Pigeon Network

Northern Ireland Provincial Amalgamation of Racing Pigeon Societies

Secretary`s Report 2018

You will now be in possession of your accounts for 2017 and the resolutions for 2018 Annual General Meeting Agenda.

The Agenda this year is long and complex mainly due to the committee doing their utmost to bring the NIPA Rule Book up to date.

There is nothing too controversial in them and I hope you are able to support them, as it will assist the officials in running your organisations.

There is much better news this year on the accounts, The Transporter Account has seen a marked turn around turning a deficit of £16,371 into a Profit of £11,915 On this information your committee have agreed to Freeze the price of crates for 2018. This should be welcomed by all member`s.

The expenditure and income is clearly set out for you to read, there will be challenges ahead in 2018. Fuel costs along with the poor exchange rate will mean that the price of Fuel will continue to rise, a close eye will have to be kept on this commodity.

Insurances, freight, tyres, vehicle maintenance and crates is always responsible for a large part of our expenditure and we do our utmost to keep them as low as possible. I would ask you to keep an eye on the crates and if you see them being abused please do not hesitate to contact me.

For 2018 I will be sending each club out a questionnaire asking for you to confirm the number of aluminium crates in your club`s possession. I have tried in the past to find out this information I have not been very successful as club`s do not return the information required hopefully you will all send this information in this year.

The General Account is again in deficit but much reduced on last year, last years deficit was £11,238 and this year £3,868.82.

This turn-around is mainly due to prize monies not being claimed for 2013/14/15 and totalled £3,947. These cheques are not out of the system and cannot now be reissued, there are still a number of 2016 cheques not cashed, we have left them on the system for the present but your rule states that no uncashed cheque is valid after 12 months of being issued.

The Committee have reluctantly agreed to raise the administration fee to £25 an increase of £1, this will only put a slight dent in the deficit. Your committee will have to get to grips with this situation and reduce its expenditure.

Your balance sheet is in a very healthy state showing an increase of almost £10,000 on last year.
Any queries on the accounts can be forwarded in writing to me and I will answer them.

The 2017 season was a very difficult racing season with weather conditions playing a big part in our racing, St Malo was very disappointing and we hope that in future years lessons have been learnt. The remainder of the Old Bird season was difficult enough but fortunately the YB season turned out to be much better than everyone was expecting.

I will take this opportunity to thank everyone who contributed to the NIPA having a successful year and hopefully 2018 will be a really good season for us all.

F Russell Secretary.

NIPA Secretary Report for 2018/2019

I have just completed a meeting with the General Committee of the NIPA. The meeting discussed the Statement of Accounts for 2018 and finished the Resolutions for the 2019 Agenda.

No Resolutions were received from Member Clubs, the Committee have agreed to put forward 12 Resolutions for your club to cast their votes at the AGM in February.

The first two Resolutions were introduced by by the NIPA Committee during 2018 as per NIPA General Rule 55 permits, they require your support before they can be introduced to the Rule Book for 2019. The remainder are self-explanatory mainly being introduced to tidy up some rules, and others to assist the smooth running of the organisation.

After a very difficult year for our sport, your accounts are showing a surplus for 2018 this is very acceptable, however the underlying problems are still there for 2019 and will have to be addressed by the General Committee.

I must bring to your attention the rise in profits for 2018 on the surplus on the sale of rubbers, seals, cardboard etc. This is not due to a massive rise in sales but by a clerical book-keeping error by me in the previous accounts. I will do my utmost to explain and if you require any further clarification please do not hesitate to contact me. This situation arose when I was paying an Invoice I wrote the cheque by noticed an over-charge of £180.00. I contacted Diester and they agreed the error and e-mailed me a new Invoice. The original cheque issued was torn up and a new cheque was issued to pay for the new Invoice. However I did not cancel the original cheque in the stub of the Cheque Book and it was copied into my Number 1 Account journal and listed as an outstanding cheque. This error was found this year as it was still outstanding on our books. I investigated and found out what had taken place, rectified it and it was credited back into the proper folder for 2018. This is why the profit on this income is showing a massive increase, the cheque was for £7339.08p. The actual profit on the sale of these items for 2018 is £4757.26p. This means the General Account ir running at a loss for 2018 of £1842.66p. This figure shows a slight improvement on 2017.

Regarding the Transport Account income all NIPA Sections are down with the exception of Section C, however this is explained by Section C having two new clubs for 2018, Wheatfield and Abbey Social. Income from Pigeon Line is falling year on year and will soon disappear from our Accounts.

Expenditure for the year is slightly down around £750 mainly due no spending on complete and partial renewal of the Transporters in 2017 this stood at £11607.
Running expenses some headings have increased, Wages, Race Expenses, Fuel, Insurance, Vehicle Maintenance, Repairs to Crates, plus a new addition. We had to hire a van and a driver to collect pigeons on the small NIPA Trailer. The remainder of expenses were slightly down on the previous year. This left us with a surplus for 2018 of £6245.36, down by £5670 on the previous year.

I have included this year a summary of income received from other organisations a total of £22,584.36p. Without this income our accounts would have been much worse for the season. We would have incurred a huge loss and this income is not guaranteed for 2019.

I have included a summary on your National Races for 2018 which shows an estimated total loss over all these races if we had not transported other organisations of £8687.60p. The actual figure is greater than this. Fixed overheads for these races would amount to more than £3000 which is the estimated figure as laid down by your General Committee.

Please feel free to question any part of the accounts for 2018 and I will endeavour to answer your query. There is an answer to all these figures – Moving on to 2019 Season and what Brexit has in store for us.

Will the Pound Sterling fall in value, will the price of Oil and Parts increase, will we encounter any problems at transporting our pigeons into Southern Ireland, will it be more difficult to transport our pigeons into GB or France?

At the moment I have no answers to any of these questions, I just hope a satisfactory deal is achieved before March 29th 2019. Until all this is made clear your General Committee will not agree on Membership and Transport costs in 2019.

Last year is a year I hope never to be repeated in our Sport. Looking forward to the 2019 Season, I hope we have seen the last of Sickness, I hope to see many more members racing their young birds, I also hope to see better cross channel and continental races, a much overall improvement is necessary.

For the 2019 Season I hope you all have a wonderful season, enjoy your sport, congratulate the winners, and say to yourself I must improve my performances – and if you can manage to do all that you will walk tall. A happy, healthy, and prosperous, New Year to you all.

F C Russell Financial Secretary of the NIPA.