Royal Highland Show Cancelled

[Bob the beef]

I had a few beers in the members last year with a craibstone class mate of mine who happens to be a neighbour of yours @Chae1. He was dressed in the finest Mearns pink checked shirt, chinos and tweed jacket, and me in my Perthshire teuchter jeans blue checked shirt and shearing hoodie!!

How on earth did you get in dressed like that???
Guards at the door should never have let you in

 

[Bob the beef]

TBF I hope some directors of the RHS are reading this because clearly the management are misreading the paying punters thoughts. Fair bit of ambivalence towards the society, myself included

 

[Chae1]

It was mr Barclay. Maybe not a direct neighbour but same area. Not seen him in here for a while

Aye, I could imagine he would dawn tweed attire.

 

[Chae1]

TBF I hope some directors of the RHS are reading this because clearly the management are misreading the paying punters thoughts. Fair bit of ambivalence towards the society, myself included

I can imagine the committee meeting!

What are we going to do?

I know ask for money from members!

Another thought was could shares be bought in the show? That could raise a fair bit of money and something I would consider.

 

[ridger]

If it's anything like the shows over here they would have been more than expensive for trade stands, and should be left to stand on their own feet.

 

[scottish-lleyn]

The highland is crap its the same sh!te every year but just gets dearer and dearer. If it wasnt on again i wouldnt miss it. Its nice to have a look round the well turned out stock but i can go to any local show and do that and not spent hundreds of pounds for the pleasure.

 

[glasshouse]

They need to get real

 

[capfits]

Controversial here, but the RHASS is not simply the show as you guys appear to be making it.
Perhaps a better way to put it is that it is the big shop window for Scotland wider rural scene to both the world and our more urban neighbours (and customers).
Sure in current circumstances it could shed a few overheads,and have few rethinks, but at the same time nothing stands still, and having been threatened by (now ironic) Airport expansion the showground does need to evolve too. Personally I could not give a hoot about the updated Macrobert pavilion, but then I do not give a hoot about tweed jacket and chinos either or getting pee'd up on freebies.
What is more the RHASS supports RHET and young farmers for example, the future.

All that been said the request for cash in the current circumstances, even for our currently lightly affected industry does look a touch crass. In the month I reckon I will have received 10 requests from charities, and there are other closer to home things that are looking for support, local halls, sport clubs etc.

 

[Getnthair]

I'll send a lot more than my £125.

It is right to question why they need to make this call to the members and right to consider alternatives, but there are a few points that have been missed. And, yes................... I know more than I should, partly because I have been a great fan and supporter of local and national shows.

RHASS is a members organisation first, a charity and then a commercial organisation lastly.

I think the membership is the correct place to start with a request for support - but they will have to go beyond that yet. RHASS asked for £2m but has only received around £70,000 - they have to try a second appeal (-this one) - and a third, fourth, etc..... They say that they are going to ask other stakeholders for support too.

RHASS's big charitable project is RHET. Following some of the lovely stories of kids getting their first taste of farming, of seeing where their food comes from and getting to learn about the countryside makes me smile. Just stand outside the Discovery Centre on a Thursday and Friday during the show to see all the school kids having fun. These kids are the future supermarket shoppers.

The cost of RHET - and other charitable donations made by the Society - comes out of any surplus made on RHASS's commercial activities. RHASS's commercial activities are based around their situation next to Scotland's busiest airport - airport parking and hotel rooms. Surprise, surprise that isn't going well. Other events on the showfield have also been cancelled completely. Sometimes there isn't a lot of money to stash away for a rainy day.

RHASS's problems are a perfect storm of Covid fallouts. It has no money coming in and money still going out to support RHET, etc..

It isn't that long ago that RHASS was barred from investing in their showground because the airport was going to take it all for expansion. Since then they have been trying to recover lost ground in modernising the showfield.
There can be no worse time to be hit with a drop in income than when your borrowings are at their peak.

The Show is the main event for the members. It is a business show, it is a shop window on farming and all the livestock and it is a shopping arcade - all these things and more. I hate the crowds and go home knackered and penniless. Miss out on it and stay at home - no chance.....

Is RHASS perfect? - NO. Does it deserve the support of its members and the wider farming world - YES, YES and YES.

 

[Bairdy]

I couldn't understand in the press last weekend how the RHASS seemed to be implying how pleased they were with the response for the cash appeal. The amount so far is basically the cost of a pint each from every one of its 16000 members. They will need to go some to reach £2 million.
PS. not a member....

 

[Agrivator]

They could let the site out for the whole of next year to the travelling community. The new pavilion would make an ideal community centre and school/cresh for the children.

And the tarmac road network would make a super race track. The only problem would be finding someone honest to collect the rental payments each week in dirty notes.

 

[Stuart J]

I assume you have some part on the show committee,?

Not a thing to do with it.

Just a member, nothing more.

 

[PSQ]

And the tarmac road network would make a super race track.

It's almost as if the place was designed to be a race track.

It's such a shame that Jackie Stewarts plan to develop Ingliston (and Scotland) into a major motorsport hub didn't come to pass

 

[Bob the beef]

It's almost as if the place was designed to be a race track.

 

[Top Tip.]

Disappointment was how I felt about this,the first rule in running an organisation like this with one annual big payday is that you carry the reserves to enable you to survive missing that payday , it’s really just common sense.

 

[Agrivator]

Disappointment was how I felt about this,the first rule in running an organisation like this with one annual big payday is that you carry the reserves to enable you to survive missing that payday , it’s really just common sense.

Possibly it's because most of the Directors are farmers, and it's the first chance they've had to spend other folks' money.

Although many of them will be used to spending the Bank's money.

 

[Willie adie]

A guy I know I think summed up perfectly the RHS,
You spend hundreds of pounds, rise early, arrive home late, travel over 100miles, just to go and see and speak to your neighbours and folk you now locally, for one day, you can speak to them the rest of the year for nothing.

 

[Stuart J]

A lot of people on this thread will be the first in uproar if it went the same as the Royal Show.

 

[cia72]

I'll send a lot more than my £125.

It is right to question why they need to make this call to the members and right to consider alternatives, but there are a few points that have been missed. And, yes................... I know more than I should, partly because I have been a great fan and supporter of local and national shows.

RHASS is a members organisation first, a charity and then a commercial organisation lastly.

I think the membership is the correct place to start with a request for support - but they will have to go beyond that yet. RHASS asked for £2m but has only received around £70,000 - they have to try a second appeal (-this one) - and a third, fourth, etc..... They say that they are going to ask other stakeholders for support too.

RHASS's big charitable project is RHET. Following some of the lovely stories of kids getting their first taste of farming, of seeing where their food comes from and getting to learn about the countryside makes me smile. Just stand outside the Discovery Centre on a Thursday and Friday during the show to see all the school kids having fun. These kids are the future supermarket shoppers.

The cost of RHET - and other charitable donations made by the Society - comes out of any surplus made on RHASS's commercial activities. RHASS's commercial activities are based around their situation next to Scotland's busiest airport - airport parking and hotel rooms. Surprise, surprise that isn't going well. Other events on the showfield have also been cancelled completely. Sometimes there isn't a lot of money to stash away for a rainy day.

RHASS's problems are a perfect storm of Covid fallouts. It has no money coming in and money still going out to support RHET, etc..

It isn't that long ago that RHASS was barred from investing in their showground because the airport was going to take it all for expansion. Since then they have been trying to recover lost ground in modernising the showfield.
There can be no worse time to be hit with a drop in income than when your borrowings are at their peak.

The Show is the main event for the members. It is a business show, it is a shop window on farming and all the livestock and it is a shopping arcade - all these things and more. I hate the crowds and go home knackered and penniless. Miss out on it and stay at home - no chance.....

Is RHASS perfect? - NO. Does it deserve the support of its members and the wider farming world - YES, YES and YES.

Having been involved with RHET days on farm they do great work for our industry and deserve our support but looking at the accounts on the info that came from the society the first time they asked for a handout total donations to charities was 339k so with 16000 members( figure taken from another post on here) that's 22 pounds per member to cover that side of things. Happy to support that ...not so keen to contribute to the commercial side of the business ...that's what the people on the big salaries are paid to sort out...reduce overheads,refinance etc the same as any other business is having to do.
There has to be some benefit of being a member...I don't think use of that shiny new building for a day or two a year is going to be enough

 

[upnortheast]

It's almost as if the place was designed to be a race track.

When I 1st went in the 60`s I think it was a racetrack.
Anyone a better memory than me ?