NCS Five Year Plan 2005-2009

The team Managers structure of the society is now working well. Following the sale of George Gray House, the Society now has more funds available to fulfil the aims and objectives of the Society. The Charity commission needs to see that the Executive committee is seeking to fulfil these criteria, and the Management Committee and members of the support fund have met to agree on a way forward for the Society.

A 5 year forecast to the year 2009 has been prepared, and on this a 5 year plan is being developed on operational costs. This is then being supported by designated funds being made available to assist sections of the Society to fulfil the Societies aims and objectives.

Five Year Forecast.

Income
This was based upon affiliations, subscriptions, sales and 500 club. Membership nos. are assumed to decrease by 6.8% to 9% pa through 2006 to 2009.

Expenditure
The assumptions made were:-

• Shows - assuming 5% pa increase.

• Resale costs – minus 3% pa (6% fall, 3% inflation increase).

• Publications – minus 2% pa (6% fall, 4% increase for inflation and unit costs).

• Post – constant, costs rising but offset by reducing membership.

• Management/Admin. Constant at present rate.

These assumptions illustrated that the operating deficit would continue to be covered through to 2009 by the interest available from the Support Fund (circa £5.5K deficit in 2009) and therefore was manageable.

It was highlighted that 45% of the membership paid the senior rate (i.e. Over 65) in 2005.

Designated Funds
At the recent meeting of the Management Committee and Support Fund Trustees it was agreed that steps would be taken to ensure that the monies held by the Support Fund Trustees would be designated to illustrate synergy between the NCS mission statement and potential requirements of the Charities Commission.

A number of specific areas for designation and nominal monetary amounts were discussed and agreed. It will now be necessary for the appropriate documentation to be put in place by the Support Fund Trustees. In essence this will involve setting up of five additional COIF deposit accounts with inter account transfers being affected for the amounts and designations specified below:-

• Publications £50,000

• Shows £50,000

• Promotion of the Chrysanthemum £30,000

• Contingencies £20,000

• Future Developments £30,000

The remaining balances will remain in the existing COIF accounts and the proposed actions will have no detrimental effect on existing interest rates earned.

The mechanism of operation of the new arrangements will obviously develop over time. At this stage this exercise is required to ensure that in the event of the Charities Commission enquiring as to our intentions with regard to the accumulated funds that designation for specific purposes can be evidenced to them.

With regard to specific operation of the new arrangements it is probably easiest to assess how a request to fund a new publication might be managed.

Upon receipt of the appropriate costing the Support Fund Trustees would agree to the draw-down of sufficient funds to facilitate production of the Publication. Thereafter sale proceeds of the Publication would be paid back into the supporting COIF account until such time as the initial capital outlay plus interest is repaid. Subsequent sales proceeds would be taken into NCS main funds.

Obviously not all transactions would involve a recoverable outlay. For example losses may be incurred on shows with negative impact on main fund cash flow. Such situations would be fully justifiable of Support Fund Trustee support given that shows are a core activity of the NCS.

The nature of NCS activities and future developments may be wide and varied and all situations cannot be covered within the content of this summation. However a framework has been put in place to facilitate future discussion between the Management Committee and the Support Fund Trustees as situations arise.

All decisions of the Support Fund Trustees will of course be subject to and governed by existing Trust Deed requirements and taken in the best interests of the membership.

Publications £50K
The publications of the Society are a crucial part in furthering all aspects of the Chrysanthemum and the Society. Ken Dear and his publishing team have continued to produce interesting and high quality publications for the members, although publication dates are still a challenge. We have always had financial restrictions on being able to produce new books, to the detriment of our members. The designated funds will provide the foundation for more new quality publications to be produced, at very competitive prices for members, but importantly they will be a credit to the Society. We have recently published the Barrie Machin book, which we consider to be a high quality publication at a low cost to members. New publications are to follow, but getting authors for these remains a challenge. The sale of publications will be used to replenish the balance of the fund. Recently we have lost the facilities of our Web site, but it should be up and running again soon.

Shows £50K
We staged two very successful National shows in 2005. Provision of the National shows for the Society is a considerable challenge, and at a current net cost of some £10,500. On the assumption that there are no major changes, then these should only raise by inflation. Attracting the public to the shows becomes more difficult each year, and we recognise the shows are gradually developing into Exhibitor shows. . Fundraising at the show is still difficult but we did manage to increase it in 2005, but we are still very short of volunteers to help. The Stafford Borough’s support the Early show continues, but financially it decreased from £500 to £350, but their presence at the show in crucial for attendance and the opportunity for us to raise funds at the show. The other Societies at the show also help to boost attendance, but income at the door decreased again.

The shows are a vital part of the Society, and having designated funds does not mean that massive changes to our shows are proposed, but they will protect their future. We will continue to explore other possibilities, but without considerable increases in costs, at present Stafford offers us the best venue. Due to our long term presence at the showground we get very competitive rates, and they also offer free storage for all of our equipment. The Society and exhibitors are indebted to a small team of volunteers who turn up every year to work for many days to put on the show. A venue elsewhere could give us volunteer problems.

Exhibiting today is a very intense and competitive activity. At National level in all main classes you will find very dedicated exhibitors who grow substantial numbers of plants that can make it difficult for the “smaller” grower to compete. We wish to encourage exhibitors to come, and in the National schedule we do cater for this by having classes restricted to growers of smaller numbers of plants, or those who have not won Nationally before. The schedule has also been extended in other areas, the introduction of classes for old cultivars, Boulous etc offers other opportunities. In the late National the popularity of the “Fantasies” has seen many new exhibitors come forward. These cultivars give a

higher chance of getting blooms on the bench without massive facilities compared to some other sections. We hope the introduction of medals in the Society classes will attract more exhibitors. The computer based entry system for the shows continues to work very well and allowed us to increase staging time, without affecting the opening time of the show.

Promotion of the chrysanthemum (shows, trials) £30K
We are actively trying to extend the interest in chrysanthemums to a much wider audience. We are offering a collection of Koreans and Rubellums for sale, not only to members but also to the general public and RHS members, and the response has been very encouraging. There are to be articles on these chrysanthemums in future publications. We are also offering collections of Old Time cultivars, which have also been very popular. At present the RHS is looking into the organisation and effectiveness of the trials, and when this is complete we will seek to offer more assistance in the trials. We work closely with the RHS in promoting the chrysanthemum to the General public, and there will be another “Chrysanthemum Open Day” at Wisley this year. Our presence at shows around the country such as Chelsea and Tatton Park allows us to fly the flag for the Society and to promote the cultivation of Chrysanthemums. The decision has been made, that to truly represent the Society, we will always aim to exhibit a “Gold medal” exhibit. We have received medals at these shows, including another Gold at Chelsea, and Golds at Tatton Park and Malvern Autumn shows

An important part of our Floral responsibilities is our commitment to the introduction of new cultivars. We wish to find more ways to encourage raisers to breed and exhibitors to try those released to ensure full use is made of the breeders skills. A first small step towards this is the abolition of registration fees and that in addition all nursery and raiser advertising will be free in all publications from 2005 onwards. We are actively looking at increasing support of trials for all types of chrysanthemum and attempt to ensure full potential is realised in all cultivars.

Contingency (loss of manager, potential outside assistance) £20K
This is to protect the Society against the effects of a major change in circumstances that if not rectified could seriously effect the future of the Society.

Future Development (e.g. cryogenics) £30K
As a society we are often criticised for only looking to the interest of exhibitors and not the good of Chrysanthemum growers as a whole. Well exhibitors are very short sited and focussed people and are very hard on cultivars. Once they loose their edge on the show bench they are cast aside and hence in reality soon disappear. We have very few commercial suppliers of chrysanthemums, and they make hard commercial decisions on whether they continue to grow and offer cultivars for sale. This means that many of the cultivars grown widely and seen prolifically on the show only a few years ago are now hard to find, and quite possibly lost all together. As a society we are at present trying to build up a stock of these old cultivars, and as a bonus to members actually offer them for sale. We looked at ways of preserving these cultivars, as there is nobody that keeps a National collection of Chrysanthemums, as this is a very time consuming and costly exercise. We enquired on the costs of saving cultivars by conventional means, but these were all prohibitive on maintenance grounds.

Reading University is recognised as one of the leading horticultural research establishments in the world, and it is here that we sought a solution to our aim of preserving our beloved chrysanthemums. The process of freeze storing chrysanthemum cultivars, (Cryogenics) is certainly not a proved process, but it has worked for other plants. The initial trials at Reading, under the direction of Professor Andy Whetton, and with Barrie Machin as the NCS liaison, indicate that further research is a promising venture. We are at present seeking other sponsors to join us in this exciting venture, and it is possible that the research by a PhD student, to include a number of plants, not just chrysanthemums is the way forward. This could be an expensive venture but we are seeking co sponsors and we are hoping the RHS will join us as a partner. Articles on the process of this research will not only be in NCS publications but in the RHS publication The Garden, and Andy Whetton will be at this years AGM to give a presentation on the research to date.

Leaving £100K undesignated.
The position of remaining a Charity was considered, but at present investment income would drop dramatically (circa 50%) without COIFF, restricted to registered charities, since most other good investments have life membership links and are therefore not available.

Membership 5 Year Plan
Over 5 years our membership will have fallen quite considerably, one of the main reasons is that we have a aging membership over 60% of our members are over the age of sixty five this could be possibly higher as some of our senior members still pay a higher rate ie Fellow Patron Joint this can not be allowed to continue and action will have to be taken to redress the situation by aiming to recruit some younger members.

Action

• Distribution Of Membership Leaflets

• Audio Visual Programme at show Bureaux

• Verbal Contact through Groups

• Harrogate Spring Show

• Request that plant suppliers place a membership leaflet with every catalogue they send out.

• Membership form made available in garden centres, and some other organizations

• Make forms available at non affiliated society shows ie. Village Shows Agricultural Shows and any other shows were any of our members are involved

• Have a audio visual programme made of promoting our society to be played at venues such as on our bureaux at shows

• Encourage more delegates from societies at group meetings to become members of the N C S.

Present Members
To keep existing members we need to continue holding National Shows as this is out flagship, and continue publishing specialised literature and providing lectures and talks.

Continue selling plant collections not available elsewhere to members, who can also obtain publications at discount rates. Promote more the service where we provide free advice and help on chrysanthemum topics and problems.

Publications-5 year Outline Plan
The two main areas of service to the membership are the provision of annual bulletins and production of a wide range of books for sale to members and the chrysanthemum growing public.

Annual Bulletins
Our present system consists of a 40 page Spring bulletin, a 40 page Autumn bulletin and the 80 page mid season Chrysanthemum which is essentially the yearbook without the detailed show statistics.

Apart from this our publications consist of more words per annum to the membership than previously was the case. We plan to continue at least as we are at present for the next 5 years. In addition the mid term publication will be reviewed with regard to possible reintroduction of a bound volume. The present position however is only maintainable or improved by the rate of articles contributed, which are increasingly more and more difficult to obtain.

The target dates for our publications are:

• Spring Bulletin Late February

• Chrysanthemum Mid August

• Autumn Bulletin Mid November

The editor apologizes for the lateness of some bulletins in the last two years. The factors involved are lateness of contributions, contributions not received and staffing difficulties at our printers. We will review the use of other printers although our present service is generally good and cost effective.

Falling membership will result in some savings of postage and/or printing costs.

However there will be increasing costs of printing per item due to lower numbers and postage costs are likely to

increase above inflation. Savings at best are expected to be ca.2% per annum depending on rate of decrease of membership.

Books for Sale
The executive has an ongoing policy of producing quality books for sale to the membership and to the public, the latter largely through our commercial nurseries. In addition we produce a number of books in house.

IN HOUSE 
Our ability to increase the quality of publications in house has recently been improved by the purchase of additional printing equipment, which allows us to add colour pages. The equipment has been purchased from proceeds of sale of plants and books and will pay for itself quickly whilst improving our service.

The following are planned for the next five years:

• Judging Manual with colour pictures to replace most diagrams

• Concise Register

• Week-to Week guide revised with added colour

• Progressive Thinking by Harry Randall

• Growing and Showing Chrysanthemums by Wallace Brook

Other publications nearing the end of their usefulness may be revised and reprinted e.g. Chrysanthemum Nutrition, Soilless Composts and the Spray book. 

Alternatively they may be replaced in other ways.

OUTSIDE PRODUCTION 
In the last five years or so this has been difficult to contemplate due to our administration and financial situation. Now being in a very sound position we are able to provide further quality productions, which are always well received by our members. These will be sold to our members close to cost price with sufficient mark up to avoid losses. Proceeds will be essentially reprocessed into new publications. The latest external publication Understanding Chrysanthemums by Barrie Machin was the first produced by our present printers and gave us excellent quality at a low price have sold over half of the 1000 printed and obviously there is still call for similar quality books.

Plans are being put into place to produce the following books of similar format in the next five years:

• Exhibition Earlies by John Peace with a little help from the editor,

• Exhibition Lates by a leading exhibitor, which could be a revision of the present Ivor Mace Publication,

• Garden and Decorative Chrysanthemums to include garden mums, charms cascades, boulous, sprays and fantasies,

• A technical publication covering pests, diseases, nutrition, composts, greenhouse aids such as dehumidifiers, light, propagators etc

Some of these ideas are in their infancy and feedback as well as contributors will be sought.

 Shows Committee 5 Year Plan

Aims:

• Host two successful National shows.

• Prepare revision to Judging and Exhibiting.

• Hold judging examinations when appropriate.

• Manage designated funds

a) Shows

• Attracting more public to the shows

• Show at Stafford for next two years – recognise developing into Exhibitor shows

• Volunteer teams to set up shows High cost saving

• Increase fund raising at shows

• Continue National Raffle

• Encourage participation of other Societies – mainly Early Show

• Try to maintain existing traders, Not seek large increase in numbers

• Encourage more participation by exhibitors in show preparation, manning etc.

• Develop schedule – Encourage more exhibitor’s e .g. Medals societies, Old cultivars, Boulous

• Evaluate staging times annually

• No reintroduction of Prize money at present, - Exhibitors get value for membership.

• (We don’t meet real cost of shows, most done by volunteers. Costs could double. Need to meet full costs before prize money?)

Future of shows

• Continue to explore possibilities of other venues

• Main criteria No considerable increases in costs

• More public presence at show

• Suitable location for majority of Exhibitors

• Future security of any change

• Need Success for Early and Late shows.

Considerations

• Very Competitive costs at Stafford

• Storage of equipment at no costs

• Hold Two Shows, late show alternatives are more difficult.

• Volunteers for set up at other venues unlikely.

• Part of other shows – future is less secure, If Sponsor withdraws ? show folds ? Only possible for Early show, Late show wrong time of year

b) Judging and Exhibiting

• Prepare first revision by September 2006

• Main judging criteria unchanged

• Update general content

• Add judging of Fantasies

• Replace diagrams of faults with actual pictures

• Loose leaf format for book

• Continue annually to add to quality of pictures and diagrams.

c) Hold judging examinations

• Review annually need for judging examination

• If required hold judging exam with National show

• Consider request from groups to host judging examinations.

d) Manage designated funds

• Protects future security of show in event of unforeseen financial crisis.

• Funds to be used to benefit of show. Need value for money.

• Availability does not mean automatic re-introduction of Prize money

• Evaluate value for money for exhibitors at show.

• May need funds as volunteer resources fall.

PROMOTIONS & FLORAL 5 YEAR PLAN

Floral

• To register new cultivars and keep register

• To review existing cultivars

Promotions

• To promote the NCS by having high quality presence at major shows.

• To provide floral displays of suitable standard to seek Gold medal award.

• Promote the breeding of new cultivars.

• Encourage the interest in all categories of chrysanthemums

• To expand the NCS contribution to RHS trials

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Financial review for 2005
As was anticipated, membership has continued to fall, but again only slightly, standing at a total of 1294 , down from 1388 in 2004, Affiliated Societies has also fallen slightly, down to 499 from 530 in 2004.

Our corresponding membership income fell by nearly £3,300 and affiliated Societies by nearly £400. The profit from book sales decreased to £3,665.

We again held two successful shows at Stafford, although the costs did rise slightly from last year. We have trimmed our costs dramatically over the past years, and there is little opportunity left. It also becomes more difficult to attract visitors to the shows, and hence raise additional income during the show. In 2005 the Society supported the two shows to just over £10,500, and this still relies on most of the setting up and dismantling of the show being done by a small team of volunteers.

Our income and expenditure is generally similar to last year, and we are pleased to report a small deficit for the year of £2,010 in the unrestricted and a surplus of £16,179 in the restricted funds.

It is pleasing to again report on a healthy cash flow position.

The trading account for 2005 showed a contribution of £9,331 before carriage costs, a return of 40% on sales.

Statement of Trustees responsibilities.
The Trustees are required under the constitution of the charity to prepare financial statements for each financial year, which gives a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of its results for that period. In preparing those financial statements the Trustees are required to:

• Select suitable accounting policies and apply them consistently.

• Make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent

• Prepare the financial statements on a going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to assume that the charity will continue in business.

The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records, which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Approval
This Report and the Accounts are approved by the Trustees and signed on their behalf by

T. Porter (Chairman)
Dr G Barclay (Financial Manager)
K Dear (Vice Chairman)

NATIONAL CHRYSANTHEMUM SOCIETY^©

LIST OF TRUSTEES
Mr J Bawden Mr T A Porter 
Mr K Dear Dr G A Barclay
Mr P Fraser Miss A C Brook
Mr W Farr Mr R Brownbridge
Mr M Bryans Mr J Peace
Mr C A Wiles Mr J K Dixon
Mr D J Pierce Mr K R Smith
Mr J Letts Dr D Spencer
Mr B James Mr M Higgins
Mr L B Hogg Mr A Wright
Mr J Norman

Bankers: Co Operative Bank

Solicitors : Gillian Rolls Associates