Staffordshire Moorlands Makes Some Changes

Sunday 15 January saw the Annual General Meeting of the Staffordshire Moorlands & District Federation for the 2016 season and due to other commitments now coming forward, for some of the officials, sadly some changes had to be made amongst the ruling body.
Firstly, with considerable regret our President for the last 3 years, Chris Knowles, had to stand down due to having been appointed to another position, namely as President of the Lancashire Social Circle - an opportunity that I am sure no one in their right mind would even contemplate turning down.
Chris has served the Federation with great dignity and an enthusiasm during his time in office and will be very hard to follow. He took over the leadership role following a couple of years when the future of our Federation was very much in doubt. Under his stewardship we have prospered into the successful and envied position we now find ourselves in and our appreciation and thanks to Chris know no boundaries. Although Chris has had to resign his presidential position we are fortunate not to be losing him altogether as he was appointed as a Life Vice President of the Federation at the AGM and so he will still remain a member of the Management Committee, where his wisdom and experience will be invaluable.
So, who is our new President I hear you cry. Well, yours truly was invited to take on the role and as you can imagine I felt it to be a great honour and so accepted without a second thought. Our Federation is extremely important to both Jill and I, so I am looking forward to carrying on all the good work Chris has done during the last three years.
Naturally I have some ideas of my own, and I certainly don’t intend to be just a figurehead President, but I do not anticipate that this will mean changing anything that currently is in position it certainly won’t be a change of Presidency that compares with that of Obama and Trump in America, where the new President seems hell bent on changing everything his predecessor put in place in my opinion if it ain’t broken don’t try and mend it. Oh, by the way, I have also taken on the role of Press Officer again and my details are on the Fed website, if you wish to get in touch and provide any info!
The rest of the Official team remain the same as for 2016 with George Greenwood carrying on as Chairman, Andy Webb as Secretary and Race Advisor and Jill Smith as Treasurer.

Some resignations came from past Committee Members, so the new Committee comprises the officials mentioned above plus Roy Jones, John White, Paul Beck, Ken Champ and Jeff Roberts.
There were two Propositions that were placed before the Federation Clubs for consideration, one to amend the Eastern Boundary which Failed to get a seconder and one to amend Rule 9 to include the Official holding the position of Treasurer on to the Emergency Committee, this was carried.
The role of race controller/convoyer would continue to be occupied by Geoff Silvester, and whilst I am talking about transport can I remind any other organisations looking for new racing with a vibrant, forward looking Federation, we have some spare capacity on Geoff’s vehicles for 2017, so please contact our Secretary (07882757852) who will look into the feasibility of you joining us.
Just to continue the commercials, can I remind all those who are interested that the Federation will again be running their now famous Gold Ring and Breeder/Buyer races during 2017 and that full details including the dates and venues for the Breeder/Buyer Auctions can be seen on the Federation website (www.moorlandsfedpigeons.co.uk).
That’s the lot for this week but I will try and keep a constant flow of info in front of my readers, as and when I get it, so keep checking the website.
Cheers for now.

Brian T Smith
Press Officer - SMDF