Brent Dolphins

Due to the difficulties we faced in 2005, and which are sure to continue during 2006, it has not been possible to produce audited accounts for the year ended 31 December 2005.

It was agreed after lengthy talks towards the end of 2004 that Brent Sports Services would provide sufficient financial support to keep the Club going, until we are able to return to Willesden Sports Centre. This came out of their wish to have a competitive swimming club in being and ready to move into the new pool. Although I was extremely worried that our financial position was already untenable, I was persuaded to continue and help was promised. Being of a cynical nature, and being the beneficiary of many broken promises in the past, I obtained this offer in writing. So far, I must admit that all promises made have been met. I feel that we should put it on record that if it was not for the help provided by Brent Environmental Services and in particular Brent Sports Services, the Club would have closed in the Autumn of 2004.

The Head of Brent Sports Services, Gerry Kiefer, and I agreed that we would look at the financial position at the end of each quarter and that the deficit at that time would be covered. These financial statements have been carefully scrutinised and I have had to commit the Club to a very stringent view of our expenditure. Also, we had to look at alternative ways to raise monies on top of our fee based income. The Swimathon was such an initiative and it successfully raised just under £3,000. It has however been very difficult to obtain grant monies and all our applications to date have been turned down.

Moving through the year quarter by quarter, I will try to give you a picture of our present position. The first quarter of any year for us is always a difficult one with one-off annual items such as insurance, ASA registration costs, the engraving of trophies etc, coming on top of our usual running costs. The deficit in the first quarter came to £6,927.72.

The second quarter saw no particular or unusual items and we ended up with a deficit of £2,788.05.

The third quarter benefited from the inclusion of the Swimathon monies, slightly offset by some one-off expenditure. The deficit for this quarter came to £1,708.78.

The fourth quarter was complicated by the need to tidy up all the loose ends that arose over the year. However, this has now been largely achieved and on Thursday I met with the new Business Manager at Vale Farm and we resolved the only outstanding item, which was what should we have been paying for pool hire. I recently discovered that we had been paying more than other users. These overpayments came to a fairly substantial £1,350. We have now agreed the correct rate for 2006 and have agreed how the 2005 overpayment will be discounted by adjusting down the 2006 invoices. A quick calculation of the fourth quarter deficit shows that it will be in the region of £3,570, making a total deficit for the year of just under £15,000, which is very close to the estimates submitted to the council.

Now that this has been resolved, I can get the accounts properly audited and I will make copies available to any member who would like to see them. An announcement to this effect will be made in the Club Newsletter and on the Club Web-Site. It must be pretty obvious to everyone that without the help we received, this sort of loss would have been an impossible burden.

Looking at all the problems we have had, our income has held up fairly well, but the Novice Courses are down around £2,500 and the Squad Fees down around £3,000 on last year. However, if we go back to our last relatively untroubled year, which was 2003, Novice fees are down £7,000 and Squad fees £5,500. This does mean that even if we could get back to these levels, we would still be losing money, so it is clear that just getting back to Willesden is not the answer to all our problems. Quite frankly, there is no way we can cut our present level of expenditure, it has already been cut to the bone. It will quite likely increase to some extent as our swimming programme increases. Therefore, we must be sure that we can increase income and this is just to stand still. Any future development within the club will depend on how much surplus income we can generate.

An unavoidable difficulty has grown up over the last decade, whereby we have gone from a largely volunteer teaching staff, to a situation where virtually all of our teachers are paid. So from a position whereby teachers remuneration's only consumed around 22% of our annual fee income, it has now risen to over 75%. This figure of course is distorted at the moment by our fee income being drastically reduced and with the increase in the number of paid teachers.

So the return to Willesden will need a lot of planning to ensure that we will be able to pay our way. It is likely that the Brent Sports Services monies will cease at that time and should this return to Willesden not resolve our financial position, the club would have to close. We are a voluntary organisation, not a company with the protection of limited liability and so the members would be liable for the debts of the club. Therefore if I see that the finances are not right, it will be necessary to call an EGM to decide on whether the club should be wound up or not. As usual I owe a big debt to Jean Parkin and to a new administrator Claire Harris, who gather in all the monies. Also in the absence of the Club Secretary Eric Webb, my thanks go to all of our teaching staff and in particular to the members of our committee, who have all made a big contribution to the running of the club in these difficult times.

Tony Burton
Treasurer