The Donkey Breed Society

President of the Donkey Breed Society Sue Andsell 

The Council of the Donkey Breed Society is the equivalent of a company's board of directors.  Comprising three nationally elected members, who may put their own names forward for democratic election via a paper ballot of all eligible voting members of the Society.  Nine regional delegates, elected and appointed within their regions to speak on the members behalf, and formally adopted by council at their first meeting of the year.  The chairman of the six standing commitees, each being elected to that office from within their committees and adopted by council at their first meeting of the year. Whilst members may hold more than one position, being either a nationally elected council member, or a regional delegate member as well as a committe chairman member,  they hold only one vote.

Terms of office are for three years and each member may serve two terms after which they are required to stand down for one year. 

A Chairman and Vice Chairman of council are elected by a paper ballot  annually in September,  from anyone wishing to be considered from the serving council, and any previously elected council members wishing to be considered for office in either capacity.

The Company Secretary attends council meetings to take the minutes, but has no vote similarly is a member of all committess but without any voting powers.

The Honorary Treasurer attends council meetings but has no voting powers.

 ALL DONATIONS GRATEFULLY RECEIVED!!

We discussed the Society's draft 2010 budget at our recent Council meeting. This discloses a shortfall of some £5,000 between our expected income and planned expenses for the forthcoming year. Not a position of great alarm, but nevertheless not the best financial position to be in, as any deficit eats into our retained funds which we have managed to build up over a number of years.

The Society is a registered charity and as such we expect to spend money on our charitable aims, which includes the improvement of the standard of donkeys and the promotion of education of members and the public in donkey welfare, amongst others. Hopefully we all get enjoyment from this, as well as giving benefit to donkeys. We can only continue to carry out these activities at the same, or hopefully at even greater levels providing the Society's income can be maintained. 

We, like many other charities, rely upon the returns from surplus funds to boost our income. The recent fall in bank interest rates has had a direct adverse impact upon the income we can expect to obtain on our bank deposits. We spent a significant amount of time at the Council meeting discussing ways to replace this fall in income. We decided, at what we accept is a difficult time for many of our members, that it was not appropriate for us to increase our subscription rates. Instead, we all agreed that we should encourage our members to think up ways to boost the Society's finances through fund raising events through 2010. 

So there is the challenge to Area Representatives and all other active members!  Whether you are organising a teach in, a driving event or some other get together, please think about using the occasion as an opportunity to raise some additional funds for the Society. Many of you already use these events to collect money for charitable causes, but please don't forget that the Society is one such cause.

If you would like to obtain collecting boxes for this, then please contact Carol Morse, our Secretary, who will be pleased to provide them to you.

Let's all look forward to a prosperous 2010, both for individual members and the Society.

 Neil Glover       Finance Committee Chairman 

MEMBERS  -  YOUR SOCIETY NEEDS YOU !!