SVR General Discussion

What's the logic in moving the annually held for donkeys last weekend in June and first weekend in July 1940s event three weeks earlier?

The event does not appeal to me in the slightest, but it has always been those weekends for decades, so a bit of a surprise.

 

I gathered it was moved due to another planned event but nothing has been announced in its place, or at least yet.
I know several of the 40s organisers weren't happy over the date change.

 

There is an event on that means the 40s can’t be held at the usual time. I believe it’s only for the one year, then back to normal.

 

Yeah, they're going to be held in the 70s instead, which is going to play merry hell with the Battle of Britain fly past when the Luftwaffe come in with F104 starfighters ...

Tom

 

If the F104s make it in one piece...

 

Santa Specials in full swing with 7812 back on the line till Spring, 4930 'Hagley Hall' taking part in her first Santa Specials since her overhaul and the DMU on shuttles, a few from last weekend....

 

Readers might remember that there was an announcement last year that a restructure of the SVR was being looked into. These plans have been worked on the background and now are being made public.
Members and shareholders will receive an information package shortly, and the plans are to voted on next year
https://svr.co.uk/news/severn-valley-railway-unveils-plans-for-bold-restructure/

 

My main question is how the new organisation will combine/replace/augment the current membership and shareholder system. Hopefully the information pack will answer that.

 

Would have to assume membership will almost carry on as is now. The sysytem works, works for the CCBS style set up, and can be claimed gift aid upon.

 

Rather than speculate, I would hold fire on any comments until the prospectus is released. I can say that as paid staff, we have seen the full document today and it answers pretty much all the questions people can think of. Of course, there will be the old attitude of we dont need to change anything. Its worked for 60 years. The document addresses all of that.

 

Not being a member etc it is hard to comment on the restructuring beyond the general point that being potentially able to claim significant amounts in gift aid on tickets has to be a huge positive.

It has always struct me as surprising that they have not for many years sort to take advantage of the potential additional gift aid available. Especially with the number of "survival" appeals put out. Complacent is probably not the right word but from a far it just seemed that for a long time SVR management almost seemed that members supporters, enthusiasts would always put their hand in their pockets when they needed extra funds and were happy not to try and tap into gift aid. I wonder how much cash has been forgone over the last 10 years or so. I may be being a bit unfair there but when I am asked for some support by an organisation I want to understand that it is in top of anything else that could be reasonably obtained rather than instead of.

 

There are also some downsides to gift aid, as discussed on the nymr thread

 

I appreciate that and I am not close enough to the SVR to know how much effort has previously gone into looking at the potential financial benefits of gift aiding. As an outsider though this has always looked at being an obvious potential source of increased revenue and almost a no brainer if an organisation is short of funds.

I understand the different models that are in place re gift from the most basic one of a simple donation with nothing in return. Apart from the cost to set up and administer I can see little downside to trying that. For every 1,000 of the 200,000+ visitors who agree you would get £2,500 in donations and £6,250 in gift aid. £8.75 a person. I am basing on a fair of £25.

People are used to gift aiding these days and even without incentivising a proportion of visitors do sign up so it almost seems a no brainer to try and if only a few percentage of visitors gift aid the figure starts to look a bit chunky.

 

There is a thread here to discuss the pros and cons more generally for railways, rather than in the SVR-specific case: https://national-preservation.com/t...ticketing-best-options-pros-and-cons.1424509/

As a general point though, I am not sure it is quite the "no brainer" you suggest, since there are some downsides of the Gift Aid model, notably the numbers who might ride multiple times, and the limits it places on special events (aka galas). So it isn't an open and shut case - I think if it were, more railways would have gone down that path already.

(None of the above should be seen as a definitive view either way on the specifics of the SVR plan, and there are other advantages to what they propose over and above the Gift Aid component. It is just the Gift Aid bit in isolation may be a more nuanced calculation than it appears at first glance).

Tom

 

A Gift Aid administrator observes that modern sales software includes Gift Aid modules, and that the process of claiming through HMRC is typically very simple. He otherwise agrees fully with @Jamessquared.

 

exactly (I am an SVR member) - if it was just about the Gift Aid I can see both pros and cons, but as part of a much bigger total reorganisation it has to be seen as part of the whole and not in isolation.

I wait with interest for the materials but given the hole we were sitting at the bottom of before the new regime got a grip I’m instinctively supportive (and therefore will be looking for reasons really not to do it when I read)

 

Business Rates for preserved railways are somewhat of a lottery depending on the attitude of their local authority.

Some local authorities waive business rates for preserved railways with charitable status for some part of the organisation.
Other local authorities want their pound of flesh, and will only waive business rates if the operating company is a charity.

 

Under the present structure, donations to the SVR Charitable Trust can be gift aided. The most recent accounts showed that the income included donations of £679k and related gift aid reclaimable of £87k, which would mean around 50% of people have opted to add gift aid to their donation. The year before was £365k and £55k, which would equate to around 60%. That may give an indication of how effective gift aid on travel will be - my own opinion is that people would be more inclined to think about gift aid when making a donation than when simply buying a ticket to travel.