Founded 1980
Chair:
Secretary:
Treasurer:
Graham Smith
Jan Thompson
Graham Mumby-Croft
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FROM THE TREASURER
Treasurer’s Report: Financial Year ending 31/12/2022
My treasurer’s report for this year contains the usual facts and figures regarding the accounts for the past year, and as always a reminder that in order to synchronise with the main PGA accounting period these accounts cover the period January to December 2022, so almost 9 months old at the time of publication.
As well as reporting the accounts I give some background to some of the underlying issues with the financial structure of the association, and some thoughts on what the future may hold, and what we may need to think about as an association, as inflation continues to make the cost of everything climb to new and dizzying heights. Since I took over as treasurer from Jim Blakey, a constant subject for discussion by the committee has been how we can maintain the levels of membership of The Association, and what happens to the finances if we fail to maintain the membership numbers. These discussions have taken place against a background of needing to face the reality that almost by definition, any group or association that exists solely to serve a membership of people who are retired, must accept that without attracting new members there will be an inevitable decline in the membership.
In my financial reports to the committee I have always tried to made sure that I provide a financial forecast to them which I base on how long I think that The Association could remain financially viable if we did not recruit any new members, and in effect the membership reduced year on year. At present, and I must say to the surprise of many, our membership figure has remained fairly constant over the past two years with the decline in numbers due to the passing of members still relatively low. However, there has been no great influx of new members either. As an association we have only a single source of income which is Membership Subscriptions, and in turn we have only two main costs directly related to providing a service to the membership. They are the production of The Newsletter and the cost of running the Association, which are mainly the cost of the committee, plus some other costs that include the donations that we make to charity in the name of deceased members.
One factor that I need to take into account when making these calculations is the effect of inflation. For several years inflation remained low, and as a result the costs, and in particular the cost of The Newsletter, remained reasonably stable. However, as we are all so painfully aware, in the past year inflation has pushed the cost of everything upward, sometimes at an alarming rate, as with the cost of energy. As a by-product of increased energy prices has come an increase in the price of commodities that are energy hungry, such as paper.
The result of this is that when added to all their other overheads printers costs have increased significantly. However, the committee has always been in agreement that as The Newsletter forms the single most important element of membership of the RPGA that we should not compromise on either the quality, or content. Therefore we continue to have The Newsletter printed on good quality paper, and the only limit on the editor, Paul Laxton, with regard to the size of each edition, is how much you the membership, submit for publication. Paul is always happy to receive items for inclusion and the only time he has to apply discretion, with regard to restricting content, is in order for The Newsletter to always consist of and even number of pages, and to avoid blank spaces. So far, we have never felt the need to set a restriction on the size, simply to keep the costs down. I know that Paul appreciates this, and it allows him to concentrate on making sure that the magazine is open for anyone who wishes to submit an article.
Another factor where increased costs are showing through is in postage. Although much of what we do as an association, and certainly as a committee, is carried out electronically and online, we still post out The Newsletter, and diaries to those who chose to have them. As you will all appreciate the cost of postage has increased significantly, and in my view the service had declined even more significantly. These increased costs are reflected in the 2022 costs for printing and distributing The Newsletter, which increased by £701.77p year on year, and the postage costs also increased with the Spring 2023 Edition costing an additional £35 postage than the Spring 2022 Edition. The cost of posting the diaries has also increasing by £154.59 based on an almost identical number of items sent. Remember, these figures are for the financial year 2022, and as we all know, prices in 2023 have continued to rise sharply, especially at the beginning of the year. As a consequence there will no doubt be an increase in both the printing and postage costs in this financial year (2023) equal to, or perhaps in excess of, the increase in 2022.
However, as our income is holding up at the moment, and in the last two (2) years we have run a surplus, I see no reason to increase the basic level of subscriptions and we are in a relatively comfortable position regarding financial reserves. That does not of course mean that we should not be prepared for what may happen in future, and one possible option to reduce costs would be to distribute The Newsletter electronically to those able, and willing, to receive it in this format. One of our overseas members has already agreed to receive The Newsletter in this way, and of course we already publish both the latest version, and back copies on the RPGA Website (https://rpga.homestead.com/).
There is however one area that we may need to look closely at whether we increase subscriptions and that is for those people who opt to receive a PGA Diary, for which we pay the PGA, and we also pay the cost of postage. The cost of the diaries is going up, as is the cost of postage and I believe that this year the Association will actually lose money on each and every diary we provide. This poses the question, and one I hope will be raised at the AGM of whether or not the cost of providing diaries to members should be subsidised from general subscriptions, or should we look to increase the subscription to reflect the true cost of providing this service to some members.
The problem that we have in making any adjustments to subscriptions was very clearly highlighted just a few years ago when I undertook to adjust the levels to a simple 2-tier structure. Unfortunately, despite writing to every member, a significant proportion failed to respond, either to the letter, or by changing their standing order to the new amount. I am certainly not keen to try that again! In the short to medium term I believe that The Association can continue to function, in much the same way as it does now, without the need to increase the basic level of subscriptions.
At present we have a healthy bank balance, but as costs increase this will start to come down, hopefully in the next 2/3 years, quite slowly. I am however confident, that given the current level of funds in the bank, The Association could remain viable way beyond my tenure as Treasurer, and indeed beyond my time here in this world. The financial figures for the year 1st January 2022 and 31st December 2022 are printed below. These have been certified by the PGA Auditors and should any member require clarification or explanation on any point I am happy to respond. The full audited accounts are available for inspection by any member of The Association and should you wish to exercise this option then please contact me. My contact details are shown below and I am happy for you to contact me by email or phone.
GRAHAM MUMBY-CROFT, Treasurer
graham.mumbycroft@gmail.com
Tel: 07597 397425
If you want to see the full accounts document an e-mail to the Treasurer will secure you one.
Graham Mumby-Croft
Treasurer
Issue No. 89 Autumn 2023
