “

19.00 for 19.45 Guests assemble for the Welcome Party

Green Room, RBH

20.00 Welcome Party Buffet Restaurant, RBH Friday

07.30 Golf Competition Transport Canford Magna 09.30 Trip to RNLI Poole 09.30 Trip to Compton Acres C anford Cliffs, Poole 10.30 41 National Council Meeting Mirabelle Suite RBH 17.15 International Greetings De Vere Suite RBH

18.45 Red Carpet Reception Pavilion Ballroom 19.45 Gala Ball Begins “

Saturday 08.15 41 AGM Transport Begins Lifecentre , Moordown 08.30 41 AGM Registration Opens “ 09.30 41 AGM Opens “ 10.00 Tangent Lunch Registration Opens De Vere Suite, RBH 11.30 Tangent Lunch Commences “

13.45 Tangent AGM Commences “ 18.30 for 19.15 Final Party Pavilion Ballroom

Sunday 10.30 Showtime Closing Ceremony Green Room, RBH

2014 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING – THE LIFE CENTRE – SATURDAY 26TH

APRIL

The Life Centre - 711-715 Wimborne Road, Winton, Bournemouth BH9 2AU

Tel: 01202 530265

Shuttle buses will run early morning from the Royal Bath Hotel – and back at the end of the

AGM. See the Notice Board in reception for times.

Many of the ‘Yellow’ or ‘More’ buses pass the Life Centre from Bournemouth town centre. The journey by bus takes about 20mins.

Limited Parking at Moordown St Johns Primary School playground in Victoria Park Road

opposite. Signs will be displayed in Wimborne Road and stewards will be on hand to direct you.

P LC

National Conference and AGM Locations

SIXTY NINTH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING AGENDA

1. Welcome by the National President

2. Purposes and Objects

3. Apologies for absence

4. Appointment of Tellers and Scrutineers

5. Confirmation and Adoption of the Minutes of the 68th Annual General Meeting held on 13th April 2013 in Llandudno, North Wales

6. Matters arising from those Minutes

7. To receive the National Council’s Report for 2013

8. Receive Resolutions

9. Election of Officers 2014-2015/7

10. Adoption of National Treasurer’s Report and Accounts to 31st December 2013

11. Presentation of the Budget for 2015

12. Agreement of the Budget for 2015

13. Appointment of Independent Examiners

14. Presentation of Trophies and Appreciations

15. Installation of National President 2014-2015

16. Installation of National Vice-President 2014-2015

17. Installation of Officers 2014-2016/2014 - 2017

18. Any other Business relevant to the AGM

20. Time, date and place of the 70th Annual General Meeting 9.00 a.m. – Saturday 18th April 2015 – Harrogate InternationalConference Centre

Please note any member of 41 Club can attend the AGM and observe.There is no limit on numbers – everyone is welcome!

Can't Attend the AGM ..... ThenAs last year we will be video streaming the AGM live onto theAssociation website, if you cannot attend please ensure that yourChairman hosts his Club members to listen to the debate andstimulate discussion.

Additionally, this year we are trialling Electronic Voting. Your ClubChairman will shortly be receiving a unique access code allowinghim on the day to not only Hear and See the AGM live but also toVote on the important issues affecting the Association afterdiscussing them with you. These electronic votes will NOT counttowards the overall vote but are for testing purposes only THISyear.

I am trying to promote the equivalent of Street or Chairman’sParties throughout GB&I and encourage inclusivity in all ourbusiness. Please join in!

Car Parking in BournemouthThere is no on-street parking in the centre ofBournemouth. The Royal Bath Hotel has limited parkingavailable. This is valet parking and is on a first-come first-served basis. Please note that cars parked at the hotelcannot be removed until the Sunday. If the hotel car parkis full or you require your car during the conference periodthen please use one of the surface car parks in the towncentre. Parking costs about £12.50 per day.

For the AGM special arrangements have been made forparking at a school near the Life Centre. Please see themap on the previous page.

Transport to the Life CentreThe 41 Club AGM is being held at the Life Centrewhich is a few miles from the Conference Hotel.Shuttle buses will be provided at peak times orthere are service buses to the venue if you traveloutside the shuttle bus schedules.

Resolutions Submitted By National Council

RESOLUTION 1

National Council propose that:

Subject to the National Board being satisfied that theelectronic web voting system tested at the Bournemouth AGMin April 2014 is a viable tool for future use, it is empowered tochange the necessary rules to implement the system for theAGM in Harrogate in 2015 and thereafter.

RATIONALE:

The rationale behind this proposal is to enable all ConstituentClubs of the Association to have a voice and more importantlya vote at the AGM. At present Voting Delegates that attend theAGM and those Clubs that elect to give their proxy vote to aVoting Delegate (subject to the conditions of rule 17.3) canvote. Individual Clubs have voiced their discontent in beingunable to vote due to the distance required to be travelled andor the cost of the Annual Conference. The introduction ofElectronic Voting allows individual Clubs to view and listen tothe AGM via the Video Streaming and having listened to thedebate and discussions make an evidence based decision onthe proceedings and have it recorded as an integral part of theAGM process. This resolution when passed will eliminate theneed and use of Proxy Voting.

Existing Rule 17.3

Every constituent club shall be entitled to send one delegate,appointed from its full members, who shall not be a currentmember of the National Board, to a General Meeting. Eachconstituent club shall have one vote on any resolution at aGeneral Meeting (subject to Rule 4.6). Such vote shall begiven either by the voting delegate appointed by theconstituent Club from its own membership and attending themeeting or by a proxy voting delegate, who shall not be acurrent member of the National Board. Any constituent Clubmay appoint a proxy voting delegate from another constituentClub to attend the General Meeting and vote on its behalfproviding that the name of the proxy delegate shall have beenregistered with the National Secretary not less than 72 hoursbefore the Meeting. A proxy voter may also vote for his ownclub but may not be a proxy voter for more than one club.Members of more than one club may carry a single vote foreach club of which they are members.

RESOLUTION 2

National Council Propose that:

Rule 9.4 is amended:

This is achieved by deleting the words ‘not less than eight and notmore than twelve’ and insertion of the word ‘five’ in their place intwo separate sentences and deletion of the word ‘postal’ after ‘a’before the word ‘ballot’.

The rule will then read:

The National Secretary shall give constituent clubs five weeks’notice of an election in their Region. Nominations accompaniedby the written consent of the nominee and relevant details inaccordance with Rule 6.6 shall be submitted to the NationalSecretary by the notified closing date. In the event of there beingmore than one nomination the National Secretary, or such otherperson appointed by the National Council, shall arrange for aballot to be conducted, the closing date of which shall be fiveweeks after the ballot documents and relevant details of thecandidates have been circulated. Canvassing for election as aCouncillor is prohibited save that a candidate may submit to theNational Secretary for circulation by him an election address insuch format as shall be approved by the National Council. TheNational Council shall decide if any prohibited canvassing hastaken place in which event that candidate shall be disqualifiedfrom that election.

RATIONALE:

With the current development in Information Technology, theAssociation’s database of member e-mails and our move fromPaper Mailings to Electronic Correspondence there is too long atime interval in the minimum and maximum timings for notice andreceipt of nominations for National Councillor Elections. Byreducing the time intervals the time for a region to be without aNational Councillor can be reduced by two months and in the caseof a contested election a total of four months. The same rationaleis applicable for the deletion of the word ‘postal’ allowing theNational Secretary to make use of modern technology.

RESOLUTION 3

National Council propose that:

Rule 9.10 is deleted.

Rule 9.10 reads: In the event of a Region beingrestructured prior to the 2008 Annual General Meeting anyserving National Councillor in office following the 2007Annual General Meeting shall automatically become theNational Councillor for the Region in which his club issituated but his length of service shall be deemed to havecommenced from his original election.

RATIONALE:

Rule 9.10 relating to the 2007 restructuring of Regions isobsolete, does not relate to current practice and is hencenot required.

Voting Delegates

Each Voting Delegate must bring to the AGM a Voting DelegateAuthority Form signed by either the Club Chairman or Secretary,authorising the delegate to vote on the Club’s behalf. This form willbe required at Registration in order to obtain a Voting Pack. Thisdoes NOT apply to Proxy Voting Delegates.

Amendments to Resolutions

Any amendments to a Resolution seeking to amend theAssociation's Constitution, Rules or Standing Orders must bereceived IN WRITING by the National Secretary no less thanSEVEN days before the AGM. Any amendment must be proposedand seconded by a constituent Club.

Speaking at the AGM

Delegates may speak at the AGM on any subject; however thismay only be for a maximum of THREE minutes. A traffic lightsystem will be operated to time speeches and after three minutesthe sound system will be cut off. Anyone speaking shouldannounce his Name, Club Name and Region before speaking.

Delegates are reminded that the AGM is recorded for the purposesof recording the minutes. Delegates are also reminded that theAGM is being Video Streamed onto the Association website.

RESOLUTION 4

Bournemouth 41 Club propose that:

‘The role of National Council and the position of NationalCouncillor be abolished as soon as possible and in any event byno later than the end of the seventieth Annual General Meeting ofthe Association in 2015 and that the National Board be instructedto make timely recommendations for the future governance of theAssociation with a view to the new governance being introducedfrom the end of the seventieth Annual General Meeting’

National Council OPPOSE THIS RESOLUTION

RATIONALE:

The rationale behind this proposal is

Clause 3.1 (b) of the Constitution and Rules of the Associationsets out the “Purposes” of the Association. The structure of theNational Board (consisting of the National Officers) was recentlyrevised to better reflect and achieve those Purposes and improveGovernance. So far, it has not been possible to reflect and betterachieve those “Purposes” and improve Governance belowNational Board level.

Under the present management structure, the National Board hasno power to submit recommendations to the general membershipof the Association without having first obtained the approval of theNational Council, a body which consists of the National Board andthe National Councillors, wherein the National Councillors holdsway in view of their numbers. This enables the National Councilto block recommendations by stifling them at source, which wouldbe unfortunate if they were recommendations which might be

thought by the general membership to be ones where the NationalCouncil had a vested interest in preserving the status quo. Suchdefeated resolutions are unlikely even to come to the notice of thegeneral membership as having being discussed at all. Thisresolution is an attempt to empower the Board to bring new ideasand recommendations for the Governance of the Association tothe general membership.

In any event and further to and apart from the above, there isanother reason why the role of National Council and NationalCouncillors should receive fundamental critical consideration andit stems from the Association having made a considerableinvestment in technology to improve communications. Fast, highquality, cost-effective communication between National andalmost every member of the Association is now possible. This hasbrought two further advantages in that the message spread byNational is consistent (and not “interpreted” by NationalCouncillors) whilst also actually being spread (and not forgottento be spread by National Councillors or not being spread becausethere is no sitting National Councillor in a Region).

As a consequence of just the investment in technology andcommunication alone, it is felt that the previously accepted needfor a National Council has gone and that the role of NationalCouncillors is superfluous too.

Underpinning this resolution is a belief that new Governanceshould be put in place by the Association and that the best way toachieve that objective is for the Association to empower andinstruct the National Board to put forward proposals to the generalmembership of the Association to achieve such new, improvedGovernance, unhindered by a National Council and NationalCouncillors both of which should be abolished.

Resolutions Submitted By Constituent Clubs

Notes on Proxy Voting

The membership is reminded that proxy voting can be used at thisAGM. The Proxy Delegate voting rules are as follows:

Every constituent club shall be entitled to send one delegate,appointed from its full members, to a General Meeting. Eachconstituent club shall have one vote on any resolution at a GeneralMeeting (subject to Rule 4.6). Such vote shall be given either by thevoting delegate appointed by the constituent Club from its ownmembership and attending the meeting or by a proxy votingdelegate. Any constituent Club may appoint a proxy voting delegatefrom another constituent Club to attend the General Meeting andvote on its behalf providing that the name of the proxy delegate shallhave been registered with the National Secretary not less than 72hours before the Meeting. A proxy voter may also vote for his ownclub but may not be a proxy voter for more than one club. Membersof more than one club may carry a single vote for each of clubs ofwhich they are members.

To summarise:

� Any Club can appoint someone from another Club to vote at the

AGM on their behalf

� That person must be a member of a fully paid up constituent Club

� The Proxy Voter can vote for his own club or clubs as well

� The Proxy Voter can have two or more votes. i.e. for his own Clubsand for the Club he

represents as a proxy voter.

� The National Secretary must be informed by the Club appointingthat person the name and

details of the Proxy Voter IN WRITING to arrive THREE days beforethe AGM. Information may be sent to the National Secretary by: e-mail (secretary@41club.org) or Post: 78 Portchester Road,Fareham, Hampshire, PO16 8QJ.

PLEASE NOTE THE NATIONAL SECRETARY WILL NOT BEABLE TO RECEIVE POST PROXY VOTER DETAILS AFTER 9.30ON WEDNESDAY 23RD APRIL 2014 AS HE WILL BE IN TRANSIT

For those attending the AGM as the Voting Delegate, please ensure the Chairman or Secretarycompletes and signs the Voting Delegate Form (FORM A) and they bring the completed Form with

them to the AGM to register. Failure to follow this may prejudice your Club’s vote.

National President - Martin Green

It seems very odd to be writing an end of year report at the end ofDecember. It seems like only yesterday that David Smith placed thepresidential jewel around my neck and an unforgettable journeybegan. In my life. I have always been one of the ‘back room boys’ –never the ‘leader’ or the ‘man at the top’. Becoming President was notinitially in my comfort zone, but it is surprising how quickly you get intothe role – in reality you don’t have time to think about it!

Wherever I have been I have been made very welcome. I have founda good and generous spirit everywhere. A spirit that reflectseverything that is good about having been a Round Tabler. In realitywe are still Tablers – just older versions!

Wherever I have been accompanied by my wife Maria, she too hasbeen made very welcome, in fact in many cases, as she has beenhandling my ‘bookings’, she has sometimes been more well-knownthan I have!

There are of course an enormous number of thank-you’s I need tomake. To everyone who has made both Maria and I so welcome, forthe gifts we have received in some places to commemorate a visit, tothe Board and Council for their tireless and often unrecognised workon the Association’s behalf, to the team at Marchesi House for theirsupport, and to the guys in Abingdon and Isis Clubs who have in manycases driven me around the country. And of course to Hyundai whohave continued to provide us with a Presidents car – a hugelyimportant benefit to the Association.

And then there is Maria. Without Maria none of this would have beenpossible. She has worked like a demon sorting bookings, clothes,gifts, dry cleaning, drivers etc. and without her I know I would havefloundered.

It has also been a huge pleasure to work closely with MacmillanCancer Support. At the time of preparing this, I am unclear how muchwe have raised for them, but I have been amazed at the enormousgenerosity that I have seen in 41Club to support this much neededcharity. Sometimes the generosity can catch you unawares –Bracknell, who out of the blue gave me a cheque for £1,000, Mallorca€2,000 from a coffee morning, Barry Durman riding a bike fromMarchesi House to the Moulin Rouge, Ken Griffiths running the GreatSouth Run, and even the anonymous £10 note that arrived in the postfrom ‘someone in York’. To everyone who has supported in some wayor another – many thanks.

Throughout the year I have spoken at nearly every event about myconcerns for our membership numbers. The low numbers in RoundTable, coupled with the poor conversion rate of Tablers to 41Club isslowly eroding our numbers. The members of the National Board

have all been working very hard on differentinitiatives to increase numbers – but it is an uphillbattle. However, I do sense wherever I go thatthis concern is only ‘at the top’, and at Club levelvery few seem worried about this. I’m afraid thatunless we do address this at every level, ourerosion will accelerate and in ten years we willhave halved our numbers. I really believe wemust provide a legacy so those who follow us canenjoy what we have done.

I have enjoyed the company of the other threeNational Presidents in the Round Table Family this year, Stephen,Ruth and Karen. The biggest strength we have is when we aretogether – not just at the ‘top’ but at all levels. The best events I haveattended this year have been where they have been joint meetings,where either Tablers are present, or when the Ladies get involved. Icite Nuneaton’s Beetle Drive as one of the best – perhaps viewed bysome as extremely ‘crass’ but in spirit and fun – most enjoyable.

Internationally I have been made most welcome at both theSwitzerland AGM and the Swedish HYM. What has become veryclear at both of these meetings is that ‘membership’ is a key issueworldwide and most countries see the future of 41Club as workingclosely with Round Table. An excellent example of this has been OldTablers Deutschland (OTD). In Germany 85% of Tablers join 41Club.In the UK we convert 20-25%. OTD have worked really closely on ajoint Community Service initiative with Round Table in Kenya.Transfer from Table to 41Club is almost ‘automatic’ – perhaps thereis something we could learn here?

Also, of course, we have to make sure the Tablers have somethingto join worth joining. A Tabler leaving Round Table at 45 is very ‘ageconscious’. He has been involved in a wonderfully stimulatingexperience in Table. Please put yourselves in his shoes and askyourself if your Club offers something for this guy to make him wantto join you?

My best wishes go to Jim Smith and his wife Chris for next year. Jimhas been a real ‘rock’ this year, and I know he will serve theAssociation well during his Presidential year.

It is a huge privilege to be National President and to wear thatwonderful jewel of office. I hope I have served the Association wellduring 2013 and I wish everyone well for the forthcoming year.

Thank you all for giving me that privilege.

Martin Green

Board Reports for 2013-2014

National Vice President - Jim Smith

The e-mail from National Secretary Manny to submit my report forthe AGM papers was a reminder as to how quickly the year is goingand that it will not be too long now before I take over the Presidency.During the year I have often joked with members on some visits thatthe National Vice President role is the easiest on the National Boardas they don’t really have a portfolio. That may be the case as themembers of the National Board work very hard on behalf of themembership but I have found this year extremely busy.

Forward PlanningForward Planning is the role of the National Vice President. Not onlyin preparing for the year as National President but as Chair of theForward Planning Committee. Forward Planning is really about how

can we do better in engaging with the Membership, how we canimprove the retention rate of Tablers due toleave Round Table and how do we workalongside the rest of the member Associationsof the Round Table Family. This year has seenus working on two major initiatives. Firstly I amdelighted that we have been able to come to anagreement with Round Table on the sharing ofmembership data, overcoming potential DataProtection hurdles at last. More on this appearsin Duncan Kennedy’s Membership report. Thisis a major step forward and we would like tothank the Round Table Board and their Chief

Executive Cait Allen for their help in achieving this.

We have also been working on our ‘Communications Strategy’. Inthe 21st century the cornerstone of any membership organisation isits ‘IT Strategy’. We have reviewed ours and found it wanting. We areabout to embark on a project to re-build our web site, which hasn’tbeen touched for over 10 years, and incorporate it with a SocialMedia strategy using the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Linked-In.Whilst Social Media may not be for everyone it is used heavily by ouryounger target market and can assist us in broadening our reach.The IT Strategy is a major part of our whole communications and youwill have seen that we are communicating with the membershipmore by e-mail now which is not only more inclusive but saves usmoney. More news on the web site will be given at the AGM.

These two items are key to our future but as you will see from thebudget and Treasurer’s report they do cost money. The NationalBoard believes there is a real justification for this spend. The website is the cornerstone of our communications policy. At the momentit is old technology, very tired and very inactive. If we communicatewith potential members from past Tablers or those just about toleave Round Table to be effective our communication has to pointto the web site. Feedback tells us that just one look will confirm theirsuspicions that we are inactive and not worth joining. We have a realopportunity this year with the agreement on Table database. Froman initial view we will be e-mailing around 10,000 past Tablers whoare not members of 41 Club in one hit. We will then be able to followthat up with other communication and direct contact. This is a goldenopportunity for us to grow our membership and improve the rate oftransfer from Round Table to 41 Club. We acknowledge this is notthe only thing that needs to be done but it is a much needed platform.I urge you to support the budget for this.

We have also been working on improving the link with RoundTablers to encourage them to join 41 Club as the ‘Club of Choice’after Round Table. A small committee from the National Board plusBrad Parkes and John Payne from Round Table and SimonTrevelyan from the new Lichfield Spires 41 Club have been workingon this. We have been assisted by Engelbert Friedsam of theGerman Old Tablers Association. In Germany they recognised theissue of Tablers not moving on to 41 Club some 7 years ago andstarted work on a series of initiatives. During that time they haveimproved their transfer rate from around 20% to 83%. We believeour own transfer rate is around 25%. We have made a good start but

this is work that must continue.

Round Table FamilyRepresentatives from the National Boards of the 4 Associationsmeet up twice a year and the National Vice Presidents chair therepresentation from each Association. As I write this we still have oursecond meeting of the year to come. These are very useful meetingsto share successes, concerns and opportunities to work together forthe future. One of the key issues on every agenda is membership.There is no doubt that by working together as a family we arestronger and one of our key roles as members of 41 Club is tosupport Round Table. I hope that a number of you were able to getout and support a Round Table, even if your own is closedsupporting another local club, following my November Newsletterarticle. My club did. We were made very welcome and the RoundTable club were grateful for the support with their Santa Sleigh. Wealso had a lot of fun. One other thing that has come from ourdiscussions is the need to support Membership in both Round Tableand Ladies Circle. We have approximately 17,000 members. If just10% of us made an introduction of a potential member to Table orCircle just think what a difference that would make not only to RoundTable and Ladies Circle but to 41 Club and Tangent in the future. Weall know people who are in the right age bracket be they family,friends or work colleagues. Let’s make an effort to help Round Tableand Circle and ultimately ourselves. To cement this work a formalMemorandum of Understanding on working together has beensigned by the 4 National President’s during the year. It’s been doneat National level now we need to encourage it to work at Local level.

Out and AboutDuring the year I have had the opportunity to travel around thecountry visiting Clubs on behalf of President Martin. I have also beenable to take my golf sticks with me on a few occasions to join inRegional Golf Days. Wherever I have been the hospitality has beenterrific and I have enjoyed many days of fun and fellowship.

Preparations for next year are well under way and I know there willbe many more days of fun to come. If you haven’t booked somethingfor me to visit next year please have a look at the diary on the website or give me a ring. I would love to come and visit you. It is a greathonour to serve as your National Vice President and I am reallylooking forward to next year as your National President.

Jim Smith

Immediate Past President - David Smith

Looking back through the valedictory reports of my predecessors asIPP they invariably seem to contain the authors’ thoughts forstrengthening, improving, changing this Association of ours. Thereis however nothing so ‘past it’ as a Past President and I suspectthose reports, once read, are consigned to gather dust in thearchives held in Marchesi House. So you will not find any “pearls ofwisdom” in this report chiefly because I firmly believe that thedirection our Association takes in the future will be rightlydetermined by the clubs and members and not by the musings of anoutgoing member of the National Council.

Over the past ten years I have had a lot of fun in your company forwhich I shall always be grateful. I have absolutely no regrets aboutputting my name forward as National Councillor for Region 6 (laterre-numbered as Region 10) nor for undertaking the various jobswithin the Council which came my way. I have had the privilege ofmeeting numerous ‘like-minded men’ on the Council all of whomhave, in the true Round Table way, shown me immense courtesy,friendship, understanding and who have shared in the fun andbanter which inevitably flows, along with the beer, when RoundTablers get together.

You see, I still regard myself as a Round Tabler. OK, I may not beentitled to wear the badge any more but achieving the age of Fortyseveral years ago did not mean that suddenly all the principles andideals which I’d followed would be cast aside. For this reason, I firmlybelieve that the overriding purpose of our Association is to promote

and support Round Table and for our membersto live up to its Aims and Objects. As I’ve pointedout many times, Old Tablers Sweden have amotto – “Still Tabling” – and that could equallyapply to us.

In addition to the members of the National Boardand Council I would also like to thank:

� the members of the Llandudno ConferenceCommittee who organised such a magnificentextravaganza last April;

� 41ers all around the country who were unstinting in their hospitalityduring my Presidential Year;

� the members of my own club, Long Eaton who turned out in forceto the Conferences in Jersey and Llandudno and who ensured Inever travelled alone to any function: and last but not least

� my beautiful wife Kay who was always there for me – thank youdarling, love you lots. In conclusion, may I wish you all good health,much happiness and lots of fun – remember at heart you’re “StillTabling”!

David Smith

National Secretary - Manny Martins

The Third Year of our contact with Round Table for them to provideadministrative services at Marchesi House has gone extremely well.We held quarterly performance reviews (where we have discussedthe detailed KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) and monitoredhours to ensure we achieved the best value for money. This hasproved very successful and we have completed the third year insideour agreed hours and have enjoyed the benefits of having the fullteam at Marchesi House at our disposal. We have established ourheadquarters at Marchesi House, with the meeting facilities at ourdisposal, and moved our archives into the building following the2013 AGM. The establishing of the Archive Room and its setting outare due to the ceaseless endeavours of our Honorary Archivist HughMilward. During the year David Andrews and Beverley Wall(Marchesi House staff) have worked diligently on our behalf. I wishto record my thanks to all the staff from Chief Executive Cait Allenand Office Manager Beverley North to Sam Merry and DavidAndrews for their support over the year.

Over the course of the year we have continued to strengthen oursystems to enable us to move forward to support ourCommunications Objectives. SharePoint (data storage in the‘Cloud’) is enabling us to securely store and archive ourdocumentation and making it easier for Hugh Milward to access andmanipulate the archive document centre. I have run a series ofsound bite workshops to keep National Council members up tospeed and become familiar with the systems.

Our Mailing List system is functioning well allowing us tocommunicate with all of the membership that have e-mail addresseson our CAS system. We could do with more members supplyingtheir e-mail addresses so we can communicate to an even greateraudience. Despite giving their e-mail address to us – we areregularly reported by our members to ISP’s (Internet ServiceSuppliers such as AOL and BTInternet) for sending out Spam! Therepercussions of this happening could result in these ISP’s‘blacking’ us. The consequences of the action by this minority couldaffect a large number of our members if it continues with ISP’sgetting tougher on organisations that send out Spam. With over17,000 members in our Association – we still have a long way to go

until we can communicate with all of ourmembership. I would like to take this opportunityof assuring everyone on our mailing list, that wenever send out ‘unsolicited mail’ or ever shareour address list with a third party.

I believe that all the Constituent Clubs shouldhave a say in how the Association is managed.In order for that to happen they all need accessand representation to our decision makingmeeting - the AGM. This year - 2013 - we videostreamed the AGM via our website for all to see.Following the live event we maintained a video on the website for therest of the year. Next year – 2014 – we will be again video streamingthe AGM (ongoing from now on) and introducing electronic voting –so we will in 2015 eliminate Proxy Voting but ensure that ALL Clubscan vote on all the proposals,resolutions and elections. The cost ofthis has been offset by publishing the AGM papers on the websiteinstead of mailing all Clubs twice (in November and March) withthese documents. I wish to thank the Association InternationalOfficer Dave Campbell for his assistance in delivering thesesystems.

As I visit Clubs I have been asked what does ’National’ do? I preparethe ‘National Council Report’ with contributions from each memberof that elected body for information - and following the NationalCouncil Meetings I draft the minutes – both of these are publishedon our Website for the benefit of all members. Please read thereports and minutes to review what the National Council has doneand achieved throughout 2013. These can be accessed through theSecretary pages and gives a flavour of ‘What National does’.

This is my second year as National Secretary. I sincerely hope thatI have provided you with the services you required promptly andprofessionally.

Manny Martins

National Treasurer - Mark Fairchild

As another exciting year of debits and credits comes to a close, I findmyself trying to remember what I have achieved this year. Lookingback I reckon I can claim the following:

� Capitation requests and reminders have been revamped and nowinclude our bank details so that you can pay online. This should cutdown the workload for Marchesi House staff, or at least give themless opportunity to buy doughnuts on the way back from paying incheques each week (or is that just me that does that?)

� Corporation Tax has been brought up to date, with the initialdemand and fines issued when I registered online reducing from£13k to a few pounds of interest. A procedure has been written to aidfuture National Treasurers, which should avoid any problems in thefuture.

� Quarterly income and expenditure accounts have been producedand published on CAS. I’m not sure how often they have been

viewed, but I have not had any questions fromanyone yet so I suspect the answer may be notmany.

� Chasing late capitation fees remains thebiggest niggle, although this has been helpedonce again by Beverley and David’s at MarchesiHouse’s perseverance in chasing thestragglers. By the end of the year we were downto just 22 outstanding, 4 of which are pendingdisaffiliation and another 9 having paid at thetime of writing this report.

This may seem a short report but please note that are two furtherdescriptive sets of notes in Appendix E explaining items within theAccounts for 2013 and the 2015 Budget.

Mark Fairchild

National Communications Officer - Ray Hill

For me 2013 was a year of consolidation and investigation.Consolidating what has already been achieved in communicationsand investigating what changes urgently need to be made toimprove both the service for existing members and the attractionsfor potential members.

As planned there have been three editions of the ‘The Magazine’during 2013. Despite rising costs, especially for postage, we havemaintained the overall cost at over £1,000 per edition less than it wasin 2010. In addition we have begun to attract some paid-foradvertising to help offset the costs. Not a great amount at themoment but it is a start. The main drive has been to make it amagazine of interest to members, potential members, their familiesand any member of the public finding a copy, rather than just thesame old, same old that many club magazines drift into. It is one ofthe Association’s main public facing assets and copies are nowsupplied to the five major libraries in Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh,Cardiff and Belfast, as well as to the British Library. Some of theolder features are gradually disappearing as the Internet provides amuch better service, consequently there will be no more small adsor diaries. One feature that is unfortunately disappearing is the‘Grumpy Ex-Tablers’ column. Reg Hewitt has been the inspirationbehind this column and he has decided to hang up his pen. I mustthank Reg for keeping us all amused for so many years and I for onewill really miss the ‘Grumpies’.

For the first part of the year the Newsletter was in the capable handsof Paul Molley, the Regional Councillor for Region 11. As Paul hasnow moved on to the Membership Committee I have resumededitorship of this publication. The very nature of an on-linenewsletter allows it to be more current for the time-critical items. Myaim is to produce a Newsletter at the beginning of every month plusa special edition giving every member access to the AGM reportsand motions.

The Club Forum on Yahoo has fallen into virtually total disuse. Thereis normally a flurry of activity around the time of the AGM but therehas been no new content for over six months now. Yahoo Groupshave run their span and are very restricted compared with othermedia. It has therefore been decided to close down this forum, but

a more up-to-date media forum will replace it,and we look forward to more membersexpressing their views.

The Club website has become a major concern.The look and feel is very dated and it ismaintained using very old, very restrictivesoftware. Indeed it has become extremelydifficult to manage the site and WebmasterDavid Hewitt has done an excellent jobmaintaining it for us. David will be retiring asWebmaster at the Bournemouth AGM and thewhole of the National Council pass on their thanks to him for anexcellent job over the last ten years. Initial planning has alreadystarted for a brand new, much more user friendly and interactivewebsite, which will be appearing during 2014.

For the past 18 months I have been working on a marketing plan topromote 41 Club to those many thousands of ex-Tablers who have,for many varied reasons, never joined our Association. The verynature of our Association and its rules make marketing a verydifficult activity but over the next 12 months you will be seeing thefruits of that research. There is no magic wand that will produce newmembers or new clubs, but we have many ideas on how we atNational can help you at club level to find new members. It will needto be a partnership. If you are happy that your club will soon closethen no action is needed by you, but if, like the majority, you areinterested in continuing the friendship then we have plans that willhelp your club and the Association to thrive. Also we will be doingeverything in our power to help recruit new members to Round Tableand Ladies Circle, helping form new Tables and Circles whereverpossible. Phil Ellis has been doing a sterling job all over Ireland toput the ‘I’ back into RTBI.

This is the final year of my initial three years in this office. May I thankeverybody who has contributed in any way over the last three years,without your help communications would be very difficult (and veryboring for the readers).

Ray Hill

National Membership & RT Liaison Officer - Duncan Kennedy

There has been a large amount of activity on the membership frontthis year.

During the year negotiations have been taking place with RoundTable about us being able to use their database to contact all pastTablers over 45 for whom they have details. As I am sure you willappreciate there have been a large number of discussions about thisespecially over the issue of data protection. This has now beenresolved following direct contact with the InformationCommissioner’s office. These negotiations have resulted in anhistoric agreement which we hope will greatly benefit bothorganisations. Round Table will be emailing all these ex-Tablersexplaining what is going on and asking anyone who does not wanttheir information passed on to say so. Under the agreement we areto receive the members contact data of those who have left RoundTable but never joined 41 Club and in the future we will receive thedata annually for those retiring from Round Table. We will then haveaccess to those details which, subject to certain requirements, canbe passed on to National Councillors and Clubs to make contact toinvite along to 41 Club.

At the beginning of the year President Martin tasked me and mycommittee to identify 20 new potential Clubs by the end of the year.

It has transpired that (and this has been strongly believed for a while)there are a large number of unaffiliated clubs out there that consist

of all past Tablers. Following on from the greatwork put in by members of my committee thefollowing are potential new Clubs. I am sure youwill clearly see that this is in excess of 20.However, the work is nowhere near done as weneed to liaise closely with these potential Clubsto bring them to affiliation. I know that mycommittee (Phill Ellis, Nick Lawton, Paul Molley,Godwin Stewart and Sean McCormick (and hisdeputy Des Fulcher)) has put in a lot of time andeffort to bring this to fruition. This is not anovernight task but with the start we have I reallyfeel we are in a position to have a large number of new Clubs in thenext few years and it would be fantastic if the list above could bereduced to nil. Unrealistic you may say but we have to give it a go.

I believe that special mention should be made to one of mycommittee, Phil Ellis, who has taken on the mammoth task of tryingto rejuvenate 41 Club and Round Table in the whole of Ireland. Hehas been working closely with Round Table, Tangent and LadiesCircle to reintroduce the concept of the Round Table family toIreland. He is working to charter and re charter several RoundTables and is currently also working on a number of 41 Clubs.

We have already affiliated 3 Clubs this year – Bicester 41 Club,

Torquay 41 Club (both of whom were towns where the Table did nothave a 41 Club) and Selby FortySwan 41 Club. Bootle Crosby &District 41 Club has been re-affiliated. I am hopeful that by the timeof the AGM there will be more to report. Unfortunately, we havedisaffiliated Axe Valley & Lyme Regis 41 Club due to age and lackof numbers.

Although almost everything I have said above relates tomembership of 41 Club we must not lose sight of our obligation tosupport Round Table and to help it grow. This is where our membershave to come from and without a strong Round Table organisationwe will eventually see our numbers reduce completely. Now, this is

unlikely to happen for a number of years but surely we should bedoing something now. Gentlemen as you go through your daily lifeplease be on the lookout for potential Tablers (and Circlers). If wecan all over a period of time introduce just one Tabler each into theorganisation we will not only be instrumental in helping to secure thefuture of Round Table but also of 41 Club.

As this report has to be prepared before Christmas I hope to be ableto provide an update at the AGM.

Duncan Kennedy

National Fellowship Officer - Barry Durman

Please keep looking at our Association website and 41 ClubFacebook page for news on all fellowship events from golf tocharters, conferences to privileges.

Conference

I should like to thank Andrew Mackereth (Conference Chairman)and his small team who worked their socks off to produce the bestConference for many years. This was my first conference asNational Fellowship Officer and the comments of delegatesespecially those having never been before were "we'll be back nextyear".

It is many years since the Conference has been held in Wales. TheWelcome Party had over 220 attending and took over the groundfloor of The Imperial Hotel, what an atmosphere! The help fromVenue Cymru was incredible and nothing was too much trouble. Thedinners for nearly 550 on both nights - for The President’s Banquetand The Final Night Party were outstanding with quick andorganised service. Musically the highlight was John Prescott (TomJones) who brought the house down on the Saturday Evening.Without the sponsorship of MSC Cruises, Clogau Gold and severalothers it would have been difficult to provide such a brilliant event.

Next year 2014 we will be at Bournemouth 2014 under theConference Committee Chairmanship of David Brown (NationalCouncillor Region 23). A great programme has been arranged.

Golf

This National competition based on the Regional heats wasorganised by Ken Donald (National Councillor Region 2). The finalwas played by all the winning foursomes at Ladbrooke Park southof Birmingham. My own Club, Shirley Late Knights managed a homevictory.

Sales www.41clubsales.co.uk

Sales from our new website in 2013 were very encouraging and areup 18% to £27935.07 with our commission up 39% to £7367.94.During the year we paid for all the stock from EGD, our old sales

supplier, writing its value down as we did so.You will see the effect of this in the accounts.

Platinum Privileges

The Hyundai deal was and still is excellent – Ipersonally know of 9 members who have saved

money using this scheme. If you were/areconsidering a new car you need to look at thisdeal.

Wider Wallet – www.widerwallet.com - a trulymoney saving deal – was taken up by over 250 41’ers who wereusing their cards every single month. Or it might have been theirwives.

Puma Hotels www.pumahotels.co.uk are absolutely lovely insmashing country locations as seen in the recent magazine issues.Again I have had feedback from members that have used thisinitiative and were well pleased with both standard of hotel, facilitiesand locations.

Millennium Way www.41clubwalking.co.uk

We have had increasing numbers of hits on this website each monththroughout the year and the take-up of walks increased significantly.

Remembrance Day

As part of the Round Table Family a number of 41 clubbers attendedthe Royal British Legion Remembrance Sunday service and themarch past the Cenotaph in London this year. Simultaneously, therewas a moving non-religious service at the National Arboretum nearLichfield on the same morning, with about 50 people from the 4Clubs. This was followed by a lunch, organised by Lichfield 41 Clubwhich was a great success.

2013 has been a hectic year with no shortage of Fellowship events,so thank you for participating in them.

Barry Durman

Association International Officer - Dave Campbell

The 41 Club International AGM April 2013

The 2013 the International AGM was hosted in Interlaken by 41 ClubSwitzerland. Eighteen countries were represented, Israel andMorocco being absent. At the AGM the business of the organisationwas conducted, and included the following agenda items;

Resolutions Tabled (To be voted at the 2014 International AGM)

The following resolutions were tabled by the Board.

Existing: 3.2 (g): A decision to expel or reinstate a memberAssociation shall require a two-thirds majority of the delegatespresent and voting.

Proposed Change: 3.2 (g): A decision to expel or reinstate a

member Association shall require a 75%majority of the delegates present and voting.

Existing: 9 (h) The quorum for a meeting shall be50% of the members of the InternationalCouncil. The business shall not commence untila quorum is present and shall be adjourned atthe time if it is not maintained. If there is noquorum present one hour after the timeappointed for the meeting, the meeting shalltake place with the International personspresent.

Proposed addition: 9 (h) The quorum for a meeting shall be 50% ofthe members of the International Council. The business shall not

commence until a quorum is present and shall be adjourned at thetime if it is not maintained. If there is no quorum present one hourafter the time appointed for the meeting, the meeting shall take placewith the International persons present. Apart from rule changes allother decisions shall require a simple majority of the InternationalCouncillors present.

Existing Rule : 12 (a) These rules shall not be altered other than bya two-thirds majority of the delegates present and voting at anAnnual General Meeting. Details of any proposed modification oradditions must be submitted to the Secretary by 1st February in anyyear for circulation with the notice of the next AGM. During a Half-Yearly Meeting all questions regarding 41 INTERNATIONAL can bediscussed, and all questions that are not specially reserved to theAnnual General Meeting can be decided.

Proposed change 12(a) These rules shall not be altered other thanby a 75% majority of the delegates present and voting at an AnnualGeneral Meeting. Details of any proposed modification or additionsmust be submitted to the Secretary by 1st February in any year forcirculation with the notice of the next AGM. During a Half-YearlyMeeting all questions regarding 41 INTERNATIONAL can bediscussed, and all questions that are not specially reserved to theAnnual General Meeting can be decided.

Resolutions voted on

Management

Existing : The objects of the organisation shall be carried into effectby an International Council which will also be responsible foradministration and future development.

Proposed : The objects of the organisation shall be carried into effectby an International Council which will also be responsible foradministration and future development OF THE ORGANISATION

It was felt that since it does not really make much difference, lesstampering with the rules the better. The motion was withdrawn.

Officers

Existing : Rule 5(e) In the event of more than one nomination to hostthe Vice-Presidency or more than one candidate for the post ofSecretary or Treasurer, the Association in the case of VicePresidency and the candidate in the case of Secretary or Treasurerwill be requested to address the Annual General Meeting.Guidelines on procedure will be issued by the Board prior to theAGM.

Proposed : Rule 5(e) In the event of more than one nomination tohost the Vice-Presidency or more than one candidate for the post ofSecretary and Treasurer, the Association OR THE CANDIDATE willbe requested to address the Annual General Meeting. Guidelines onprocedure will be issued by the Board prior to the AGM.

The resolution was carried.

Duties

Existing Rule 6(a) The International President shall be the Chairmanof the international Council, the International Board and everymeeting held in the name of 41 INTERNATIONAL. In his absence,the International Vice-President shall take the chair. If neither ispresent, a Chairman shall be elected from those present.

Proposed : Rule 6(a) The International President shall be theChairman of the international Council, the International Board andevery meeting held in the name of 41 INTERNATIONAL. In hisabsence, the International Vice-President shall take the chair. Ifneither is present, a Chairman shall be elected from thoseINTERNATIONAL COUNCILLORS PRESENT.

The resolution was withdrawn.

Meetings

Existing Rule 9(h) : The quorum for a meeting shall be 50% of themembers of the International Council. The business shall not

commence until a quorum is present and shall be adjourned at thetime if it is not maintained. If there is no quorum present one hourafter the time appointed for the meeting, the meeting shall take placewith those present.

Proposed : Rule 9(h) : The quorum for a meeting shall be 50% of themembers of the International Council. The business shall notcommence until a quorum is present and shall be adjourned at thetime if it is not maintained. If there is no quorum present one hourafter the time appointed for the meeting, the meeting shall take placewith THE INTERNATIONAL DELEGATES PRESENT

The resolution was withdrawn.

Additional Rule 3(a) 2 Proposed by South Africa

Associations whose affiliated clubs have the option to extend theirmembership to Ex-Tabler friends on the condition that the rules ofadmission of such members are in line with the standard practice ofRound Table. Such friends of Ex-Tablers can only enjoy ourfellowship and will not have the right to participate as delegates norwill they have the right to vote or be nominated to vote.

The resolution was carried.

Additional Rule 12(c) 2 Proposed by Germany

Any resolution moved at a 41 International AGM (whether adoptedor rejected) may not be brought forward for reconsideration at thefollowing AGM. In case such resolution is brought forward at a laterAnnual General Meeting it needs to be tabled again before it isvoted.

The resolution was carried.

Addition to Rule 3(b) 2 Proposed by International board

From the year 2013, it has been adopted that for the expansion andgrowth of the Organisation, that countries having less than 3 clubswill be eligible to join as full members. Until these countries grow to3 clubs and above, for matters relating to voting, fees payable &hosting, they will be governed by Rules 7(a), 10(d) and 10(f)respectively.

The resolution was carried.

Hosting for Vice-Presidency 2015-16

One nomination had been received from Germany, their candidatebeing Engelbert Friedsam

Hosting for HYM 2015

One nomination had been received from Great Britain & Ireland (Tobe held from 23rd to 25th October in Birmingham)

Webmaster

The incoming web master Erik Liljencrantz presented his plans forthe forthcoming season. He informed that the web site41international.net and .org are now merged and that 41int.org isalso registered. He demonstrated the mobile web service beingplanned and invited members to try it out. He pointed out that thiscould be the basis for up to date directory information as the info canbe uploaded by members themselves at any given time. He furthermentioned that a redesign of the web site is on the cards and plansto fetch revenue by inviting advertisements.

Award of Merit

The 41 International Award of Merit was presented to Ulver Oswaldfrom Germany for his commendable work for the YoungAmbassadors programme.

Ballot for International Secretary 2013-2016

There were 4 candidates for this position, Dr. V. Siddharthan fromIndia was elected

Appointment of International Archivist

There being one candidate for this position, Vaughan Harris of GB& I was appointed

International Half Yearly Meeting 2014

The HYM will be held in Blenheim on the weekend 31 October to 2November 2014. Various pre and post tours are being organised inaddition to the world golf competition.

International President

President Krishna Kumar elaborated his plans for extension tocountries like Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Kenya, Uganda, Suriname,Malta, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Nepal

Visits 2013

In addition to the International AGM in Switzerland, I have visitedGermany, France, Italy, Austria, South Africa, Zambia, Belgium andSweden. I would like to thank all the 41 Club members in thosecountries for their outstanding hospitality and fellowship.

Half yearly meeting 2013

The HYM was held on Saturday 26th October at Orenas Castle inthe south of Sweden. President Christoph Haenssler confirmed thatMalta will be affiliated in Korsor and that the Netherlands wereprogressing well with their application to become full members of 41international. He also reported that a strategic working group ofincoming Presidential officers was now in place, thus enablingfuture officers to plan ahead with common objectives. Lookingahead, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are being helped to formassociations.

Grateful thanks go out to the members of my Internationalcommittee for their help and support. We continue to develop theinformation available to members and will be reviewing the way thatit is presented on the website. The opportunity to serve as yourInternational Officer is a real privilege and I have enjoyedrepresenting GB&I overseas. I would encourage fellow members tovisit clubs in other countries where they can experience, at firsthand, the extent of the friendship & fellowship offered across ourworldwide organisation.

Dave Campbell

National Councillors' Liaison Officer - Terry Cooper

I can’t believe that I’m approaching two years in the recent post ofnational Councillors’ Liaison Officer as the time seems to havepassed so quickly which is an indication, I guess, of me having afulfilling role.

The training we delivered to Councillors’ at the end of last year hasworked well for the Association enabling councillors’ to make moremeaningful visits to their Clubs. They now attend armed with aPowerPoint Presentation or set of questions and answers that fitmost situations and give a better insight into the workings of the Clubat National level.

We have appointed several Deputy National Councillors’ this lastyear and I heartily recommend that job to any member who fanciesa try at a National post. Being a Deputy NC

is a lower commitment and gives the candidate an opportunity to tryout a National role first to see if it’s for them. Deputies achieve twothings, they help to spread the load in the bigger geographicalRegions, plus as has happened this year already can quickly stepup to the full National Councillor role if a sudden vacancy occurs.

Talking of vacancies moves me on to one of the most frustratingparts of my role the fact that however hard we seem to try we alwayshave a couple of Regions, not always the same ones I hasten to add,without a Councillor. If you know your Region is currently without aCouncillor and you fancy a try then please give me a call. I promiseyou, and having spent four years as a National Councillor in the pastI know from first-hand experience, that Councillors have a wonderfultime of fun and fellowship.

One of the areas I was tasked with reviewing when I took on this post

was to look at the number of Regions we hadcurrently and to see if that number, and theirgeographical location, was still right for us in2013. My conclusion was that we may be ablecut the number of Regions by 5 dropping to 20from the 25 we had in 2012. However thisprocess needs to be handled carefully andcompassionately as the last thing we want to dois upset you, our membership. So with evolutionnot revolution we’ve combined four Regions in2013 dropping the number down to 23 at the endof this 41 Club year. Early next year we hope toachieve a further reduction of one and then, only when the time isright, a further two as we progress.

Finally can I again encourage Clubs to invite their National councilloralong to a meeting? National Councillors really are nice guys youknow and they are there to support you, many run Regional eventslike dinners, golf days and quizzes. I firmly believe the NationalCouncillors role performed properly is the best job in the Associationand is the cement that keeps us all together and moving forward.Please support “your Councillor” and invite him along to your nextmeeting.

Remember we on the National Council are your electedrepresentatives and we welcome your input and suggestions. Mycontact details are readily available on the 41 club site so if you havea suggestion give me a call.

Terry Cooper

Candidates For National Office

There is only one candidate for each of the following threevacancies:

National Vice-President(who shall be National President- Elect)

Terry Cooper - Clevedon 41 Club

(This will result in a vacancy for National Councillors' LiaisonOfficer. Nominations will be taken from the floor.)

Association International Officer

David Campbell - Westerham & District 41 Club

(Second term of two years)

National Communications Officer

Ray Hill - Northwich 41 Club

(Second term of two years)

Accounts For The Year Ended 31st December 2013

At the end of the year, our accounts show a surplus of £7,073.33,which has been added to our reserves.

There are a number of variances which deserve some explanation:

� Capitation collected has increased slightly, assuming that the 14clubs who have not yet paid for 2013 do so. (The accounts includea debtor accrual for those that hadn’t paid by 31st December).

� In April our sales contract changed from End Game to VIPSolutions, who also run the Round Table sales. As a result we werecontractually required to buy out the remaining stock held by EndGame, some of which was obsolete or hard to shift. Followingdiscussions with Barry Durman (National Fellowship Officer), wehave revalued some of the stock to a more realistic selling price. Thishas been shown as a separate line in the accounts (£3,204.54),rather than simply reducing the sales profit of £3,348.69, so thatcross year comparisons of sales will remain meaningful.

� The printing and stationery underspend is offset by some of theAGM overspend, as I have allocated the costs of producing the AGMpapers, delegates packs and associated paperwork against thatbudget, so that we can monitor the true cost of our AGM. Thebalance of the AGM overspend relates to venue expenses, whichwill fluctuate from year to year depending on the location of theconference. Note that the decision to email AGM notices and papershas already produced a saving in 2013 – the November papermailing would normally cost us around £1,500.

� Presidential expenses show a significant increase on 2012, butthey are still well under budget. This will inevitably fluctuate fromyear to year depending on his geographic location and the numberof visits made.

� Cost of conference includes the costs of the Associations guests(Table and Tangent Presidents), plus any other costs notattributable to the AGM. For Llandudno, this included charges for thehire of rooms to hold the various committee meetings, registration

and sales stands which formed part of the overall conferencepackage. I wasn’t happy with this approach, and future conferencebudgets will not include this charge.� Club visits by National Councillors have increased this year,resulting in higher costs.

� You will recall that at last year’s AGM we introduced a change tothe expenses regime, reducing the mileage amount paid andincreasing the weekend allowance for attendance at NationalCouncil meetings. Although this change did not take effect until2014, an analysis of the 2013 expenses shows that Council travelled58,327 miles in 315 round trips and were paid £22,013 for theirmileage. Under the new scheme, this would be reduced to £14,581,a saving of £7,432. Offset against this, they also claimed 67weekend allowances for the AGM and 2 Council Meetings, a total of£8,375. This would increase to £10,720 under the new rules (anadditional £2,345), but the overall saving to the Association wouldbe £5,087.

� The depreciation charge is higher than budgeted due to thecapitalisation of IT expenditure in 2012. As our budgets are set sofar in advance, this will always happen where capital expenditurearises in a year, a point to bear in mind when considering theplanned website redevelopment.

� Fixed Assets included three items which are now obsolete (ashredder, roller banners and roller system, the latter two using theold branding). These have been written off, reducing the value of ourFixed Assets by £2,455, along with the depreciation which hadaccrued against these assets of £2,453. The residual value (£2) hasbeen charged to the I&E account.

� Archives expenditure is above budget as we are now paying forthe hire of a room in Marchesi House to store them. If you happento find yourself in Birmingham during office hours, do go along andhave a look, it is likely to jog a few memories.

Mark Fairchild National Treasurer

Notes On The Accounts For The Year Ended 31st December 2013

The 2015 budget as published on the following page has beenagreed by Council. The significant variances from 2014 are listedbelow:

� Sales and advertising income have both been r educed by £1k toreflect what is actually achievable rather than the Board’saspirations.

� The Admin postage and stationery budget has been reduced asall correspondence with clubs will be electronic. The residual budgetallows for the occasional exception.

� The AGM budget has been reduced to reflect the reduced postagecosts associated with the mailings it generates. An additionalbudget line has been introduced to cover the cost of webcasting theAGM and the introduction of electronic voting. This is dependent onthe necessary resolutions being passed in Bournemouth, but I haveassumed they will be to be prudent.

� The home presidential expenses budget has been cut, as in pastyears National Presidents have not used the full amount to carry outtheir duties. The National President’s international expensesbudget has been increased by £1k to cover the cost of the NationalVice President attending the International Half Yearly Meeting(HYM). This is to ensure he does not turn up at International eventscompletely unknown when he takes Office.

� The Conference Officers budget has been increased by £1k toenable him to attend 4 of the 12 big regional events each year (Red /White Rose dinners, Dorset Knobs etc.). No doubt the additionalcost will be partly offset by increased sales while Barry DurmanNational Fellowship Officer remains in the post. The budget has alsobeen renamed to Fellowship Officers expenses to reflect the fact itcovers both roles.

� The council expenses for club visits has been increased to coverthe expected level of visits by National Councillors (2 visits permonth / 20 per year).

� The depreciation budget has been increased on the assumptionthat the proposed web development is undertaken and the cost ofit capitalised and depreciated over three years.

Based on a membership of 16,600 members, the capitation feewould need to increase by a whole pound to £13.50 per year. Thiswill leave a small deficit for the year, assuming all budgets are fullyspent.

I am not proposing any increase in the mileage allowance, whichremains at 25p, or the weekend allowance for council meetingswhich stays at a maximum of £160.

Mark Fairchild National Treasurer

Budget 2015

Budget 2015