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Sir,
Pigeon racing in this country is in decline - of that there can be no doubt. There are many reasons for this. Modern housing does not lend itself to keeping livestock be it through tiny, postage stamp sized gardens (or no gardens at all) and restrictive covenants. In addition, the sport requires a real commitment in time, energy and money, much of which is in short supply these days. There are so many interesting subjects to which people of all ages can become attached which do not require the amount of commitment demanded by the keeping of racing pigeons. It is virtually a 365 day of the year hobby and can only be attractive to a minority.

If we wish to attract new members to our declining sport, at the very least we must project a reasonably professional infrastructure. In this area we are sadly lacking. We are totally fragmented - this fragmentation is best illustrated by the number and geographic areas of clubs and convoying organisations. In most areas of the country clubs and organisations overlap each other and we get a situation where such organisations are vying with each other for an ever declining number of members and birds.

In my own area my Club is eligible for membership of five convoying organisations! Four of these organisations have member clubs from two RPRA Regions! This is crazy.

We should not be in this position - competition should be between individual members, not organisations. Members who belong to more than one organisation often favour one over another. In these cases they are ‘deadwood’ to the least favoured organisation yet they are entitled to vote on propositions and influence the way that organisation is administered. There must be instances of such voting being ‘tactical’. By this I mean that non-flying members of an organisation will vote against any ideas which may be to the detriment of their own favoured organisation.

Through its Rules, the RPRA is empowered to accept or refuse applications for affiliation by Clubs and Federations etc. In practice the instances of refusal are very few and far between. This failure to administer the actual structure of the Sport ensures the continued fragmentation. Pigeon racing, as we all know, can never be fair to everyone and, as a result, there are continuing break ups and re-forming of organisations to suit prevailing weather conditions, distances and, in some cases, the exclusion of particularly successful fanciers. This only results in a plethora of convoying organisations serving one area with the resultant lower number of birds and higher costs. This situation cannot continue and, if allowed to, will result in fewer and fewer members, driven away by costs if nothing else.

The names of some organisations are frankly meaningless to outsiders - the very people we may wish to encourage to join our ranks; indeed, many are meaningless to existing fanciers. Some examples:
The Midlands National FC - not a national and not confined to ‘the Midlands’;
The Gloucestershire Federation - virtually nothing to do with Gloucestershire;
SMT Combine - where is it? What does the name mean?
Heavy Woollen Federation - where is it?
I am in no way criticising these organisations or the manner in which they are administered. I have named them merely to illustrate my point. There are many others falling into the same category.

Surely it makes competitive and economic sense to divide the country into easily defined areas, with no overlapping? The most straightforward and meaningful way to achieve this is by county-based (or metropolitan area) organisations, membership of which to be decided by postcode. With such a system members would be restricted to membership of one convoying organisation; the organisation would have a ‘captive’ membership and the planning of race programmes could be carried out with confidence in the knowledge that support would be automatically in place.

Surely, every fancier should be able to aim at being his ‘county’ champion. The title would mean something to existing fanciers and, perhaps, more importantly, to prospective members, who would be given easily recognisable goals. Under the present fragmented system this is impossible. I cannot think of any other sport which does not have competition based on a geographic county. I may be wrong.

The committees of such county-based organisations would be in sole charge of administering the sport within their areas, approving of clubs, dealing with disputes, arranging race programmes and transportation. The possibilities for improving fairness to all members by instituting sections and leagues would be endless; costs would be greatly reduced.

The convoying organisations based on the above should become the base level of pigeon racing. Every member of the national organisation (RPRA, WHU, SHU, etc) should automatically be granted membership of his/her local convoying organisation and the club nearest to where he/she lives should be obligated to accept his/her entries whether or not he/she is a member of that club. The results for that member should be included with the convoying organisation’s result for any race. Obviously appropriate fees should be paid by the non-member.

By adopting the above, the organisers of specialist/open racing need not be affected. Such races open to members within any boundary as decided by the organisers, would still take place and any disputes would be dealt with by the organisation in whose area the race organisers were based.

Semi-national and classic organisations should at least be encouraged to arrange their boundaries based on groups of county organisations, again with no over-lapping. It is wrong that some members have an opportunity to race in two semi-national clubs - for example the CSCFC and the MNFC.

I believe that the present Regions should be abolished and their role taken over by county-based organisations but, should it be decided they be retained, sensible, non-overlapping groupings for semi-national/classic clubs could become the new ‘regions’.

The above gives some reasons as to how I would like to race my birds, with a forward thinking and professionally run organisation. Unfortunately I am at a loss to see how, under the present constitution, it will ever happen. The Rules of the RPRA (and probably the other Unions) would literally have to be torn up and start with a clean sheet and in practice I don’t know how this could happen. One possible answer would be for the RPRA Council (and their equivalents in other Unions) to put before their memberships a ‘Statement of Intent’ along the lines of ‘as from 1st January (in say 5 years time), the function of present Regions will be removed and all matters currently dealt with by Regions will be transferred to county-based organisations. In the mean-time no new convoying organisations will be permitted unless they are restricted to whole counties by post-code’. A period of five years should be sufficient to establish officers and committees for the new organisations.

Pigeon racing will survive but, in future its costs, without change, will become prohibitive to many.

Some of you reading this will be dead against my suggestions and, no doubt, will start quoting ‘democracy’. You will say “if I want this or I want that then I have the right to have it” irrespective of the consequences. Democracy is fine but it has its limits. Unlimited democracy can only lead to anarchy and that is the situation we are almost in now. The Sport needs radical change and strong leadership but to achieve this, the current constitution must be re-written - indeed, without change we will continue to be ‘strangled’ by it and progress will be impossible.