There’s an annual conference to which clubs may send delegates (though not all do) the core of which is the AGM at which delegates decide on what the Association may spend money in the current year and elect a committee to run the Association for the next twelve months. On the fringe of that there are opportunities for more informal sharing of experiences between the clubs from which we can all benefit. And of course there’s a considerable social element of which the highlight is the annual dinner dance.

None of this comes cheap. Most clubs cover their delegates’ expenses and clubs also pick up the tab for the Association’s expenses, which are many thousands of pounds, in the form of a general levy which is currently £3.50 per member. The insurance part of the levy is approximately 53 pence per member. With many clubs reducing their subscriptions to remain attractive in this new era of very cheap alternatives, such as Meetup, some have begun to question whether the Association need cost us as much as it does. £3.50 may not seem a lot (just the price of a pint as some say) but if your club’s annual subscription is £25, or £15 or £10 then it’s quite a chunk of it and if the reality is that only 10% of a club’s members join in these shared events it begins to look rather a lot.

So why does it cost so much? First, there’s the conference. Although formal business is restricted to 2 half-days, by making those half-days Saturday am and Sunday am delegates need to stay overnight on Friday (and with a welcome buffet). Were it Saturday pm instead it need only be a 1 night stay. Everyone would still have the Saturday night dinner and many would probably get there sufficiently early on Saturday to fit in some other shared activities with fellow delegates and host club members. Also we seem nowadays to stay in quite swish hotels. Were we to use student accommodation during the Easter vacation, or conference centres aimed at voluntary bodies or chose something like a Travel Lodge we could get the cost down further. This might even encourage more clubs to attend conference. Clubs bear most of these costs directly in delegate fees but to make these not quite so burdensome the first £30 and most of the travel expenses are picked up by AIVC. Small clubs are given an additional £75 grant towards attendance costs. One of the effects of this is that there is cross subsidy from larger clubs to smaller clubs and from clubs not attending conference to those who do attend.

It’s no secret that London IVC would like to see the levy reduced. As the original IVC and, with Birmingham and Manchester, one of the founder members of AIVC I doubt that we would ever be the first to leave the Association. But we are told that other clubs, with less strong ties, may leave if there is no significant effort to reduce costs and were that to happen then London too might decide to go. With some action at next year’s conference there is no reason why it should ever come to that and I strongly hope it never does as I believe, if it can but control its costs, AIVC is well worth it.

Des Morrison, London IVC

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