What have the RPRA done for you?

[Guest]

What have the RPRA ever done for you as a racer either as a direct member or as a sub-ordinate member?  Have you any gripes?  Anything on your wishlist that you'd want from an organisation you were paying X amount of £'s for to represnt You?  Let's get it off our chest, what really annoys us about what we pay for but don't get?

[Novice]

I have very few dealings with the RPRA. but I believe they supply measurements free of charge. That is a very big positive particularly when we change several racepoints each year.

[Guest]

iknow sometimes you feel like they do nothing but you cant please everybody!!

[Guest Owen]

I would like to see them take a far more positive action regarding the control of BOP. And I think it is important for them to check with the membership about important issues like giving money away when they could be using it to fund a public relations exercises.

Or even funding to fight our corner regarding the damage being done to the sport by BOP.

[Guest]

iknow sometimes you feel like they do nothing but you cant please everybody!!

 

Tell us what you think they do then?  All I ever see them as is a money making machine who pay themselves over-inflated salaries, never seen an organisation with so many sub-committes all of who's members no doubt get 'expenses' to turn up for meetings each time.  

[Roland]

Well whatever one may think of them, they do play a very large and needed integral part in the running of our so-called sport. Least not being Representative, stray / ring and distance / etc. etc.

Sure there is - as with most concern - much to be desired, looked at and changed. However until then we have to make the best of it. For it is a certainty this sport, or any other can function without such.

remember a little fact, mostly those get on join in at the trough. Genuine ones leave after bashing heir heads against the wall.

Then any and most break away concerns are in he main someone’s / parties ego trips.

If not sooner, then a little later they too have troughs to stick their’ snouts in.

Further it takes a concerted effort by members for any change. Yes they do have the power, the means to. But are in the main either too peed off, or can't be bothered to even attend club meetings, let alone Fed or even Regional meeting, they are effectively giving a vote of confidence! So what chance? Those there carrying doing what the mostly believe to be in the interests of....

[JB STAINFORTH]

why did they change the price for pensioners at blackpool show making us pay full price i suppose its the hire of the winter gardens the answer is dont give it all away to charity help us a little add this to double subs next year and you have a failing system not many of us left beware and before anyone jumps on me not everyone has loads of money

[Roland]

Very true JB STAINFORTH of course it is. like pensioners don't /Shouldn't pay in clubs. Any elder person has earnt the right of a honouary members.  :-/

But as so many now fit that bill I gues the youngsters can't afford us lol  ;D ;D

[JB STAINFORTH]

good point roland but i wouldnt want to go in for nothing  three pounds would be fair but if any organisation that wants to run shows etc and the revenue on the door doesnt cover the cost of the hall  you dont strain to give to charity unless you want an obe or knighthood remember its me and you that gives the money anyway this may be contraversial not against giving to charity often do myself and i do think the rpra do a good job but they musnt loose sight of what the few members they have left require

[Roland]

Very true and logical.... in this sport that unfortunately will quickly leave you in the minority lol :-/ ;D ;D Which joking aside is also very sad.

[Ronnie]

well they let me race my birds thats a big Plus for me.

I do believe that charity begins at home and maybe  the money we give to charity's may be of more good spent on our own problems like a decent PR company maybe or investing in the future.Still everyone cant be pleased and on the length of it i am quite happy with what they do for the money i pay.I have nothing against charities by the way there are some very needy cause's out there but if we are not here in ten years how can we give to any cause's.

[whiteflighted]

hi ronnie i fly for the sport and that is what i put my money in not for them to give to charitys i give to charitys from the pocket and charitys  of my choice thats my opinion

[weecunny]

i phoned the rpra to get a ring list, the lady took my details at 3pm on the tues and by 9.30am next morning i had my full ring list. now thats wat i call good service.

[Guest]

i phoned the rpra to get a ring list, the lady took my details at 3pm on the tues and by 9.30am next morning i had my full ring list. now thats wat i call good service.

 

yes and every time!!!!

[Guest Owen]

It's not the RPRA we should be looking at, it's the elected members who make the decisions. We the rank and file have every opportunity to mandate our members, but most of the time we don't bother. The Clubs are the backbone of the whole set up but we allow Feds and Combines to dictate to us as to what they decide to do. It is exactly the same with the RPRA. We created the situation and it's no use blaming others for our laziness. You only have to look at what has happened with the MPs. We have allowed them to manage us, when in reality we have the right to expect them to represent us. And instead of sacking them for not doing what we require of them we allow them to carry on. The result is that these elected members actually believe that they are doing right by sticking to the party line when their loyalties should be to those who elected them.

[Guest]

i phoned the rpra to get a ring list, the lady took my details at 3pm on the tues and by 9.30am next morning i had my full ring list. now thats wat i call good service.

 

pmsl; you pay for that service, she only had to put the list in an envelope and lick a stamp ready for postman pat to pick it up.   ;D

[Guest]

It's not the RPRA we should be looking at, it's the elected members who make the decisions. We the rank and file have every opportunity to mandate our members, but most of the time we don't bother. The Clubs are the backbone of the whole set up but we allow Feds and Combines to dictate to us as to what they decide to do. It is exactly the same with the RPRA. We created the situation and it's no use blaming others for our laziness. You only have to look at what has happened with the MPs. We have allowed them to manage us, when in reality we have the right to expect them to represent us. And instead of sacking them for not doing what we require of them we allow them to carry on. The result is that these elected members actually believe that they are doing right by sticking to the party line when their loyalties should be to those who elected them.

 

Well said

[Guest]

 

pmsl; you pay for that service, she only had to put the list in an envelope and lick a stamp ready for postman pat to pick it up.   ;D

 

yes but wait till you get a bad service when even the simplist things take a week and you paid for that aswell

[Guest]

Ask them for representation when you get your loft taken off you by the local council or something, ask them for help when you have to go on the sick with pigeon lung, ask them for help with any pigeon related situation, that will be the true tester of a governing body that is supposed to be there for its members, not licking a stamp.   :-/

[Guest]

Ask them for representation when you get your loft taken off you by the local council or something, ask them for help when you have to go on the sick with pigeon lung, ask them for help with any pigeon related situation, that will be the true tester of a governing body that is supposed to be there for its members, not licking a stamp.   :-/

 

i can see you  are not their no1 fan and thats your right but lots of us feel different well just now!!!

[Guest]

 

i can see you  are not their no1 fan and thats your right but lots of us feel different well just now!!!

Niether here nor there with them Frank, I state facts at all times and its a sad fact that this so called representative body is more interested in lining its own pockets than it ever is looking after members welfare.  What is it they do that makes you feel so enthused about them if you don't mind saying.  

[Guest]

Niether here nor there with them Frank, I state facts at all times and its a sad fact that this so called representative body is more interested in lining its own pockets than it ever is looking after members welfare.  What is it they do that makes you feel so enthused about them if you don't mind saying.  

 

Jagre I have to disagree, I don't believe they are there to line their own pockets. What you have is people who because they are prepared to go to meetings and stand up and be counted have reached ‘powerful’ positions in our sport. I could tell you a story of how I became secretary of the Gurnos Club when I was 22 where everyone thought the committee were at it, and they weren't, the person who was seen as whiter than white that used to run the committee down was.

Now don't get me wrong these people are only human like you and I. Temptation is a great thing many of us have weaknesses, but if you remove temptation then very few people will do anything corrupt only the real crooks.

I was interviewed for the general manager’s job when Bryant got it, I met all the councillors at the time, they were a very broadchurch in their characters and I must admit my gut didn't give me good vibes for one or two (though obviously I didn't give good vibes either ;D) but the majority I feel are sound. John Robilliard who was President at the time I would have total faith and confidence in 100%.

I do not want to be disrespectful to these councillors because they do a job that I wouldn't put myself forward for and I thank them for doing it. BUT I think this is the nub of the issue the quality of councillor; not the lining of pockets. You see we have councillors in some instance where the position of councillor is for them the highest ‘position’ they are likely to get to, they are the big fish in our little pool. What we need is councillors that have intellect and are capable of creating a business plan that will take this business forward, people that have vision and enterprise with drive to do things.

Where are you going to get them from, do we have many within the sport, we have had pigeon journalists, pigeon entrepreneurs that are a success in our sport but I would say few have the intellect to be able to device and manage a project plan and implement it successfully. I’ve not written this to insult anyone, we all have strengths and weaknesses, we have without doubt fanciers that can meet what we need but they don’t need the hassle. Sadly Brian Long was such a person he was the calibre we need to move forward, alas he was taken away, I don’t/can’t see where his peers are going to come forward.

If that is the case we need to restructure the RPRA I wrote this some 6 years ago but I see the former General Manager Major Camilleri  has come out recently with a similar plan. Get rid of council as we know it, create a manager for each region who will be part of the board and employ a Chief Executive, the region manager will have a local committee and they will feed through him how they would like the sport developing, and get a supervisor/manager in to manage the Reddings.

 

[Guest]

Hi Alun,  your entitled to disagree with me and I don't have an issue with that.   There is a way to interpret my comment on the RPRA lining their own pockets and I certainly don't mean they do so illegally far from it.  You can't compare the Gurnos with the RPRA?  The gurnos for all its sins is full of genuine people who have their fellow people at heart, (ignoring the bad element of course) even those hardly ever steal of their own.  Ask the the RPRA committee men to give up their inflated expenses for the sake of any pigeon related cause, they won't even though most of them on there including John could afford to.   They employ a man who has no clue of the pigeon man's mind to run the organisation?  Where is the logic in that?  He hasn't got the first clue how to empathise with the fancy because he isn't or hasn't ever been involved.  He's a business-man end of, not a very good one at that from my mind but I won't go into that on here although gladly tell you over the phone why I feel I can say that.  They have more sub-committee's than the worth of it, most with the same members on the main committee!!!  To me its just a way of complicating the un-complicated and yet more expenses to be claimed by the various members.   Take a look at the audit sheets that would tell the story of how much goes where, then this allows for you to question why it goes where it does and how that can be changed so the money spent on running the RPRA can be better diverted to the membership which is how it should be.

 

The points you made further in your post merit far more debate than this forum affords and it puzzles me how the hell you weren't given the job of GM.  You'd walk over those who are there now and that's a fact.  Love the ending point, a manager to manage the reddings, yes you got that right, leave the management of the pigeon fancy to those that know how to.   Cracking post and thought provoking to say the least.  

[Guest]

Hi  Jargre I think you can compare the Gurnos to the RPRA, because those people on the estate are members of the club and the committee runs the club, the RPRA is no different it is run by its members. The involvement of members in these organisations is the choice of the members. In the Gurnos the members want to be ‘in the club’ they go there to socialise, in the ‘RPRA’ the members tend not to want to be members of the RPRA but prefer to just be members in their local pigeon club. However the myths and stories about committees and officers are the same for both organisations, often stirred up by people wanting to cause trouble and jealous of not being a power in the respective fish tank.

As to expenses there have been some really bad examples of late I know. But you must pay expenses you cannot expect people giving up their time to represent us and for it to come out of their pockets. That is totally wrong, you will end up with representatives that have; and the haves have always looked after themselves, never the have nots.

[Guest]

Hi  Jargre I think you can compare the Gurnos to the RPRA, because those people on the estate are members of the club and the committee runs the club, the RPRA is no different it is run by its members. The involvement of members in these organisations is the choice of the members. In the Gurnos the members want to be ‘in the club’ they go there to socialise, in the ‘RPRA’ the members tend not to want to be members of the RPRA but prefer to just be members in their local pigeon club. However the myths and stories about committees and officers are the same for both organisations, often stirred up by people wanting to cause trouble and jealous of not being a power in the respective fish tank.

As to expenses there have been some really bad examples of late I know. But you must pay expenses you cannot expect people giving up their time to represent us and for it to come out of their pockets. That is totally wrong, you will end up with representatives that have; and the haves have always looked after themselves, never the have nots.

 

I'll agree to disagree on the Gurnos bit but of course with respect.  I hold the loyalty of a tight knit community far higher than an array of people from all corners of the country with their own hidden agendas in a completely light but that's just my opinion.   I don't subscribe to myths nor do I try and stir up trouble, I've been on too many committees in my time to subscribe to that waffle.  I just speak as I find and I find that on many points the RPRA as a representative is no way run by its members, if it was it would be doing a lot more than it is about many problems the fancy face.

 

I think we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one Alun with no malice thought on either part.