Questions and Answers on the ABPS 2017 Accounts

The Answers below are from Nigel Gooch, the ABPS Company Secretary and Treasurer, from Barry Stagg, the ABPS Membership Secretary and from Neil Ritchie, the ABPS General Secretary.

Overall the ABPS Accounts for 2017 show Income of £27,950, Expense of £25,474 giving a surplus of £2,476. This compares to the 2016 Accounts which had a small nett loss of £214.

This is not quite as good news at it might seem as the £2,476 surplus includes donations of £2,750 that may not re-occur in future years. As Nigel Gooch the ABPS Treasurer said at the AGM:

"The year had been one of breaking even rather than making progress".

Within the Accounts, the Income from Subscriptions rose in both 2016 (£20,449 from £18,402 in 2015) and 2017 (up to £21,070). The rise in 2016 was due to the increase in Affiliation Fee from £1.10 to £1.25. In 2017 the rise appears to be derive from income from Friends and Patrons which is included in the Subscriptions income along with the Affiliation Fees from societies.

According to analysis done by Barry Stagg, the ABPS Membership Secretary:

The ABPS had a total membership in Local, National and Specialist clubs in 2013 of 16,569, 2015 of 15,355 and 2017 of 14,012. This equates to about 3% a year reduction. Projections from this year's figures to date suggest somewhere around a 13,900 membership by 31st December. Local clubs show the biggest fall in numbers. Particularly worrying is that there are 11 clubs with 10 or less members and 77 clubs with 20 or less members.

In 2017 the nett expense on Publications went down from £5,761 to £4,252. This is because 2016 expense was higher than normal as it included the expenditure associated with the publication of the ABPS Handbook.

Expense on Grants increased from £8,154 in 2016 to £9,530 in 2017. In reply to a question on this Nigel Gooch replied:

Grants were given to Stamp Active (£550), Stampex (£250), London 2020 (£7,500) and Midpex (£1,230).

£37,500 [£7,500 per year for five years] represents a grant from ABPS to the exhibition organisers to support the 2020 international show in London designed to encourage organised philately in the UK and to attract foreign collectors and exhibitors to meet and mix with their colleagues worldwide.

The grant to Midpex [2017] was associated with the transport and erection of the old ABPS display frames [which were donated to the Midland Philatelic Federation].

Travelling Expense has also reduced from £3,412 in 2016 to £2,518 in 2017.

As far as travelling expenses are concerned £1,323 was reimbursed to committee members [53%; was 35% in 2016], £355 to our FEPA representative [14%; was 12% in 2016] and the remainder on Federation, Congress, PAC and BPMA meetings [33%; was 53% in 2016]..

The chart below shows how these three elements of ABPS travelling expense has varied over the last three years.

Part of the reason why the Federation, Congress, PAC and BPMA travelling expense has reduced may be that, since Rufus Barnes resigned due to his other commitments, there has not been a single committee member responsible for Federation liaison. Graham Winters, the new ABPS Chair, suggested that each committee member share that workload and took responsibility for Federation(s) near to where they live, so expenses to visit Federations may well be significantly reduced.

There is still an outstanding question on why there was an expense of £1,047 for Seminars for training Judges in Hitchin where in previous years such training had been cost neutral, with the attendees paying to attend to cover the costs of such seminars. A recent response (July 2018) from the ABPS General Secretary has indicated that the seminar was to train National Judges, needed for London 2020 (who don't get any expenses for their work as a National Judge), but doesn't explain why the training expense was not paid for by London 2020 if that is why the training was needed.