At the Board meeting held on Saturday 17 September decisions were taken to enable the Membership & Levy proposal to be drafted in preparation for the EGM on Saturday 29 October in Birmingham.

Consultations about the proposal have taken place during the period June to September and a detailed report including all the views, comments and feedback was prepared for the Board to consider. The report included personal feedback from association chairs, feedback from and on behalf of some clubs, individual feedback from some members and the results of the member survey.

The findings of the consultation are available here.

Feedback was varied and, in some instances, polarised. The views expressed by some members also changed during the period as the implications were thought through.

The Board recognised that a considerable number of members noted the developmental and participation impact of increasing levy significantly, particularly at local events.

The Board also noted that a considerable number of members think that increasing sponsorship income is the answer to our income problems. The Board appreciate, much as this appears an attractive solution, it is neither realistic nor feasible in the present climate. It is recognised across sport and the agencies involved that sponsorship is incredibly hard to attain at the moment and, even when it is attainable, the servicing of the sponsorship usually negates or off-sets the financial benefits.

A number of ideas about fund raising have arisen either during Board discussions or during the consultation period. The Board is keen to investigate these which include:

• Taxing clubs based on their membership

• Having a differential levy for local events

• Finding a way of fairly asking clubs/associations to make payments to British Orienteering whilst giving them the freedom to decide how to collect it themselves.

These will take a while to investigate and, if adopted, further time to implement; in this circumstance the Board agreed the current proposal should be progressed whilst these options are considered.

After considerable discussion the Board agreed the EGM proposal should contain two options which are:

Option 1: Membership, Senior £10, Junior £3.30, Levy £1.50
This reduces the overall income generated and means the levy will be increased less than in the options consulted on. The overall increase in income based on the 2015 data will be around £68,700 with the usual provisos about membership and participation at events being the same as in 2015.

Option 2: Membership, Senior £7.50, Junior £2.50, Levy £1.70
This is similar to option 2 in the consultation but with a reduction in the levy increase and the overall increase in income will be almost the same as for option 1 at £68,500.

Board members have listened to the feedback and the options that will form the proposal demonstrate the sympathy the Board has with the development/participation argument made during the consultation. The income generated overall will be less than the £80,000 the Board had set as a target and the Board have agreed that reserves will be used to make up the difference. Using the reserves will be shown as a loss in the accounts. It’s also worthy of note that the Board confirmed that every effort has and is being made to reduce costs and this will be reflected in the 2017 budget.

The proposal and voting process will be published before the 21 clear days required by the Articles. As with AGMs, the normal proxy voting arrangements will in place and specified in the EGM Papers.

Item posted by Scott Parker, Administrator, on behalf of Mike Hamilton, Chief Executive.