ALAN JARRETT – MANIFESTO FOR ELECTION TO BASC COUNCIL 2012

Challenges BASC Faces in 2012 and Beyond

BASC is the UK’s leading country sports organisation. It faces a number of challenges in the near future 

  • Replacing the retiring Chief Executive
  • Replacing other long-serving retiring staff
  • Ensuring that there is a viable and deliverable medium-term plan
  • Membership recruitment and retention in a difficult financial time
  • Ensuring members have somewhere to shoot

Each of these are interlocking and are tasks that must be tackled concurrently

 

What BASC Council Needs To Do Next 

  • Appoint a new Chief Executive who can demonstrate the necessary attributes involved in running a large membership organisation governed by an elected Council of members. Someone who will be responsive to the unique demands of BASC, but who has the vision and drive to take the organisation forward
  • Bring in replacement staff  with the necessary ability to take the organisation forward in line with a variable medium-term plan
  • Review the current investment policy for reserves to ensure that the level of financial reserves are consistent with providing services to members
  • Allocate sufficient resources to meet one of BASC’s 3 key aims of ‘providing somewhere to shoot’. This means being proactive in the direct acquisition of shooting rights for members – whether this be through land purchase or other means

 

What I Will Bring To BASC Council

If elected I will bring the following range of skills, attributes and experience to BASC Council: 

  • Former Council Member for 15 years
  • Former Chairman for 2 years
  • Experienced as Chairman of a large wildfowling club (KWCA) over a period of 28 years
  • Track record of growing the KWCA’s asset base to over Ł6,000,000 and shooting rights over 12,500 acres of land
  • Conservation experience – pivotal role in creating the KWCA’s conservation arm – the Wild Spaces Fund
  • Political  experience gained since 1997 at local authority council level in a large Unitary Council – Medway Council
  • Leadership experience gained at Medway Council as Deputy Leader since 2001
  • Experienced in creating corporate structures in the private sector and in local government
  • Financial acumen and experience gained mainly at Medway Council holding the finance portfolio since 2000. Today I am the responsible politician for oversee a budget of Ł660,000,000, delivering the full range of services to a population of almost 260,000 people
  • The ability to work co-operatively with fellow Council members and staff to deliver mutually agreed objectives
  • The ability to use acquired political skills to successfully influence others outside BASC

 

Past Experience With BASC

I was first elected to BASC Council in 1989 and served for three terms totalling 15 years before standing down in 2004. My roles on BASC Council included: 

  • Chairman – 2002-2004
  • Vice-Chairman – 1998-2002
  • Chairman/Vice-Chairman Executive and Finance Committee – 1998-2004
  • Chairman Wildfowling Liaison Committee for 9 years
  • Member of Wildfowling Liaison Committee 1984 to present
  • BASC Vice-President – 2005 to present
  • WHT Trustee – 2005 to present

As Vice-Chairman worked with the Chairman to restructure the senior staff to introduce the structure that serves us well today 

As Chairman I had a number of key tasks to carry out: 

  • Make Council increasingly effective, by making sure meetings were more focussed and therefore shorter and more concise
  • Worked to bring about a settling down within Council and between Council and staff after a long period of disagreement and at times acrimony
  • Worked with other organisations such as the Countryside Alliance to ensure that organisations worked co-operatively instead of confrontationally
  • Worked to ensure transition at the end of my term of office to another Council member who would bring further stability and intellectual prowess to the role of Chairman – which meant lobbying hard to create a platform from which John Graham was elected as Chairman in my place in 2004

Past Experience Within The Sport  

I have been shooting since the age of 8, wildfowling since 1968 and a member of the Kent Wildfowling and Conservation Association (KWCA) since 1972. I have been Chairman of the KWCA since 1984. 

Since 1984 I have put in place a growth agenda within the KWCA which has taken several forms: 

  • A land acquisition policy which has assembled a portfolio valued by Barclays Bank at over Ł6,000,000, and freehold ownership of 2,200 acres with a total land portfolio of over 12,500 acres
  • Formed a Joint Venture with Chichester Harbour Wildfowlers to buy wildfowling land in East Sussex
  • Merged with another wildfowling club to enhance wildfowling prospects, and to provide the opportunity for greater longevity for that club
  • Entered KWCA land into Environmental Stewardship Area schemes, and subsequently entered all eligible land into Higher Level Stewardship and Entry Level Stewardship. Entered eligible land into Single Farm Payment schemes
  • Set up the KWCA’s conservation arm – the Wild Spaces Fund; subsequent incorporated into the Wild Spaces Fund Ltd, with an eventual aim to achieve charitable status. The objective of the Wild Spaces Fund is to bring more people into contact with land run by wildfowling for wildfowling, but with a strong over-arching conservation message and strap line of people preserving places.

 

This Election

I believe this election is at a crucial time for BASC, not least because the current, long-serving Chief Executive is retiring. 

Across the country we see that the shrinkage in availability of public money is slowing the growth of those organisations which work every day all day to bring about the destruction of our sport. It is essential that BASC responds to both the challenge this brings, but also the opportunity that this brings. Our enemies will not stop growing, but for the moment their momentum will have slowed. 

Our opportunity is to invest wisely in providing somewhere for our members to shoot. 

In this election members have the opportunity to vote for both John Graham and myself. 

Together we bring together an unrivalled track record of 25 prior years of service on BASC Council. We both have wide experience in running large successful wildfowling clubs. We both have wide-ranging experience in the private and public sector. 

In short we are both people with drive, and commitment and the undeniable track record of getting things done. Our joint attributes can only enhance and strengthen BASC Council. 

Vote twice only. Vote for John Graham and Alan Jarrett

 

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