Q.  Who sets the P2P charge?

A.  The Board will set the charge in accordance with the funding needs for any particular financial year.

Essentially the P2P charge will comprise four elements:

1. An amount to cover the usual part of the operational costs of the EBU.  This will be similar to the amount derived from today’s annual membership subscription.
2. An amount to cover the additional costs of servicing the anticipated increase in membership.
3. A financially prudent amount to rebuild the EBU’s financial reserves spent in setting up the scheme.
4. An amount to provide funds for any additional projects approved by the Board after consideration of the views of the Shareholders.

The P2P fee is like a “Volume Control” on the revenue that is generated in that a change of 1p in the P2P fee is equivalent to a change in annual revenue of £25,000.  See “How has the EBU calculated the finanical projections? ”.

One of the benefits of the new arrangement is that the flow of revenue can be monitored and analysed, which enables accurate financial predictions to be made. 

Another benefit is that the collection of this income is spread over the entire year, thereby smoothing the workload peaks, which will assist the efficient running of Aylesbury.

Note also that the new scheme obviates any necessity to make special financial provision to accommodate individuals commencing their participation part way through a financial year, i.e. the “rolling year” is automatic within the proposed scheme and hence the need for special dates in the year at which the annual subscription is reduced is no longer necessary.