The Grass Cutter

The RSPB is geared up as a money making machine and it has been in their interest to portray raptors as near extinct and persecuted. For years all their literature had a prominent portrait of a hawk and a pitiful story about their imminent demist unless you sent in a contribution to save them. Years ago I contacted the RSPB statingmy concern about the increase in the population of raptors and the effect the increase was having on song birds. I stated to them that in the future the only place you would hear the song thrush would be on tape. Now years later they are now making money from that source. Do not subscribe or give donations to the RSPB. It appears they will not attend to injured birds as it costs them money. The RSPB tell you to 'phone the SSPCA

THE 2009 UPDATE FOR CLUB MANAGER 2009 V1.4.2.2 IS NOW AVAILABLE ON www.pigeon-ets.com THE PROFESSIONAL FIRMWARE UPDATE GUIDE AND CHAMP FIRMWARE UPDATE ARE ALSO AVAILABLE ON www.pigeon-ets.com CD DISCS WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE SHORTLY TO THE CLUBS. WILL THE PERSONS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF UNIKON PLEASE REMEMBER TO GO INTO "SET UP" AND CLICK "BACK UP NOW" TO SAFEGUARD ALL THE MEMBERS' INFORMATION. ALL MEMBERS' CLOCKS MUST BE UPDATED TO V3.0-E1 BEFORE THE FIRST RACE. THIS IS ALL VERY IMPORTANT. THANK YOU.

The whole point of the exercise is to record as many trapped sparrowhawks as possible to prove to the RSPB that we have an epidemic of sparrowhawks and their numbers have to be controlled. David fill in the report properly.

It appears the SNFC Committee have a tough job on their hands. They have to be frugal with the finances to avoid the same large deficit as in 2008. Some savings appear to be obvious, for example the telephone account of £896 which is more than the SHU. They reduced their account by shopping around. It appears a business contract can save money. Is it prudent, taking into account the financial situation, for the Secretary's salary of £15576, £2000 for rent and £896 for his telephone, to be increased this year? Transportation costs may be the biggest money saver. Iam confident all these matters and more will be taken into consideration by the committee and savings will be made and still not jeopardise the welfare of the pigeons.

W.Kinnear & Son and it would appear if the SNFC had taken notice of the complaints about security, W. Kinnear & Son and Auld Reekie would have set a standard, that in my opinion would have never been equalled.

Good report on racing pigeons this morning.

This posting is past its sell/buy date. Now it appears to have little credibility left, same remarks over and over again and it is now being used as a political football. Face reality decisions have been made at the SNFC AGM and both organisations must now concentrate on having a successful 2009 season. Why doesnt someone create a posting designed specifically for the members of the FORUM to insult each other instead waiting for the opportunity of highjacking other posts.

Ian the president was corrected. The 3 years he quoted applies to injury or damage not libel or slander . You obviously had difficulty hearing this as you were seated at the other side of the hall.

Well done John your pigeons were a credit to you.

Andy is correct SNFC members were dissollusioned over the "CHEAT" senario and Eastcoaster is also correct about the monetary situation, hopefully the new committee will tackle the problem and take up the suggestion to form a finance committee to look at all the aspects of spending in the SNFC ie transportation costs, telephone account, secretarys salary, accountancy fees, raising the cost of the birdage to the feds etc. Lets give the new committee a chance. I for one have faith in them.

Hopefully the SNFC is now on the road to gaining back its self respect. It looks like the new committee has some really good strong members in their midst who are only there for the good of the SNFC. I doubt if the incidents which appeared to bring into question the security of the SNFC will be allowed to happen again now that they are in control. The message also went out loud and clear today by a overwhelming majority ( thanks in no small way to Mr Doig and Mr Donnachie) that the SNFC is loyal to the SHU. Good luck to the SNRC and their RPRA members and as someone stated today we dont to try to interfere with their club and hope everything goes well for them.

To return back to the original question it appears that it was either the"Top Man" had forgotten he had told the members at the AGM the Man who threatened the SNFC with litigation was not taking any positions in the SNFC or as the Man stated to myself "I practically run the National on my own and ? was unable to do anything without him." Maybe the Top Man had to propose him, make your own mind up. Lessons must be learned from this and nobody should be given the freedom to potentially manipulate the system.

A new inovation for saveguarding pigeons has now been introduced. The injectable microchip ( 1mmx 6mm) contains a unique manufacturers code. It can also contain pigeons ring number, colour, race etc. It provides protection against theft, if the ring is removed it has an updated database that can prove the pigeons owner. It also has the possibility of using of using your name in the database and linking it to your personal website. Organisations may provide additional security codes in the microchip to promote and prevent fraud during races etc. The company will be coming to Blackpool to employ up to 5 Vets in the UK who are used to dealing with pigeons. Can anyone help with the name and telephone number of any Vet who they would recommend.

Is this man IB in a different world? I for one did not believe that the person involved was capable of cheating . In the past we supported him through difficult times in his life and considerd him as a friend but having examined the evidence now feel let down by him. IB please be careful if the letter from the lawyer is produced you and the SNFC may end up looking like idiots.

You have now got to ask after the obvious bad feeling against the president of the SNFC how many people will resign if he is re-elected. I know for a fact members resigned last year over what appeared to be the bad feeling in the club.

Is it also true that the same person proposed someone for the Management Committee who appeared to not even have any pigeons at the time? All his pigeons had been disposed of by a friend. you must ask yourself why is this person now on the committee and for whose benefit?

The Almond Valley Transporter was used twice to take the Lanarkshire Fed to France, and it cost the Lanarkshire Fed a third of the cost to go to Falaise compared to the SNFC bill for Falaise in 2008, this included dropping the crates at the clubs 4days before the marking. By the way the Almond Valley made a profit.

Invited along to F Jamieson today new unit is First Class. Freddie once more is looking after the Almond Valley members. It would be great if all Feds have a benefactor like Freddie.

At last years AGM under Recommendations Item 3 the committee was to form a Fund Raising Committee ,if it did it appears to have raised £1288 less in 2008 than the amount raised in 2007 is their a reason for this ? When you take into consideration the rise in fees and birdage raised approx £10000, the interest in 2008 from the Bank of Scotland was £1046 more than 2007 the SNFC still lost £9471. The savings IB is suggesting make sense to a certain degree, but we cannot go on raising birdage and fees to the point where the average fancier cannot afford to send his birds to the races. Prudent housekeeping by the SNFC is the only answer. ME must realise members care about the SNFC and only want it back to its former glory and the Forum is one of the few places which allows them to air their views. They have travelled from all over Scotland to several SNFC meetings and not been allowed to air there views.

Its great to see people are starting to realise changes must be made in the SNFC. Great comments from Stevie b, Budgie, JADE, Dellboy, Jock3 and others. Budgie,s comment on the loss of £2019 for the Dinner & Presentation is relevant, when you take into consideration most people at the Dinner are collecting some type of award and they would be willing to pay the price of a ticket which should have been set to cover most of the costs. The Officials should have the numbers of award winners therefore it should not be difficult.

I am led to believe the SNRC secretary has a salary of £ 3000. I agree with Jock 3 he is on the right track to save money for the SNFC.

Has anyone else noticed that nobody has had the courage to put their names as the proposer and seconder of the resolution to delete sections D and E and yet all the previous resolutions had been proposed and seconded by people on the committee. Surely it is about time that a Finance Committee to be set up to monitor and advise on how our money is spent ie. accountancy, telephone and transportation costs etc. It would appear that if nothing is done to control the expenditure and we keep on haemorrhaging money as we have done in the last few years the SNFC will be in a dire state. You cannot just keep raising the fees, it is not the answer.

Ian D. Bald did not leave the AGM it was W. Hay who walked out in disgust. Everything in my posting is the true facts and I should know.

With reference to the statement from I McKAY regarding the the question of litigation at the SNFC AGM last year, I think D. Bald did ask the President, T. Davidson if he had a letter from the person concerned and did it contain the threat of litigation. Tom Davidson stated he did have such a letter but would not allow any discussion to safeguard SNFC. D. Bald then asked how long it would be before the matter could be discussed and Tom Davidson said the person concerned had up to three years to take action. D. Bald tried to ask another question but was told to sit down. So Ian, you should go back and ask T. Davidson once more about the letter and also ask him why he proposed the person concerned to be put back on the committee.

Sad news Dale died today around 10am.