It is with a thankful heart to our Lord and great Captain for all the blessings that He has bestowed upon us that the Executive present this report for the session 2005/06.

We would like to thank all those Officers, Helpers and N.C.O.'s who have served on each Company's staff over the past session. While many will feel it is a privilege to serve our Lord and Master by seeking to advance His Kingdom amongst the Boys entrusted to our care we, as your Executive, acknowledge all the hard work and devotion that has gone into the work of each Company in our Battalion. We would also thank all those who have taken on responsibility at Battalion or NID level. Your extra work ensures that our Battalion Sections run smoothly and that we also have a voice at NID level.

The little table below shows the total numbers of Officers and Boys in the Battalion for each of the past 6 sessions. It shows a diminishing number of Officers and an increasing number of Boys. While the trend has been downwards it has pleased the Executive that over the past session we have approved 52 registrations for Lieutenants, Warrant Officers and Helpers. This is very encouraging and we hope that each Officer will try to encourage other members of their congregations who have an interest or have served in the Boys' Brigade to come and join in this special task. There are always going to be Boys looking to join a B.B. Company and it would be disastrous if there were not enough Officers to ensure that a Company can operate.

Year	Officers	Boys	Total
2000/1	224	1473	1697
2001/2	206	1428	1634
2002/3	201	1508	1709
2003/4	174	1522	1696
2004/5	158	1628	1786
2005/6*	225*	1580*	1805*

* These include helpers as well as enrolled Officers. These figures are taken from NID figures and not B.B. Headquarters.

During this session the Executive embarked on a review of how the Battalion was working and to this extent we organised two breakfast meetings on Saturdays in November and December. We were pleased with the response and the involvement of those who attended and a number of proposals were passed down to the Councils for discussion and feedback. We looked at the role of the Executive and hope to produce a page in the Battalion handbook outlining this role. We are preparing a database of Officers attached to a Company and we hope to be able to send a copy of next year's handbook to each enrolled Officer. We reviewed the Battalion Church Parade and took on board a number of points raised by those Officers attending the breakfast. These were passed down to the Company Section Council and acted upon. We have looked at the attendance of Officers at the Council meetings and again some very good suggestions were made at the meetings. We hope to have 4 combined Council meetings in September, November, February and May. Each meeting will have a theme e.g. Dedication, Training, Social and AGM. The individual Councils would have some time at these to carry out their business. By having all the councils meeting on one evening we hope to encourage all the officers from a company to travel together in a couple of cars.

We congratulate 8th Carrickfergus Company on winning both the McCune and Fitzell Cups. In our Battalion Christian Education Exam we had a slight increase in numbers entered. There was an increase from 297 in 2005 to 305 in 2006 with 15 companies entered compared to 13 in the previous session.

Our sections continue to organise and run their own events and reports on many of these can be seen on the Battalion website at www.boysbrigadeni.org.uk/eastantrimbattalion. The Executive would congratulate 2nd Carrickfergus on winning the Anchors Fun & Games competition and in the NID competition for Anchors Robert Boyle of 1st Larne was successful in the P1/P2 age group and Kyle Hutton of 8th Carrickfergus was successful in the P3/P4 age group. At Junior Section level congratulations are due to the following companies; 1st Larne who were successful in the Quiz Kids competition, 1st Ballyeaston who won the Five-a-side football competition, to 1st Kilbride who won the Figure Marching competition and the 'Go for It' competition. In Company Section activities 3rd Carrickfergus and 1st Whitehead shared the Battalion Drill competition with both companies going forward to the NID finals, where 3rd Carrickfergus finished in 2nd place. A number of Companies have entered the various NID competitions and while some have advanced to the final stages we have had no outright winners. Currently training and selection is ongoing regarding our Battalion football teams in preparation for the inter battalion competitions.

The Executive have visited 5 Companies this year and were very impressed at the variety of activities being undertaken at all section levels and by the devotion and energy shown by the staff. It was pleasing to see a number of NCOs being actively involved in work with the younger Boys as part of their Company Leadership. The Executive see this aspect of their work as a means to stay in touch with the Companies in our Battalion and to be able to encourage and support the Officers of a Company. It is in no way to be taken as an inspection. We are all doing God's work and we have to encourage each other in this task. It is not unknown for members of the Executive to take a good idea from a company they have visited and incorporated it into their own Company's programme. In all cases we received a warm welcome, were able to speak to the Boys and even join in some activities where the 2 visiting officers were allowed to set themselves up for ridicule by being invited to throw darts to give a team their score. Needless to say we did not let the Battalion down. We hope to continue a programme of visits and hope that in a period of 5 years we will be able to visit each company in our Battalion.

On 15th May the new Area groups met to hold elections to the N.I.D. Executive and the Standing Committees. We would extend our congratulations to Gwen Law who was elected to the Anchor Boy Committee, David Hoy who was elected to the Junior Section Committee, Andrew Dodds who was elected to the Training Committee and Frank Picton who was elected to the NID Executive. John Cathcart and Jonathan Moxan have been appointed to the Christian Education and Church Relations Committee.

On the 8th September, 1967 the inaugural meeting of the East Antrim Battalion took place which means that come the Session 2007/8 we will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of this event. We have asked the various councils to suggest events to celebrate this anniversary and we have started to investigate some of these. It is hoped that we can have a Mission Outreach for our Senior and Company Section Boys, a day of Fun and Games for the Anchors and Junior Sections, a service of Thanksgiving and Rededication for the Officers and to finish the year a dinner in a local hotel for Officers and their spouses. These events will not happen without a lot of planning and we would ask all Officers that if you are asked to help on a committee to organise an event you will gladly accept the challenge to produce an event which will bring credit to the Battalion and to help us advance the claims of our Master for the Boys in our Companies.

Can we finally wish you all a pleasant break from B.B. activities and trust and pray that you will find renewal of spirit and endeavour to serve our Master in this work to which He has called us.

On behalf of the Executive,

Frank Picton

Battalion Secretary