The Secretary of the ACC, Philip Smith, addressed a meeting at Northcote Conservative Club on the 26th November organised by the Yorkshire Region Conservative Clubs Council. 35 people attended the meeting from 13 clubs in the Yorkshire region. This also included representatives of the Conservative Association and one of the ACC approved suppliers. The Chairman of the YRCCC, Derek Gamble, opened the meeting by welcoming Philip and the members of the audience, and gave details of a scheme in which Conservative Clubs would be asked to display a notice giving contact details of the local Conservative Association for the area in which the club was situated, and names and telephone numbers from which further information about joining and supporting the Conservative Party could be obtained.
Philip Smith, outlined the grave difficulties to which clubs were now submitted to: the stay-at-home culture, ethnographic migration within inner cities, cheap alcohol from supermarkets, the smoking ban, hugely increased energy bills, and latterly the impact of the world banking crisis. It was no wonder that in the whole country pubs and clubs were closing at the rate of 4 a day. However, Conservative Clubs were weathering these difficulties much better than pubs and other clubs. This was due to better management skills within Conservative clubs and the incredible amount of effort voluntarily put into this task by club officials. Increasing staff costs and the burdens of employment legislation were also a contributing factor to the hard times meaning that many clubs were now running with very low surpluses and the number of clubs without full-time stewards (with those duties being performed by committee members) was also increasing. Clubs were reminded that they needed to be extra vigilant in the monitoring of expenses, avoiding exorbitant leasing costs, and taking early action when circumstances required it. There was also no reason why ordinary club members should not be asked to help out in activities that would help the clubs reduce costs and increase membership.
At a national level, as the Chairman of CORCA, the increased negotiating power was being used in talks with SKY about rates for clubs, and with breweries about making similar discounts to those with high turnovers also available to all clubs. It was also hoped that the Government might perhaps be more sympathetic to changes which would reduce the pressures under which clubs were now operating.
There was a great deal of interest from the floor on various issues and a large number of questions followed. The meeting finally closed late in the evening with a sumptuous buffet provided by the hosting Northcote Club including hot pork pies, mushy peas, black pudding and assorted sandwiches, much to the appreciative taste of the Secretary, and the other guests.