THE 2008 BGA ANNUAL REVIEW

The British Grooms Association is a ' Non Profit' business. This basically means that all of the profit that the BGA makes is put back into the Association, with the ultimate aim to help grooms.

So what happens to your £17.50 membership funds that you pay and how does the BGA spend your money?

COST OF MEMBERSHIP

It depends slightly on the way that you pay your membership, for example if you pay by card we
incur a 50p charge. There is then the cost of your Welcome Pack which is approximately £1.50 including postage.

The BGA’s membership magazine, British Grooms, is eagerly awaited by all members but there is a high cost on this publication as it actually costs £2.00 per issue to produce, so four copies per year is £8.00. We manage to avoid a postage cost on the magazine as one of our sponsors, Merial, kindly post the magazine for us, so at least we reduce that cost by £1.00 per member per annum.

Part of your membership fee is also used to renew you the following year, and so we must include a minimum cost of 80p which includes the postage and printing costs. This is why we
encourage all members to consider joining on a direct debit, as this really does save funds.

So although it depends on a few factors ...each membership actually costs the BGA £11.80 to
fulfil. This leaves us with just £5.70 which goes towards the actual running of the association.

INCOMING RESOURCES IN 2008

The BGA is very fortunate to have the generous support of our sponsors all who support the aims of the association – without our sponsors the BGA would struggle to operate.

The BGA shop and Equine Skills CV brings in some revenue but membership is the area that the BGA needs to concentrate on in order to grow and strengthen. This is why we constantly encourage members to get their friends and colleagues to join.

It is important to note that the BGA has not todate recieved any funding from the ‘Equestrian Industry’.

EXPENDITURE IN 2008

The BGA is run on a very tight budget to ensure that we make the most of your money.

For example almost everything that is posted is second class! Your association is run by the Executive Director, Lucy Katan. It is a full time job and the salary for the year 2008 was 80% subsided by a grant which was won from UnLtd*, The Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs.

The Board of Directors are working hard to build the BGA for the future, but they are all voluntary and so must be reimbursed their travel expenses when attending meetings. 22% of our expenditure in 2008 has been on marketing and advertising. This has included the purchase of the BGA’s stand and all of the design work on British Grooms magazine and recruitment literature.

We are very careful where we advertise, as it is easy to spend a lot of money
in this area with little return on the investment, however as we must build our membership, this is an important area of spending.

Part of the Executive Director’s job is to raise the awareness of the BGA and grooms and this
means that there is much travelling around the country to give talks and attend meetings, it is
for this reason that the ‘Executive Expenses’ are at 16%.

2009 PLANS

In 2009 we look forward to a year where the BGA becomes bigger and stronger, so that it
can offer even more support to grooms. Our plans include increasing the membership, raising the
profile of the BGA with an even stronger presence, the introduction of Area Representatives and the development of the employers’ handbook.

Alongside this the BGA will also be hoping to get funding from the equestrian industry so that we
can continue to make a difference to you.