GCCF Release June Council Results

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GCCF Release June Council Results

Written by Administrator

Friday, 26 June 2009

25 June 2009

At the meeting of Council held on 24 June delegates agreed to accept the proposals of the Finance Committee to raise additional funds for the GCCF with the exception of the Prefix Maintenance Charge. All increases, unless otherwise stated in the notice will commence from 1 August 2009.

In addition to these proposals, the delegates agreed that a £5.00 litter registration fee be charged. This will apply to all litter registrations, both prefix and non prefix, partial registrations (where some kittens are only declared, or previously declared kittens are registered) and imports, and will take effect from 1 August 2009.

Delegates also agreed that investigations would be made into the possibility of adding a suffix to a cat’s registered name. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS ONLY FOR DISCUSSION AT THIS STAGE.

For your information the staffing levels at the office have been reduced to a minimum with the loss of two members through resignation and one through retirement.

The proposals (excluding the Prefix Maintenance Charge) are detailed below.

Normal Activity Proposals for revenue enhancement

1 In view of the fact that the total cost of Council meetings in 2009 is expected to be in excess of £10,000 :-

a) Delegate’s fees be increased from £20 to £30 per delegate and that capitation fees be raised from 10p to 15p per voting member.

b) It is further recommended that for 2009 a supplementary charge be made to the affiliated clubs to cover the increase so that the full effect of this increase can be reflected in the 2009 income.

2. In order to contain and minimise the work of Investigations/Disciplinary Committees

a) A deposit of £150 be paid by each complainant to IC before a matter could be considered, with the exception of those complaints relating to genuine cases involving cat welfare. The deposit is to be refunded only on the order of the Disciplinary Committee following a successful prosecution.

b) In all cases where a fixed penalty is to be imposed this should be sent out automatically by the office 28 days after the notice of breach of the Rules has been served on the defendant, unless the case is to be defended. This will generate less work for the office staff and free up members of IC.

c) It is recommended that, with the help of the above measures, a maximum of four meetings of IC be held each year.

3 Increases be made to the cost of the following publications to reflect the cost of production, staff time despatching them and postage.

Blank pedigree forms £7.50

GCCF constitution - UK £2.00 - Outside UK 4.00

GCCF Rules - UK 3.00 - Outside UK 6.00

LIST OF Judges - UK 3.00 - Outside UK 6.00

List of shows (June 2009-May 2010) UK - 6.00 - Outside UK 10.00

Part show list (Nov 2009 – May 2010) UK - 3.00 - Outside UK 6.00

Mating Certificates 3.00

4 a) The cost of a Prefix Application be increased from £60 to £75 in the UK and from £70 to £100 outside the UK.

b) The cost of a list of cats under a prefix held on the GCCF computer be increased from £2.50 to £4.00 per page.

5 a) Registration fees and Transfer fees for 2010 be increased with effect from 01 January 2010 to:

Prefix Registration £8 per cat/kitten (over 2 years of age £16.00)

Non-Prefix registration £15 per cat/kitten (over 2 years of age£30.00)

Transfer of ownership £11 per cat/kitten

b) The following be increased with effect from 01 July 2009:

Import Registration from £40 to £50 per cat/kitten

Amendments to Registration & Transfers from £5 to £10 per cat/kitten

Duplicate certificate from £3 to £10

Change of register (Active to Non-Active and vice versa) from £10 to £15

Search for Registration Number from £3 to £5

c) With the introduction of A4 laminated Certified Pedigrees, bearing in mind the associated programming costs, it is recommended that only 5 generation pedigrees be available at a cost of £50 each; extra copies made at the same time £10.00

6 a) The cost of a Show Licence to go up from £18 to £25

b)The show insurance charge per cat to go up from 25p to 40p

c) The insurance costs to be re-banded to reflect falling entries with the new rates being:

up to 100 single pen equivalents £10

101 to 250 single pen equivalents £30

251 to 500 single pen equivalents £50

501 to 750 single pen equivalents £75

Over 750 single pen equivalents £100

7 That advertising space on the GCCF Home Page, in the form of a logo, with a link to their own website, could be leased to commercial companies whose products are related to cats.

This could be in say a ribbon around the outside of the page. Charge £500 per year per logo.

The Office will look for cheaper alternative venues than Friends Meeting House, in the meantime it is recommended that:

a) Council Meetings be held in the Small Hall with the February and October meetings starting at 1.30 pm so that we only pay for a half day hire.

Hire charge Large Hall £1500 per day (NB the Gallery is hired out separately);

Small Hall £900 per day, £600 per half day.

b) Tea and coffee only be served – no biscuits, saving about £1 per person per meeting.

8 No Supplementary Agendas be sent out except in exceptional circumstances approved by the Chairman.

Items too late for the agenda would be held over until the next Council meeting.

Proposals from Executive relating to Breed Progression to go on the agenda of the next Council Meeting following the Executive Meeting at which approved rather than being held over to the October Agenda.

Judge appointments/promotions notified in time for the Council Agenda but missed off by the office to be tabled at the meeting. (Those received in the office too late for the agenda to wait until the next Council meeting)

9 For Executive Committee meetings:

a) A lunch allowance of up to £5 to be claimed with travel expenses rather than a sandwich lunch being provided at £12 per head.

b) Tea/Coffee/water served on arrival and at 2.30pm rather than three times during the meeting. No biscuits to be served. The same to apply to the all day Finance meeting in April.

10. Engraved Medals currently cost the GCCF £14,500 plus the cost of collation of documentation, checking, postage and packaging. It is recommended that un-engraved medals are sent out that people could have engraved at their own cost if they so wish. The medals could be sent out on a regular basis throughout the year once each show had been checked and would save time on collation and checking. This would reduce costs by some £10,000 and provide a more even flow of work for the office instead of the current quarterly despatch of a large number of medals.

11 Currently two accounting systems operate; one on the AS400 and one based on ‘Sage’ software on a pc. It is recommended that the ‘Sage’ accounting system currently employed be rationalised to give the detailed breakdown available from the AS400 such that a current member of staff can input the invoices rather than having a dual entry system or having to employ an outside Book Keeper. Data on which to base predictions and budgets would then be more readily available.

12 When the office was first established at Penel Orlieu the funds to purchase the AS400 were not available. Clubs responded magnificently to an appeal to loan money, interest free, to the GCCF for up to five years and the computing system was installed. It is recommended that a similar appeal be made to clubs to loan money to the GCCF under the same terms – currently with interest rates as low as they are returns are very small anyway – with the money to be repaid within five years. Sale of the property would generate the money to repay the loans in the event that the GCCF becomes insolvent. This would avoid the problems and cost of having to raise and service a commercial loan against the property.

The Supreme Show It was noted with pleasure that the cost of halls at the NEC had been renegotiated to fall within the limits imposed by the Finance Committee at its meeting in February 2009.

However concern was expressed that the draft budget produced by the Treasurer did not reflect the economic downturn and the current state of entries at shows. Rather than income being at a similar level to 2008 it was recommended that a more realistic budget figure would be 20% less.

The payback to the GCCF for office time was considered and it was agreed that a more realistic figure, based on staff guesstimates of the time that they spent on it, would be the cost of 0.5 of a member of staff. i.e. £13,000.

It was recommended that the Supreme Committee meet as a matter of urgency to consider a realistic budget that can be sent out to delegates with the June Council agenda.

Hopefully with the support of you all, these measures will see us through this recession and we will come out at the end in a much stronger financial position and ultimately be able to improve the services we offer our members.

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