1st APRIL 2023 TO 31st MARCH 2024
Continued Evolution
1. The 89th Conference was held on 18th May 2023. The Covid pandemic with its enforced lockdowns changed attitudes to public meetings and it has taken time for confidence to recover. The conference planned for November 2023 had to be cancelled and there are no plans to hold a meeting in May 2024.
2. For our conferences to be successful, we need to attract a wide range of attendance to ensure a broad and well-informed debate. To this end, we intend to hold a number of small private meetings, under Chatham House rules, with a selection of those organisations which have shown some reluctance to join the wider debate, to try to encourage them to engage with those whose views they do not necessarily agree, but who are all concerned with the welfare of the countryside.
Funding
3. The current arrangements allow either the payment of an annual donation with reduced attendance fees or full conference attendance fees. This means that any surplus from each conference can help to cover administrative costs.
4. With only one conference last year, income was significantly lower than expected. The shortfall has been covered by reserves which will need to be rebuilt when full conferences resume. It is critical that those organisations and individuals who make a donation continue to do so and it would be helpful if others could adopt this means of support.
Venue
5. Recent meetings have been held at Savills offices at 33 Margaret Street, London W1G 0JD. The use of these excellent facilities has proved hugely successful and we are extremely grateful to the Directors of Savills for their generous sponsorship.
Website
6. The fully developed website is being updated regularly and has some excellent and useful content. The website address is www.thecountrysideforum.co.uk. Supporters are urged to take advantage of the site as an information tool.
Membership
7. In 2018 the concept of membership was replaced by that of supporters. No doubt, some organisations and individuals will attend those conferences that interest them and miss others, so it is not practical to have a membership list. However, we still have around 70 organisations that receive papers and an increasing number of individuals. A full list will appear on the website unless they specifically decline to be identified.
Communication
8. Communication with supporters is now almost exclusively by e-mail which relies on the address book being kept up to date. If any supporter changes his e-mail address or if the representatives of any organisation change, please ensure that the Secretary is informed.
Meetings
9. The theme for the Spring Meeting held on Thursday 18th May 2023 was ‘The Future of Field Sports in a Modern Society’. The speakers were George Bowyer, British Hound Sports Association, Stuart Singleton-White, Head of Campaigns Angling Trust, Rob Yorke, Rural Commentator, and Matthew Watson, Head of Sporting at Savills
10. The Autumn Meeting due to be held on Thursday 2nd November 2022 was cancelled mainly due to the unavailability of high quality speakers.
11. The texts of the presentations by all the speakers at the 89th Meeting and the discussions that followed are recorded in full in the report circulated to all supporters. Further copies of the report are available from the Secretary or on the website.
THE COUNTRYSIDE FORUM
INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR 1ST JANUARY 2023 TO 31ST DECEMBER 2023
| NCOME | £ | EXPENDITURE | £ |
| Convenor Honorarium | 2,000.00 | ||
| Annual Subscriptions/donations | £3,925.00 | Treasurer’s Honorarium | 2,000.00 |
| Conference income | £1,100.00 | Travel and subsistence | 297.74 |
| Other donations | £200.00 | Conference costs | 950.65 |
| Office expenses | 457.00 | ||
| Website & other costs | 619.90 | ||
| Bad Debt | 50.00 | ||
| Total | £5,225.00 | £6,375.29 |
ACCUMULATED FUNDS
| £ | |
| Bank balance at 31st December 2022 | £1,650.95 |
| Loss for year | £1,150.29 |
| Bank balance at 31st December 2023 | £500.66 |
This is a true record of the receipts and payments on behalf of the Standing Conference on Countryside Sports and Management for Year ending 31st December 2023
Treasurer’s Report
The figures in the Report speak for themselves and underline not only the difficulties of the last two or three years, but the importance of the regular income represented by the annual contributions made by a number of our supporters, for which we are not only grateful but which allow us to budget more accurately. Though costs have been carefully contained, our surplus of four years ago has now evaporated and it must be our aim to rebuild some reserve at the same time as providing out supporters with the continuation of the longest established, truly impartial and independent forum in which the future interests of the countryside, its people and activities can be properly debated.
Andrew Davis Hon Secretary and Peter Geldart Hon Treasurer