Council meeting

A day in London today for the Guild's August council meeting. It proved productive on several fronts. Sadly the productive effort came to an end at Heathrow as the flight to Aberdeen was three hours late and it gone well midnight when it landed in the Granite City.

At last we can put to bed the problems caused by those who have yet to pay their full subscription rates. The remaining defaulters are being given until September 30 to pay up. If they don't do something by then, they will be on the receiving end of a formal letter from the secretary which will then give them seven days to pay. If no payment is forthcoming then we terminate their membership. By the first week of October council will have spent the best part of four months involved in exhaustive efforts to get the defaulters to pay up.

There is, however, some good news on the membership front. We will move to Direct Debit from January 31. The new regime will not come without its problems, one of which is that the membership subscriptions will now be collected over six months as opposed to the single day generated by the standing orders the Direct Debits replace. We can, however, live with that. Given the problems we have had this year with the standing orders we are going to have to mount a massive communications exercise to get everyone to switch to Direct Debit. The good news is that for those who do switch your subscription will remain at £52 for full members, while those granted retired status will still be paying £26. Those who fail to make the switch will, however, find their sub rising to £60 for full members and £30 for retirees. Some may consider that as a penalty; I view it as an incentive to switch over to a far more efficient way of collecting subscriptions which means the Guild's officers are not in future left to pursue defaulters for nigh on eight months.

The Guild's harvest lunch and service is being held in London on October 11. Full details will emerge next week in the eBulletin being put out by Peter Ryder. All I will say is that we have a very interesting speaker lined up.


Today also saw your council working in unity to get the trusts' raffle tickets and Christmas card fliers out. I wouldn't want to comment on the fact that the conveyor belt involved us sticking labels on envelopes and then putting my letter, the prize draw tickets and the Christmas card flier into them, closing them and then sticking on the stamps. Don Gomery took some pics and I am grateful to him for allowing me to stick them up here. Those members whose subs are in default have received a separate letter from me asking them to take action. They will also be sent another e-mail next week asking to make good their arrears by the new deadline.

Michael Pollitt in Norfolk suggested we contact NFU England in response to the foot and mouth outbreak in Surrey and take part in the informal discussions they appear to be having on how the situation from a media point of view could be managed. Council has agreed we speak informally to the union to see if they want our input.


And here's two rare pictures ... your council at work!