I have recently been asked to explain my views on the future direction of the Club. Here they are.

I wanted to see the Club as an independent body, affiliated to the BBKA and this has been achieved.

Material progress has been made in developing the basic apiary site and we now have further funding to fully equip it. A total of £30,000 has been raised over the last five months and we should have the final £15,000 to finish the project before the end of the year. The challenge now is to build up stocks ready for the 2011 season. We have the “know-how” and a team of volunteers actively involved in the process. By accepting that the services provided are open to members and non-members, we materially improve the prospects of raising the final amount.

TRAINING

The Club already has a sound and growing reputation in the training area and in many ways this is our strongest asset, capable of delivering good quality training. However, whilst we have the capability to develop this further, we are extremely limited in capacity and this results in our greatest vulnerability. The need to develop an effective team of trainers capable of providing theoretical and practical training up to at least the level of the BBKA’s basic examination is paramount. Opening up our training programmes to non-members has the direct benefit of contributing to raising the standards of bee husbandry amongst beekeepers generally and also generating a rewarding income stream.

There is a sound argument for organic development. The disadvantages are that it takes time, places considerable demands on those involved and is rarely able to match capacity with demand. By utilising appropriate grant aid, many objectives can be achieved much more quickly with significantly reduced demands on members. There are two essential factors in fund raising, namely meeting the eligibility criteria and demonstrating the credibility to meet defined objectives that satisfy the funding conditions. Accepting grant aid usually means ensuring that achievement of the agreed objectives takes precedent over other objectives. Most fund raising bodies review their funding objectives on an annual basis and frequently change them. Supporting bees has been a popular objective for the last 3 years but there are strong indications that this popularity is waning and that funding for our cause is becoming more difficult. I believe that we should pursue what is available whilst it is available, to ensure that the Club is able to enjoy a rich and debt free legacy that will be a positive asset for years to come.

Financial viability in my view means having income streams that exceed the expenditure stream and permit the building of an adequate reserve. The Charity Commission recommend that this reserve should be between 2 and 5 times annual subscription income. We have yet to see the full costs of maintaining an apiary, especially if members start to make claims for expenditure they are currently funding themselves, but they are likely to be material. There are also additional costs involved in running a charitable company. As the accounts for 2009 – 2010 show, excluding the income and costs generated by training courses, we had an income of some £2700 and expenditure of some £2500. If we are to remain solvent it will be necessary to complete our capital expenditure programme whilst funding is available and ensure that we have sustainable income streams adequate for our needs, before difficulties arise.

The income streams available to the Club are subscription income, course fees, fund raising and miscellaneous sales.

I believe that the current levels of interest in beekeeping have peaked and we shall now see a gradual fall-off in membership as newcomers come to recognise that beekeeping is not as simple as they thought. If this proves to be the case, there will not be any material scope for increased income from this source as any increases in the subscription are likely to be off-set by falling numbers.

Miscellaneous sales raised some £300. This is likely to increase significantly with sales of nucs and mated queens but will be dependent of both the weather and the sustained efforts of the breeding apiary volunteers.

The net surplus from courses amounted to some £5000 of which £1600 is shown in the accounts to January 2010 and the balance will appear in the following year’s accounts. It seems likely that there will be a demand for good quality practical courses at both beginner and developer levels for some time to come and this offers the Club the most effective route for developing a sustainable income stream for the short to medium term. It will, of course, depend on being able to develop a team of trainers capable of providing theoretical and practical training up to the level of the BBKA’s basic examination and beyond.  

Whenever an organisation is faced with a multi-faceted problem, there is a strong temptation to attempt to tackle everything at once. Whilst this might alleviate short term issues, it rarely resolves the fundamental problems.

I believe that we should focus the majority of our efforts on just two objectives, even if this means ignoring others:

1.      To ensure that by the start of the 2011 season we have fully equipped and stocked breeding and training apiaries. This might well mean that we do not produce bees for members this year and that the use of the apiary for training is limited.

2.      To ensure that by the start of the training season (possibly November 2010), we have a comprehensive and integrated programme team of theoretical and practical training courses ranging from introductory courses up to at least the level of the BBKA’s basic examination and an effective team of trained trainers to deliver them.

Once we have achieved these two objectives, we should be well placed to tackle all the others.