STAFFORDSHIRE MOORLANDS & DISTRICT FEDERATION

by Brian Smith

SMDF No 82                                                                                                    21 October 2015

PEOPLE  POWER  OR  DIVINE  INTERVENTION?

An unusual title for an article written for pigeon fanciers you may think, but stick with me, if you can, and hopefully all will become clear. I’ll start with a short and brief true story which will suffice as a precursor to my editorial.

In our village, due to the vicar moving on to pastures new, we have had to appoint a new cleric into the post and to add to this problem there have also been changes made to the group of parishes that comprise our Benefice which has necessitated the moving of the old vicarage to a new one in a different village. The new vicarage is a new build construction and as such did not have a telephone line or internet connection in place but the new vicar was advised that these would be in place by given dates. These dates came and went and no sign was there of any activity from BT so the vicar delayed his move into the new premises. Finally, a revised and firm date for the communications connections was received and the vicar moved in. As you have probably guessed the telephone line etc did not materialise. This prevented the vicar from carrying out his duties correctly and was particularly difficult when making arrangements for funerals, marriages and christenings, to say nothing of problems related to pastoral guidance in cases of sudden changes in some parishioners lifestyles etc. The vicar made numerous attempts to rectify the situation with BT but was unsuccessful, so finally as a last resort he called on his parishioners for any help they could offer as one parishioner put it “He could speak to God but was unable to communicate with his flock using modern communication methods”. As you can imagine the parish responded in a very robust manner and inundated the appropriate personnel at BT with e-mails explaining the situation and believe it or not, and I am not prepared to speculate on whether it was the power of the people or the Diego Maradonna hand of God but in less than a week a telephone line and internet connection was in place! Amazing. Isn’t it?

Now, what has that got to do with pigeon racing you may ask. Well, in last week’s article I made a suggestion for RPRA consideration in respect of “Junior Councillors” and as you can imagine I have been inundated with your comments and those from the RPRA! So can I make yet another suggestion and that is if you agree with me, you copy that part of last week’s article and post to your Region Representative together with your comments and ask him or her to raise it at the next Region meeting. Alternatively, if you feel strongly enough on the matter you could avoid the tortuous route of going through your Region and send your comments directly to the Future of Sport Committee at the RPRA. If we don’t do something, nothing will happen and we will have to put up with the ongoing saga of backbiting which seems to occupy vast amounts of our current Councillors time. What good that does the future of the sport I just can’t understand.

I can’t promise you any divine intervention but maybe, just maybe the power of the people will carry some sway.

Another thought that has been bothering me this week is the total inadequacy of the current Rules that govern our sport. If you take a little bit of time during the closed season and read through the 2015 RPRA Rules & Regulations you will soon come across some that are totally inappropriate and certainly not applicable in the 21st century. For example if you take a look at Rule 155 you will see that any proposition put forward for consideration at a Club or Federation AGM to change an existing Rule, must be sent to members of that Club or Federation at least 7 days prior to the AGM for them to consider whether or not to accept the change. Well, that is fine as far as a Club is concerned but what about changes to Federation Rules. If the Federation secretary complies with Rule 155 and sends the propositions out to Federation members (which are the Clubs within the Federation) only 7 days prior to the AGM, how does the club secretary manage to call a club meeting to discuss the proposal and mandate the club delegate how to vote, when another RPRA Rule says that members of the club shall receive at least 7 days’ notice of the date of the club meeting. It’s impossible and therefore if anyone wants to object they have perfect grounds upon which to do so.

Yet another change that seems to have crept into the Rules in the 1990’s when the then current Rules were revised following a review, which had to be carried out under a Rule that existed in those days, which demanded that the Rules were reviewed every 10 years and if necessary revised in line with changing conditions. This amendment incorporated the addition of the phrase “and any general business of the Organisation” to the agenda of an Annual General Meeting (RPRA RULE 153). You may or may not know that the RPRA publish a very helpful guide book for new and existing club and Federation secretaries and in that booklet is a guide format for the subjects that must be covered at the AGM. There is no mention in the copy of the booklet I have got of the ‘general business’ phrase addition which appears in the 2015 Rule book. However, presumably because it is a Rule, we have to include this item. At this point, I think I should point out that this means that anything appertaining to the Federation can be discussed at the AGM and therefore if a proposal is made, seconded and carried then that proposal becomes a Rule for the following Year. Can someone clarify this for me! Sadly the “review of the Rules” Rule is now no longer in existence surely it should be reinstated, perhaps a club in the Staffordshire Moorlands & District Federation could submit this to our Region for consideration (last date for submission of proposals is early November).

These are just a couple of examples and there are many more I could quote but hopefully you have got the idea by now of what I am moaning about and what I want to see changed. In my view the President and the RPRA Councillors now have the opportunity to examine the sport of pigeon racing as a whole, make the necessary changes and move the sport on into the 21st Century and beyond. Modern means of communicating need to be examined and used where appropriate and viable. The old fashioned usage of the postal system (snail mail) is now totally out of date and greater use must be made of electronic forms of communication it’s quicker, cheaper and more user friendly in this modern day and age, so why not adopt it?

SMDF Business

In closing can I turn to and offer Congratulations from the Staffordshire Moorlands & District Federation Press Office to all the 2015 season Average Winners, a detailed list of which is now posted on the Fed website(www.moorlandsfedpigeons.co.uk) for your scrutiny. Particular “well dones” must go to Leigh & James of Longdendale who won the Old Bird Land, Combined Land and Young Bird Averages, Jake Taylor from Berryhill who won Young Fancier of the Year and Packmoor Club who collected the Season’s Points Trophy.

Sorry, no pictures again this week, maybe next week will be different after the Packmoor Club Horse Racing evening I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Cheers for now -

Brian Smith - Press Officer