New group formed to represent Irish Beekeepers IBA Clg

[Greengage]

The Irish beekeeping Association Clg is a new group representing beekeepers in Ireland. It is a breakaway group from the Federation of Irish Beekeepers Association (FIBKA)
They appear to have come a long way in a short time. One of the last posts I read from FIBKA is that people who are not members of an Association affiliated to FIBKA cannot receive An Beachaire the Irish beekeeping magazine or attend their Annual beekeeping course in Gormanstown Ireland this may effect some of you beekeepers in either Scotland, England or Wales.
I have to be honest here and admit that I have affiliated to the new organisation IBA Clg along with our local beekeeping group. So it will be interesting times ahead for Irish Beekeeping.
https://www.irishbeekeepersassociation.com/

[madasafish]

"people who are not members of an Association affiliated to FIBKA cannot receive An Beachaire the Irish beekeeping magazine or attend their Annual beekeeping course in Gormanstown Ireland"

Sounds like a religion afraid of either being contaminated by the great mass of unbelievers or a group which does not want to attract new members i.e a cult..

[busybeephilip]

"people who are not members of an Association affiliated to FIBKA cannot receive An Beachaire the Irish beekeeping magazine or attend their Annual beekeeping course in Gormanstown Ireland"



Not sure if that quote is strictly true - for many years I subscribed to An Beachaire and was never asked or had to provide proof of belonging to an affiliated club. I stopped when I later obtained alternative insurance and subscribed to Am.B.J which at that time was much more up to date than An B.

[Greengage]

Not sure if that quote is strictly true - for many years I subscribed to An Beachaire and was never asked or had to provide proof of belonging to an affiliated club. I stopped when I later obtained alternative insurance and subscribed to Am.B.J which at that time was much more up to date than An B.
See attached note from FIBKA.

"Clarification for FIBKA members
Services to members FIBKA is an organisation set up to promote and serve the interests of its affiliated members. Our activities are classed as "mutual trading" (as determined by Revenue), meaning that we trade with / provide services to members only. See https://www.revenue.ie/en/taxprofessionals/tdm/income-tax-capital-gains-tax-corporation-tax/part-36/36-00-05.pdf "if dealings take place with any outside body profits from such activities would be liable to tax as the income is not derived from its mutual activities." Therefore, services provided by FIBKA cannot be extended to non-members without attracting a tax liability on the income derived from those services. This means that we must enforce the policy that only FIBKA affiliated members can avail of FIBKA services, including inter alia: attendance at the Summer Course (whether residential or day visitor); subscription to An Beachaire; participation in the Education / Exam system; entry into classes in official FIBKA honey shows or other honey shows which award FIBKA prize cards and/or are financially supported by FIBKA; attendance at lectures to affiliated Associations where these are financially supported by FIBKA."

[gavin]

I'm no expert on Irish tax law but I'd have thought letting other individuals come to your events isn't 'dealings with outside bodies'.

[busybeephilip]

I'm no expert on Irish tax law but I'd have thought letting other individuals come to your events isn't 'dealings with outside bodies'.

Well, regardless of FIBKA rules, I only give my experience of the An B. Their (new to me) rules seem to suggest, as mentioned above, that a big population (worldwide) is excluded from subscribing to An B - IMO thats one way to destroy support for FIBKA. Perhaps someone from FIBKA, an officer, on this forum could comment on the exclusion of any beekeeper from learning about bees via FIBKA's Irish Beekeeper Magazine

[prakel]

One of the last posts I read from FIBKA is that people who are not members of an Association affiliated to FIBKA cannot receive An Beachaire the Irish beekeeping magazine or attend their Annual beekeeping course in Gormanstown Ireland this may effect some of you beekeepers in either Scotland, England or Wales.

I was under the impression that they'd accept just about anyone at Gormanstone as long as they had the cash. I know one Dorset beekeeper who's been attending for years but doubt very much that he's a member of FIBKA...or is this a different Gormanstown course?

[Greengage]

Same course same organisation but no they cannot attend anymore, New rules, unless you are a member of an Association affiliated to FIBKA (One of the representative bodies of Irish beekeepers) you cannot attend.
IBA Clg see their webpage seems to be where its at, There are now two distinct organisations with IBA Clg seeming to offer a choice. It whole messy affair can still be observed on a number of facebook pages and IBA Clg, If you cannot find it there is some more info here if your interested. https://www.irishbeekeepersassociation.com/blog/message-from-our-director#comments

[prakel]

Really? Surely the loss of revenue outweighs any possible tax liability resultant from allowing outsiders in?

[Jon]

The clumsily worded open letter on the Fibka website reads like a list of thinly veiled threats. Whoever drafted that, it was very ill advised. This crisis started when the FIBKA exec proposed raising the annual subscription from 30 Euro to 50 and then walked out of the meeting when it was rejected. Eventually a figure of 48 Euro was implemented. Fibka had 3500 members and a rough calculation suggests that they have already lost about 1000 to the new group, ie income of 48,000 Euro. A financial crisis can't be far off. I have my doubts that having a split will be good for Irish beekeeping in the long run.
Most of the beekeepers in NI are members of the UBKA rather than either of the organisations in RoI.

[queen21]

Attending FIBKA summer school is not a problem , there will most likely be an overseas membership for the week