S N F C Meeting28606

SCOTTISH NATIONAL FLYING CLUB

Report by Joe Murphy

I attended the management committee meeting on Sunday 28th May in Newbridge Bowling Club with President Tom Davidson opening the meeting by thanking everyone for attending. We had each received minutes and documentation from the club secretary prior to the meeting and these had been read prior to this meeting.

1            Minutes of previous meeting no questions asked and passed as correct.

2            Correspondence

Thank you letter from retiring Secretary Alan McGonigal thanking the committee for their gift in recognition for the work he did for the club. As Allan was still continuing to assist the new secretary it was decided to give another gift of the same value as a consultancy fee. There was a letter from Solway federation asking if they could duplicate their birds into the Poole race flown on 8th of July. This was accepted and the federation officials reminded that the birdage fees would be the same as the SNFC membership. 

3            Channel Race Programme for 2006

Newbury Inland race marking Thursday 15th June Liberation Saturday 17th June

Alencon Gold Cup race marking Tuesday 27th June liberation Friday 30th June

Tours race marking Wednesday 5th July liberation Saturday 8th July

Falaise race marking Tuesday 18th July liberation Friday 21st July

Huntingdon race marking Thursday 14th September liberation Saturday 16th September

4            Birdage

Newbury and Huntingdon young birds – £1.50 per bird Falaise £2.50 per bird

Alencon Gold Cup race and Tours £5.00 per bird

PLEASE SEE YEAR BOOK FOR POOLS AND PRIZE MONEY

Alternative Inland Race Programme for 2006

Race 1            Newbury

Flown Saturday 17th June - Race marking Thursday 15th June-

Entry Fee - £1.50 per bird -£1.500 prize money

Race 2 Hastings

Flown Saturday 1st July - Race marking Thursday 29th June-

Entry Fee - £3.00 per bird - -£10.000 prize money

Race 3 Poole

Flown Saturday 8th July - Race marking Thursday 6th July

Entry Fee - £1.50 per bird -£2.500 prize money

Race 4 Maidstone

Flown Saturday 22nd July - Race marking Thursday 20th July

Entry Fee - £1.50 per bird -£2.000 prize money

Race 5 Huntingdon (young bird national)

Flown Saturday 16th September - Race marking Thursday 14th September

Entry Fee - £1.50 per bird -£1.000 prize money

Notes: If Channel Racing becomes available Races 2, 3, & 4 revert to channel race programme.

5            Transport

The president then gave an update on the transportation of the birds for the 2006 season this will be carried out by the North West Federation with the following times now confirmed in the membership handbook.

Race Marking Stations

Uddingston All races Channel or Inland times 5pm till 8.30pm

(Except Poole or Tours when the time will be 3.00pm till 5pm)

Springfield HC All races 7.30pm till 9pm Channel or Inland

Novar Club Rooms All races Channel or Inland 1pm till 5pm

(Except Tours 2pm till 4pm)

In the event of ONLY Inland races the Number 2 race marking will be at Glenrothes & Leslie Club Room Quarry Park Leslie (next to Leslie Golf Club) as the Fife federation are race marking at Novar on the same day.

PLEASE NOTE: Clocks will be set for ALL inland races at Novar or Glenrothes & Leslie club rooms on the NIGHT of Race Marking

Musselburgh All races Channel and Inland 3pm till 7.30pm

(Except Tours 3.30pm till 5.30pm)

Douglas RP clubrooms Dundee All Channel or Inland 1.30pm till 3.30pm

(Except Tours no marking)

Bo’ ness Pigeon Club All races Channel or Inland 4pm till 7.15pm

(Except Tours no marking)

Bon-Accord pigeon club Aberdeen All races Channel or Inland 11am till 1.00pm

(Except Tours no marking)

SNFC Members who intend to duplicate into other Organisations that are being convoyed to races by the SNFC should obtain SPECIAL basket sheets from the secretary of that Organisation

Fife Delegate Mel Jarvis highlighted the problem that if the inland race programme was to continue then there would be a problem as the Fife Federation use the Novar clubrooms for their open race marking from Maidstone on the same day as the SNFC Hastings. Mel was advised to find an alternative race marking station for the SNFC birds.

6 Marking / Clocking station costs

The secretary had sent out a breakdown of stations and after a discussion on this the outcome was that the large stations i.e. Gretna, Musselburgh, Fife and Uddingston will be allocated £40 per race marking. With the smaller stations allocated £20 per race. This money to be used at the discretion of the race marking convenor i.e. food or drink for the markers or for payment in assisting at the station. Regarding the clock convenors this was again discussed with some minor changes to one or two stations the majority of the clock convenors dealt with the money taking in from setting the clocks this money was then distributed it to the fanciers who assisted them at the setting and checking of the SNFC clocks.

Times for Clock Checking Stations

Channel Races:           

Inland Races:

Distances

ALL CLOCK LABLES MUST BE PROPERLY FILLED IN BEFORE CLOCK IS ACCEPTED FOR CHECKING AT THE CLOCK STATION

Times/Ring Numbers/Distances etc

7            Marking / Clock station procedures

These had been sent out to each committee member to read prior to the meeting and there was only one or two minor points highlighted and discussed. These instructions for race and clock stations would have to be adhered to by the convenors and membership of the club.  

8            A.O.C.B

The text phone service was discussed and agreed to continue with this service for the members during 2006. It was also agreed to keep the price of this service to a minimal to assist the membership to participate in it therefore the fee of 2006 would be £7.00 for the 5 races. This gives the members the liberation time and then the first bird recorded onto lib line into each section i.e. south east west and north. There is no  more need for members to keep phoning lib line or their friends to find out if the birds are up you can have this information sent direct to your mobile or home phone for a little as £7.00 for the season. We now have the added bonus of having this Text service sent to your home phone ‘land line’ with a recording telling you the information I send out. Therefore you have no need to worry if the birds are up or if there are any bird’s timed in you just wait for the call giving you these details. You can continue attending to your own birds and just wait for the phone to ring with the relevant information. This does not stop you from using the lib line service if you still wish to do so and many fanciers phone in later to find out if there are any birds into their area. However knowing the first pigeon timed in from the race lets you settle down to enjoy the race as many fanciers wish to know when the first bird has been timed in. If any of you SNFC members wish to take up this service then send me your NAME OFFICIAL NUBMER and YOUR PHONE NUMBER (either mobile or house number) along with the £7.00 fee made out to the SNFC. I can guarantee you will not be disappointed as this is a step into the future and shows how the SNFC is progressing into this new technical age my address is Joe Murphy Mystical Rose Cottage 2 Flutorum Avenue Thornton by Kirkcaldy KY1 4BD As the SNFC race is to be flown on the 17th June this does not leave fanciers much time to send me their details. I will send out a trial text message the week before the first national this will allow everyone who participates know that I have received their details. If for some reason you DO NOT receive this message then contact me as quickly as you can and we will make sure your number is in place for the first race.

The Lib Line service was discussed and an increase was paid regarding the time spent manning this service which last year amounted to between 8 and 10 hours EACH RACE by the phone. It was hoped that everyone would continue to support this service and phone in their early bird to the Lib Line please refer to your year book PAGE 20 for information on recording and hearing early arrivals.

Our Lib Line number to HEAR Information and Early arrivals is 09063 656 804

To phone in your ARRIVAL phone 09063 656 715

SNFC Web Page

I asked if we could upgrade the site to have a data base installed however it was felt that as we did not know how many fanciers visited the site it might not be a feasible venture. It was agreed for me to have a counter of hits installed so that we would know how many people visit the www.snfc.com  or www.snfc.co.uk  I did this on the Monday morning and up today Friday early morning we have recorded over 600 hits, which is not bad for 4 days.

Expenses            As the price of petrol is now in the region of 95p a litre it was agreed to increase the mileage used by the committee and press officer

SNFC 2005 winners DVDs Arthur Evans and myself as a good will gesture donated 500 extra copies we had received from the company (for not supplying us on time) to the SNFC these will be taken to the race marking stations and sold and ALL proceeds going into the SNFC account. 

Other Important Notices

The Car/Van Competition Prize being organised for the 2006 season by the club will see one car value £6300 approx or for the professional pigeon fancier a van value £6000 approx. In the event that we do not obtain racing from France during 2006 then the car competition will be flown for over the FOUR inland race programme. Therefore this will mean that fanciers will have to have their money for this competition paid prior to the Newbury race taking place. The cost to enter the Car competition is £20.00 per loft payable up to the race marking for Newbury in the event of the Avian Flu ban being lifted then fanciers have up to basketing for the Gold Cup race. However my own personal opinion is to pay the money now and not miss out on winning a CAR in the SNFC races. It is years since we had a car competition and I hope this new venture takes off as it is something that has been missing for quite a while. 

How the competition works. The winner will be the loft which has the lowest co efficient from the 3 channel races from ALL regions. You will be flying against the pigeons entered within your own region A.B.C.D.E.F.G this will determine your co efficient.

How to work out the co efficient is as follows: the pigeons position in the loft section x 100 divided by the birdage in the lofts section, some examples below

Section D            Alencon          Tours               Falaise

Birdage            174                  22                    200

Fanciers Pos         1                      1                      1

Co efficient            0.57                 4.54                 0.50             = 5.61

Section C            Alencon          Tours               Falaise

Birdage            498                  69                    925

Fanciers Pos         4                      1                      35

Co efficient            0.65                 1.44                 3.78             = 5.87

So with the above example it shows that any section can win the car it all boils down to the amount of birds from your section and how high a position you gain in your SECTION. Which makes a difference from the open result and is fairer to everyone taking part so send in your £20 or pay it at the Newbury race marking and you never know you could be the owner of a brand new car or van for 2006 season.

Membership has continued on the up and up and if you don’t want to miss out on flying for £10.000 prize money for the Gold Cup race then JOIN today by sending you remittance and your car nomination to Secretary Andrew Garven 320 Greengairs Road Greengairs Airdrie ML6 7TQ

The SNFC Annual Late Bred sale will be held in Newmains Pigeon Club on Sunday 10th of September 2006.

The SNFC Annual Dinner Dance and Presentation of Prizes will be held in the Glynhill Hotel on Saturday 21st of October tickets £20.00 each.

To finish off this article I have included a photograph of SNFC winner Calder Valley Glamour Boy. My thanks to Jim Hannah for supplying me with the picture.

 

Compiled by Joe Murphy, SNFC Press Officer