National Council Members Page
No 4 Area
(The South West Flotilla)
NCM’s Report Area Meeting at St Austell 16th May 2026
We had a NC meeting at the end of April, an AMC meeting a week ago and a Future Governance WG meeting last Wednesday so as usual I’ll give a very brief precis of the major topics as I’m sure you will have gleaned most of it from either the Semaphore publications or the very efficient grapevine.
GS Bill Oliphant is leaving to work in Saudi Arabia, Sara Field who for most of us was the main point of contact in CO is leaving to join RNRMC, Sarah Bewley the comms wizard has left to join SSAFA although she is being contracted to cover a couple of tasks, and Tracie Brodie whom many of you won’t know was engaged as Grants Co-ordinator has decided it’s not for her.
The NP and GS attended a Naval Charity Sector workshop hosted by the 2SL. This is a continuation of the RAND report and is looking into ways of sharing functions in order to reduce costs from duplication etc. Remembering the sea of blank faces the last time I mentioned the RAND report I’ll leave it there.
Overall our 75th Anniversary year was quite successful. The investment fund managers performance was again poor, and our funds have now been moved to a more stable arrangement. Although we set a budget deficit of £250k for the year the actual deficit was only £117k. The AvN 25 rugby match made a £4k loss but the Charty Concert made a healthy profit of £24.6k.
As those of us that were there can testify, this years AvN was much better with a fantastic Bar right behind our seats quite capable of coping with the 1000 RNA members, the ticket allocation was all sold well ahead of the game, and Millies raffle made over £6k.
Membership has now passed the 25k mark and continues to grow. 25358 at the last count.
Jon Everett supported the orphaned trainees at Raleigh over the Easter leave period. You may recall this started a few years ago when one of our Liskeard Mentors Jerry Fleming discovered that the oversees trainees and those with no family home to go to were virtually shut in a box only to be opened when the staff returned from Christmas leave. He and his wife Lynne utilised the Minibus and took them out and about over the Christmas period. It is disappointing that the Navy still hasn’t found a way of entertaining them during leave periods.
Looking to the future, I look forward to seeing many of you at this year’s conference at Salford in June, planning for Durham 27 is well underway. A motion to conference this year is that the 2028 Conference be held in Plymouth primarily hosted by Plymouth Branch and initial investigative work is advancing well. I trust that the whole area will be ready to offer any assistance as and when required. The 2027 Biennial Parade will commemorate Falklands 45.
Branch returns have been significantly better this year with 90% received and accepted on time. Slight problem with 3 from our area, now resolved. As many of you know I have been the Treasurer for Liskeard Branch for the last 25 years I was horrified to read in the NC minutes that the £2992.78 error that RNRMC had against Liskeard Branch had now been rectified by GSO and RNRMC. Well as someone who once spent some 16 hours pouring over accounts in order to find a 1p discrepancy I am sure I would have spotted an error of that magnitude. Once my blood pressure dropped sufficiently to remove the threat of a whole body explosion and I was able to convince my heart that I hadn’t just broken the 1 minute mile barrier I managed to email the GSO to say what the … it transpired that RNRMC had incorrectly credited the sum to the general fund as coming from Liskeard on closing, it should in fact have been RNA Whitstable which closed last year.
Congratulations to our 2 standard bearers from Plymouth Branch Lee Perry and Cheryl Allen finishing 1st and 2nd respectively in the novice category.
I know that I asked you to consider fundraising for the RNRMC but Branch contributions to the RNA are considerably down therefore will you please ask your Branches to fundraise for the RNA first and foremost. Additionally, you must have seen the publicity regarding the NSM memorial at the National Arboretum, we desperately need funds for repairs and insurance. Although we are looking at securing grants we do need to raise around £30k ourselves.
On a sad note, our minibus has been reallocated to Wales. I fought hard to get one for us in the first place and collected it when it was new and subsequently looked after it for many years, in fact Mark and I had polishing competitions to see who could get the best shine on it. It is worth discussing at future Branch meetings should we purchase our own second hand one for the area bearing in mind on going Tax, insurance and servicing costs. Perhaps we could then discuss it at the next area meeting in September.
And finally, although Jon Everett has sent his apologies don’t forget to contact him should you need any support or information regarding Shipmates funeral arrangements.
National Council Member’s Report to No. 4 Area Meeting Bude 17/01/2026
It has been a successful and busy 75th anniversary year.
The Biennial Parade was well attended and the weather was kind, good to see members of the Area there although we couldn’t match the 2 million Tommy Robinson supporters who were marching the same weekend.
The World Uckers Championships took place in the Royal Maritime Hotel, well reported in the semaphore circular, whilst I do enjoy playing, I always think it’s a bit far to go to Portsmouth for a game.
The 75th anniversary Charity Fundraising Concert with the Fishermen’s Friends, the RNA Choir and the Royal Marine Band was a grand occasion attended by a host of dignitaries and raised £30k.
Judging by the numerous reports and photographs I’ve seen on Facebook it was a very successful Trafalgar/Pickle season with most Branches celebrating one or the other. Marie and I were lucky enough to attend two Trafalgar dinners on consecutive weekends.
Also, from the same news source it was gratifying to see that the various commemoration events on Remembrance weekend were well attended.
The RNA was represented at the rededication of the Naval Division Memorial on Horse Guards Parade.
Looking ahead to this year we have the Army v Navy rugby match at Twickenham on the May Bank holiday weekend, by early December we had already sold more tickets than for last years match – marvellous what a win can do for morale.
I look forward to seeing many of you at Conference in Salford in June.
But before all that we have the Liver and Kidney punishing weekend Reunion in Bideford at the beginning of March.
Our Membership is still hovering around 25k but I would remind all Branches to try to engage with those members you don’t see very often and try to entice them to take a more active role, we have too many branches folding because their committees are ageing and they can’t find reliefs. If your Branch is struggling for whatever reason please get in touch with the Area committee, we can’t perform miracles, but we will do all we can to help.
We have been assured that our grant funding is secure, at least in the short term. It is of course dependent on our delivery of Welfare & Wellbeing. All branches have generally been very good at delivering Welfare, whether it’s visiting a sick oppo, sending a get-well card or flowers or supporting families and friends when a shipmate makes their final journey.
What we are not so good at is recording and reporting what we do and this is an area we must improve on if we are to continue getting grant funding. And whilst we are on this subject we are very fortunate to have Jon Everett our Welfare Co-ordinator with us. Jon has moved from Area 3 to Area 4 and is keen to get involved at both Branch and area level.
Once again will you please remind your members about the RNA Lottery at only £1 per week it is a very important source of revenue for us, currently worth around £2000 per month.
The re-write of the Royal Charter is complete as far as the Working Party stage and is now ready for briefing to Areas and Branches prior to seeking approval at a special conference and the Privy council.
Finally, a few words on RAMP, have any branches started planning or discussing it? Ramp is the NHS’s Reception Arrangements for MOD Personnel. You don’t need to be part of the intelligence community to realise that we are now closer to conflict than at any time in our lifetime. With casualties being dispersed throughout the UK’s burns units and trauma centres there will be a need to assist families to be with their injured loved ones. Contingency plans are being drawn up and the Naval Charity section is getting ready to support this. It’s worth spending a few minutes at a branch meeting drawing up lists of those able to drive and help with the national and local effort. It would also be handy to have details of those with enhanced driving licenses such as HGV, PSV or MOD.
National Council Member’s Report to No. 4 Area Meeting Plymouth 21/01/2023
Good afternoon shipmates and welcome to the third consecutive Area Meeting in Cornwall, just for a change the next meeting is in Bodmin in May so you might wish to hang on to your Visa’s.
The National Council meeting of the 9th December due to be held at Central Office was switched to a Zoom meeting at the last minute due to members of the office staff contracting Covid. I know that we have discussed the use of Zoom frequently but the more of them that I attend the less I like them. They tend to stifle debate and become little more than a rubber-stamping exercise in my opinion. In addition, we lose the all-important personal interaction before, during and after meetings.
The new Chief of Staff Chris Trevethan (whose late Father was a member of Liskeard Branch) has taken over from Andy Christie upon his retirement.
Recruitment of the new Comms Manager is progressing well and we expect an announcement shortly.
Membership now stands at over 16,000 – the target for the end of last year was 12,000, and it is hoped to raise this to 19,000 by the end of this year.
2022 was not a particularly good year Financially, the value of our investments took quite a dive, and we did not receive any sizeable legacy income. Donations are not rising in line with increased membership. Increasing donations is a priority this year, whereas the focus has been on recruitment for the last 2 years. RNRMC have changed their grant in lieu of subs for next year which is much better for us. They are giving us the complete £147k and any money we raise in lieu of subs will be kept and not deducted from that sum. We are therefore incentivized to raise more donations internally.
We received a grant of £40k from the RNRMC for the Wellbeing Delivery Manager who will be focused on tackling loneliness and isolation and where we hope to do better in the area of bereavement. Preliminary investigative work has taken place with the Royal Navy & Royal Marines Widows Association with a commitment to closer partnership and the production of an RNA Bereavement Handbook/toolkit this year.
Wellbeing Workshop. Significant energies have been invested in the planning, preparation, and engagement of welfare officers for the Wellbeing Workshop taking place in February. There has been an excellent response and 105 delegates are attending and have responded to a set of three questions around the trends and needs they are experiencing in welfare.
HMS RALEIGH Mentoring. DBS checks for the mentors is now an RN requirement and these are progressing. Unfortunately, Kate Hughes has had a bad experience with the mentors and has withdrawn herself from RNA activity. This means that we are not capturing the families as was hoped on POP days. The complete change of Training Staff during Lockdown has thrown the Mentoring Project into some disarray with many of our Mentors feeling that they could not continue. Things are beginning to improve and hopefully will continue to do so. I have asked for the Minibus to be returned to our custody now that Kate has severed her connections with us, and have also been informed that it requires some very expensive work on the Add Blue system.
The World Uckers Championships were a great success and there is a suggestion that it becomes an annual event rather than bi-annual.
25-28 May is the Annual Conference in Liverpool.
10th September Biennial Parade in London.
Yours Aye
S/m Warwick Belfitt
NCM No 4 Area
email: warwickbelfitt@gmail.com