The Bagpipe Society

Membership Secretary's Report

Membership continues to remain fairly constant –we currently have 134 members.

22 new members joined over the last year, which is a positive sign that there is still a willing audience out there. With the revitalised website and Facebook pages, I am confi- dent that membership will continue to grow in the coming year.

Just a reminder regarding subscriptions; the membership expiry date continues to be published on the mailing label – this detail is on every label sent, not just the winter edition.

We are continuing to get membership from all over the world which again is positive – obviously people’s interest in pipes continues to be strong.

Paypal continues to be successful with 32 members using the system in the last year, many of them overseas. This is almost double the amount from last year.

The number of standing orders is again up (thank you to those members who pay this way – it makes my life much easier). Standing orders are still more than welcome. Please see me for bank details if you wish to pay your membership in this way. Please do check your standing orders – I have had to contact several members who have 2 standing orders or who have a standing order and also send a cheque. Whilst donations are grateful (!) I do try and catch any payments that are duplicated.

Treasurer’s Report for

Current a/c on 31/12/2009 was £1368.39 and as of 31/12/2010 was £741.03 Capital reserve a/c at 31/12/2009 was £4,363.25 and 31/12/2010 £3,371.44

Major outgoing during the year:

Chanter production and postage : £2152

Blowout: £5080.50 (against an income of £5312.30)

For reference, on 10th June 2011 the money in the bank is as follows: Current Acc : £ 3899.62 Reserve Acc : £ 3372.06

There is also £1228.19 that is being transferred over from Paypal in the next few weeks. Paypal have introduced some very tight measures to, in their words, counter money laun- dering and criminal activities. This is causing a few headaches due to the nature of the society reserve account and direct debits etc but these are in the process of being re- solved.

The cost of producing Chanter and postage is roughly the same amount as the membership subscription. John has calculated the number of pages that can be produced to be able to post at a lower cost band and is working hard to stick to this which is keep- ing costs down.

Due to the reserve funds available I propose to keep the membership rates the same as they are at the moment.