BE Bosom Friends Information and Fund Raising Events

[Stanley]

I sympathise with you regarding VAT and construction costs.... I had my battles over that at Ellenroad and in the end it was worth it. No good me giving any advice, my knowledge is out of date but always remember one thing, in any grey area where there is doubt about the status of whatever you are trying to get VAT back on, play the safety card. Safety trumps everything in planning and tax law!

[PanBiker]

I think the benefit comes via the building company who can ask for a zero rate VAT certificate for acceptable works carried out for charity organisation contracts. Worth looking at as it runs into thousands.

[PanBiker]

Cancer support meeting at our Green Street centre tonight. First one for a while, we have had a few since the pandemic but numbers of attendees took a proper nosedive after that particular interruption. We were closed from close contact of course for nearly two years from which we have not recovered yet. We have been holding meetings when folk have requested support, sometimes on a one to one or via telephone. There is glimmer of possible resurgence this months as at least two individuals have expressed an interest in attending. I will be popping round shortly to see if we need any background heating and to put the boiler on. Sally will be purchasing the milk and biscuits for the refreshments for any visitors tonight when she pops out to our shop on town.

[Stanley]

I hope the meeting was a success Ian and you had some attendees.

[PanBiker]

Yes it went well, we had three attendees from a potential of five, two of which had to give back word but will try to make the next one.

It's a start and the best attended since the pandemic, hopefully we can keep the momentum going.

[Stanley]

Good. Like Bosom Friends itself, mighty oaks from little acorns grow.... (I've always liked that saying.... )

[PanBiker]

Been round to the centre this morning to clear up after last nights volunteer's social. A bit of washing up and putting away to do. A good night was had by all from reports today.
We like to support our volunteers for the work they put in, we generally have three or four events for them each year. There were 13 volunteers there last night for wine, red, white or rose, (tea and coffee also available) and nibbles, crackers, bread sticks, various dips, crisps, peanuts and fruit sticks. A few games and a good natter.

Next one will be a Christmas event.

[PanBiker]

I will be cracking off with our new property stripping out next week. Our Jack can get a paid day off from work for charity work so he will be joining me to strip out the kitchen, depending how that goes we may manage the skirting boards and architraves. All the partition walls upstairs have to come out, don't know if they are plaster board or lathe and plaster. Will know once we get the architraves off. All carpets and other floor coverings and all the plaster back to the brick work. Central wall is coming out, upstairs section is OK as it is non roof supporting but the bottom floor will need steel shoving in to support the floor upstairs. Existing upstairs bathroom is coming out also. We have said we will do the majority of the strip out as it saves us a lot of money by doing that.

[Stanley]

Good for you! I know you'll remember but be careful of the dust Ian, masks and plenty of ventilation.

[Wendyf]

I'm halfway through my challenge to walk 100 miles in October and have walked 57.5 miles so far. The aim is to raise funds for Bosom Friends and any support will encourage me onwards despite the aches starting to make themselves felt in my old joints and muscles!!


https://www.justgiving.com/page/wendy-f ... 7802560084

[Stanley]

You're doing well Wendy but I still think you are potty!

[PanBiker]

Wendy is doing a fantastic job and not for the first time. Sally joins her once a week to help add to the total. They walk together every week anyway.

Other news about the group, yesterday we did a two car skip run with accumulated stuff that has built up at our Green Street Centre. This is the start of helping to clear the building as much as is practical as we have just put it on the market for sale. This will have no immediate knock on on our use for our support groups and coffee mornings or any other usage that the building gets such a the other groups that use the facilities for meetings and other events. Testing the water so to speak. We should have a start on our new property conversion in the next few weeks. Once that is finished we will have all our facilities, shop and community centre space in one building more central in the town.

[Wendyf]

Thanks Ian, 80 miles completed now so I'm feeling confident that I'll achieve my target in the next 10 days. Absolutely loving it....but not getting much housework done.

[Stanley]

Go for it Wendy....

[PanBiker]

Jolly few hours at our Bingo night round at the centre last night. Not oversubscribed by any means as the event crept up on us and we only got the adverts for it out a few days ago. Line and full house prizes were won and a bob or two raised for the group.

Minor panic yesterday morning when I checked the numbers in our existing bingo game and found that two of the balls were missing! Bit of a proprietary size so difficult to replace with substitutes. Found new set at Argos in Sainsbury's in Burnley so ordered online and nipped over to collect it in the afternoon. Took the opportunity to do a short shop as well for a few bits.

Key safe has been delivered for the centre this morning. I got the locks changed on the property on Monday as we had got to the stage over the years that we had no record of who had keys. New lock and key safe will fix that. Trustees will have keys and everyone else will use the key safe for entry for events booked and entered in the diary. I will fit that this afternoon if it stays fine.Tidies it up for when we sell the property.

[Stanley]

Glad you got your balls sorted....

[PanBiker]

The sale of our Green Street property has been published on our social media feeds. A crowd funding appeal has also been launched for our new property and the costs associated with conversion to a new shop and community centre.

[Stanley]

I'm full of admiration for the enterprise and wish you the best of luck.....

[PanBiker]

Thanks for the comment Stanley. It's worth mentioning that under Charity Commission rules we are obliged to spend money that we have raised, we can't sit on it indefinitely, some folk don't seem to realise this. We do this of course by supporting local folk who have cancer either by emotional or financial aid. Regardless of our property spending we will always retain enough funds to continue this model of support.

We are currently in the process of changing the legal status of the charity by becoming Incorporated. As it stands at the moment, for a group registered as a standard UK charity, property assets held by the group can only be in individual trustees names. The charity itself is not regarded as a legal entity.

By Incorporation this means that the Charity itself can own property as long as it is correctly administered by the registered trustees. The legal ownership is independent of the trustees themselves. We discovered this aspect when we came to put our Green Street property on the market.

[Tripps]

It's worth mentioning that under Charity Commission rules we are obliged to spend money that we have raised, we can't sit on it indefinitely,

It's very hard to actually see what a charity spends its income on. I''ve looked at the RNLI for years now, and though their income and expenditure are roughly balanced for the last published year, they seem to me at present, to have 'own use' assets of £475 millions, and 'long term investments' of £270 millions. This amount has been growing over recent years, and for a 'volunteer' run service seems a lot. I'm no accountant and would stand to be corrected, but I can see nowhere in the publicly available information, any meaningful detail of their actual expenditure.

[PanBiker]

Charity accounts have to be sent for scrutiny to the Charity Commission each year.

We are a truly voluntary organisation by way of no one involved with the group, trustees or volunteers are in paid positions. We cover out of pocket expenses such as petrol if running people to hospital or buying refreshments and stock for our coffee mornings and such.

I doubt that the RNLI can claim the same as although voluntary I would assume that they will have some paid posts within the admin side of the organisation such as fund raising managers etc. Lots of the National Charities are the same in this respect. Our local Hospice shop has a paid manager in post.

[Tripps]

Is there any way for potential donors to the RNLI to see any part of these accounts, before donating?

I can not find any. I think there should be more transparency. Full trust in large Government organistions has diminished lately. See Post Office Ltd.

I like President Reagan's adaption of the old Russian proverb - doveryai, no proveryai (доверяй, но проверяй) meaning 'trust, but verify'.

[Stanley]

I found the same thing about incorporation when I was setting Ellenroad up Ian. I registered it as a non-profit Company Limited by guarantee and eventually registered it for VAT as well when I found we could get an advantage from that.

[PanBiker]

Is there any way for potential donors to the RNLI to see any part of these accounts, before donating?

You don't get full accounts but the Charity Commission list how registered charities spend their money. The figures are based year on year from the annual returns that they are obliged to make.

Here you go, RNLI

Bit of a different ball park to us. Barnoldswick and Earby Bosom Friends

[Tripps]

I think you have just emphasised my point. There is no detail, in publicly visible accounts, of the purpose of the expenditure. The RNLI say they spent £57 million raising funds, and £185 millions on "charitable activities". That's all, and could be concealing a great deal. The modern jargon is "lack of granularity".