BMMC ACCOUNTS 2009

BMRMC Limited – ACCOUNTS TO 30^th JUNE 2009

The accounts do not make good reading, our worst ever loss, in fact!  A true loss of £10,324 for the year is mitigated only by an error in opening adjustments that we took back into last year, to show an increased loss for the year to 30^th June 2008 of £5,202, rather than the £3,753 reported.

Recap on 2008

The loss in 2008 was forecast at around £4,000 (became £5,000) because of the loss of donation from Donington (-£2,500), the initial cost of setting up the new web site (-£1,700), the issue of trainee and long-service badges FOC (-£1,750) and once off costs on setting up Direct Debit facilities (-£1,300).  Without these and other exceptional items, we would have made a small surplus for 2008.

2009

We budgeted for a similar loss of around £4,000 for 2009, to be met from reserves and to cover the second part of the bill for our new web site and the cost of regalia items Council felt should be issued free of charge to members.  Sadly, we did not foresee the financial crisis (in common with all the City experts who did not see it coming either!).  Donations simply dried up, interest rates on the money we had accumulated over many years fell to an all time low and many of our normal administrative costs increased, as they have for other businesses, despite supposed “deflation” in the high street.

Membership Income (+£1,600 compared to last year)

Welcome net increase of around 100 members and net 6% increase in income

Donations (-£3,100)

Virtually no donations this year, other than sticker scheme, helped particularly by Dave Scott at MSV adopting and promoting our sticker scheme to their drivers

Sprint Meetings (+£2,233)

Last years figure (loss of £909) was probably due to inclusion of some figures missed in the previous year.  This year, a welcome return to profit and a much better reflection of the efforts put in by Steve and Julie and the team that run our Sprint meetings.

Regalia

Pretty well break even, as last year, with free regalia costs charged to other accounts (Anniversary Costs and PR etc)

50 Years of Motorsport Marshalling (+£2,055)

New item and welcome contribution to profit – tax free, as planned, due to the transfer of publication rights and stocks to the Club.  Further contribution to come if we can sell a few more books

Interest Received (-£1,395)

Direct result of the present financial situation

Direct Costs

Insurance, training less refunds and depreciation – all pretty well as before

Administrative Costs (-£5,300)

Almost every admin cost up on last year, especially:

            Postage and Stationery (-£840)

            General increase

            Regional/National Administration (-£1,600)

Balance of new web site costs (£1,300) and general increase in costs

PR and Advertising (-£950)

            Includes some costs of promoting the book

            Audit and Accountancy (-£2,000)        

Small increase in charges plus the cost of picking up the pieces when Sue was ill, offset by some reduction in audit fees and a generous concession by our auditors on the rate they charged to cover Sue’s absence

Summary and Recommendations

So, losses increased by just short of £4,000, for a total reported loss of £8,875 for the year to 30^th June 2009.  Of these losses, some may be non-recurring, e.g. accountancy fees £2,000, web site, £1,300.  On the other hand, we may or may not see the same profits from the book and Sprint meetings, maybe a reduction of, say, £2,000.  I do not expect any great improvement in other costs, leaving us with, possibly, £7,500 to find to break even next year.

Council has approved the recommendation that we move full subscription to £20 per annum for 2010, with corresponding increases in other membership levels.  On the same number of members as this year, this would produce approximately £4,000 towards this ongoing loss, proportionately less, of course, if we lose a few members, proportionately more if we manage to convert a few more of the 1,100+ names collected by Team Wilson and others this year.  The rest of the forecast loss can come from reserves for now but, if nothing changes, we may well need the same sort of increase in 2011.

We must also make savings. 

• We must look carefully at how much it is costing to produce and post paper newsletters, where they could be replaced by email versions?
• Maybe we cannot be as generous with free badges and stickers at renewal time? 
• We need to look at how many meetings we hold and the costs of attendance at same.

We cannot afford to continue to make losses or we will soon run down the reserves we have so carefully built up over many years.  It is these reserves that allowed us to continue to develop our Training and Grading Scheme while we were having to fund it ourselves and, more recently, it allowed us to help with the costs of the BTCC recruiting campaign before we found financial backing, first from the Doghouse Ladies and then the MSA.

It is a pity the increase comes in one swipe and at a difficult time.  However, I was never in favour of increasing subs by £1 or so each year, whether justified or not, and still feel that was/is the wrong way to go.  Our subscription rates have remained unchanged for eight full years while rates at some other clubs have all but doubled in the same timeframe.

Marshals’ Club subscription rates are still excellent value, offer real advantage on clothing purchase and excellent top-up Personal Accident and Personal Liability insurance cover.  The discount on one set of overalls cancels the cost of subscription for that year.

PS: As a result of the latest sponsorship deal greed with NGK Spark Plugs the total subsidy on a pair of AWS overalls is £30 - one and a half times the new annual subscription!  Thanks to Eric Ridler and Stephen Green who seek out all these deals for us.

George Copeland
National Treasurer