BE Bosom Friends Information and Fund Raising Events

[PanBiker]

It applies to us also, I can confirm that we are not in negative equity although the simple view shows it as such. No way do we have an 80K overdraft.

[Tripps]

I'll stop now - but again you prove my contention that there is nowhere near enough publicly available accounts information, for a potential donor to make an informed decision. If you totally trust a quango - The Charity Commission - then fine. I've never looked much into it but this CEO resigns would perhaps hint that all is not well.

[Wendyf]

The RNLI is the only national charity I support (in a small way). I think their volunteers do a remarkable job and deserve to be supported!

https://rnli.org/about-us/how-the-rnli- ... d-accounts

[PanBiker]

We ran a couple of stalls at the lights switch on market yesterday (tombola and children's game) and raised over £350.00 for the group. It was also Santa Suit pick up day yesterday at the Green Street centre for the Santa Fun Run. Folk could register also if they hadn't already. It was good opportunity to try out our new card reader for accepting payments, shortly to be introduced to the shop. Worked very well I believe.

Santa Suit pick up will be repeated at the centre next Saturday for anyone who couldn't make it yesterday. Upstairs next Saturday we are having a massive Christmas decoration sale. We have loads of good quality decorations to sell. Bit more work to do on that but all will be ready before the day.

Skip run need today to shift the cardboard boxes that were emptied yesterday, my next job.

Sally won a nice bottle of Red in the Rotary Club raffle.

[Stanley]

"Sally won a nice bottle of Red in the Rotary Club raffle"
And well deserved!
Well done all of you. It warms the cockles reading about the effort you and your friends put into Bosom Friends..... I stand in awe of your energy and enthusiasm....

[PanBiker]

We held our Christmas Market at the weekend for local craft makers and traders. We vended Prosecco and Mulled Wine in exchange for a donation. A raffle was also run for the group. We made about £250.00 for the group.

On another matter we get lots of donated Christmas decorations usually in the New Year. which we have saved up. We ran a sale round at the centre on two consecutive Saturdays and made over £600.00 for the effort.

Along with the Santa Fun Run registrations and the Christmas sales it gave us a chance to trial our new card readers that we have obtained for the group. Lots of folk now only use cards for purchases so it was judged a good move to keep up with the technology. They are essentially a mobile phone with built in software for card transaction processing and a thermal printer. They work via the mobile phone network or via WiFi if available. Certainly an advantage at the Christmas decoration sales as we took more via cards than in actual cash.

[Stanley]

A very professionally run organisation......

[PanBiker]

Tonight will be the volunteers pie night social round at the centre. I have just picked up the pies from Miles Hutchinson's a mixture of Pork, Beef and Cheese & Onion. I shoved a selection sheet in the charity shop for our volunteers to fill in a couple of weeks ago. I will bubble the peas up this afternoon.We will be having a raffle and some games and there will be wine and brews available as well. Should be a good night and a chance for the the volunteers and trustees to catch up with any issues.

[PanBiker]

Good news, work has commenced on the conversion of our property on Frank Street. The builders are doing lots of internal knocking out at the moment so things are moving on nicely. James our builder said he would like to make a start before Christmas when we met him last. Looks like all the upstairs ceilings have been opened up and the stuff our Jack and myself produced when we had a days session in the property looks to have all been taken away. Exciting stuff and it will be a new venture and challenge for the group in the New Year.

[Stanley]

Good to know they have started Ian and not left it until after Xmas...... So much gets put on hold at this time of year!

[PanBiker]

We had another meeting yesterday morning with our architect Ian, James the builder and Jack the electrician this time. Kirsty and I were in attendance for a check on progress and the brainstorming session. Most of the internals are all knocked out and all the walls are stripped back to the brick. The central wall is out upstairs and half of the one downstairs which is now waiting for the steel to support the upper floor before the rest of it can be removed. All the existing ceilings have been knocked out. Upstairs is totally stripped and we can see the full void that we have available for our new community and meeting centre.

Ideal for Jack the electrician, he intends to get all his cables in before the end of the week, certainly to a first fix level so it was lighting options, confirmation of sockets, fire points, heat detectors, radiator positions, feed for the lift, emergency call for in the disabled toilet, etc. He has one outstanding yet to be discussed by the trustees which is if we want an intruder alarm, all the cabling for that can go in if required at the same time. I have asked him to run a vertical CAT 5/6 cable at the same time which will allow us more scope with the router position and switch if required.

James our builder will be off site for a couple of weeks for other commitments but will be commencing the studding and boarding out when back on the job. He has also asked if we can confirm our choice of lift installer so that he can liaise with them for the technical requirements for the install, he also reckons there will probably be a 6 -8 week lead time for installation. I think he also wants to do the re-roof before he insulates an board out the vaulted ceiling upstairs.

All coming along nicely. Turns a bit of a corner when we are now planning what goes back in.

[Stanley]

That all sounds nice and positive Ian. Good luck with the work flow.....

[PanBiker]

Noticed today that we have scaffolding on the premises now, probably for the roof rework I would imagine.

[PanBiker]

Meeting with the builder, architect and fire safety guys this morning. We want to slightly change the downstairs layout and stair access to give better access to the shop part of the premises but maintaining safety in the event of fire. It will also give better security for access to the first floor via the stairs. Fire safety guys say it should be doable so our architect will have to have a chat with building control to say if they agree.

[Stanley]

Good luck with that Ian.......

[PanBiker]

Aye the various fingers of control and bureaucracy are what eats up the schedule. Our builder and other trade lads are still hoping to complete by the end of April. A slight delay would not scare the horses, it is what it is.

[PanBiker]

Trustees met at our new premises this morning as a couple of them have not seen it as it is now, opened up and stripped out. We then had an hour in a discussion and recording session round at our Green Street Centre to thrash out some ideas for development. We listed all the must haves and the wished items for each area, covering multiple options for flooring and wall space usage. Kitchen bar location upstairs in the community room, lift position, till position, Disabled toilet and facilities for sorting downstairs, brewing up facilities downstairs for the shop staff, recycling options and waste disposal. it will allow us to apportion each of the trustees responsibilities for research into options for the various stuff we will need. It will become a lot easier once the building has been studded out and plaster boarded and the floors refurbished and boarded etc.

All good stuff.

[PanBiker]

Went round to the shop just before closing to show two of our new volunteers the cashing up, shutting down and locking up routine. I had some new shop opening times and Valentines Day posters to deploy also. Noticed that our builders have started on the roof replacement at our new premises on Frank Street.

[Stanley]

It must be exciting seeing daily progress!

[PanBiker]

Indeed Stanley. makes a huge difference and a lot more encouraging than the waiting for planning and building control issues. We want to do it right of course but I can't for the life in me see why it takes so long for the regulation stuff.
We need to get our lift ordered so that our builder can get the technical info for the hole in the 1st floor and any requirements on the ground floor. The electrician has cabled with overkill to edge his bets.

[Stanley]

I agree that the regs are a bugger at times but of course they have to be there because everyone isn't like Bosom Friends, trying to do the best job. Many more are trying to cut corners and lower costs..... In the end that is always more expensive but not everyone realises that.

[Whyperion]

Slightly off topic, or not.
I have been thinking of donating listed UK company shares (basically the Tell Sid British Gas Ones) to charity. Now for some charities the admin is too much, other ways are sell using the broker the shares recommend who will direct the funds to charity and not charge any fees. Another is to pass to Sharegift (which is a bit like Charities Aid Foundation) who will direct incomes arising or sale of shares values to charities operating in the area of interest you indicate you would like (I assume they take a small admin fee off the transaction/s for running costs)
Any suggestions ? The reason for doing it is although there is a small drip of dividends into my bank, at some time my executors are going to have to sort fairly trivial amounts out and it might be better to avoid that effort.
I am aware there are various tax advantages to doing this (and other ones at death) but I am not in the situation of paying income or capital gains tax so that does not apply (. A charity can claim Gift Aid on a qualifying gift of money but cannot make any claims in respect of the gift of an asset.)

[PanBiker]

With my charity trustee hat on I would suggest the easiest way for most small charities such as ours would be the one you first suggested. Sell and donate the proceeds. From the charities point of view especially those like ours where all trustees are volunteers the simplest route is usually the best. Our basic operating model is that we raise funds via our retail shop, donations from individuals and fund raising events. We have excellent support within the community. Funds are then redistributed to those in need.

For actually owning shares, (or anything else) the charity status would come into play. We are in the process of becoming an incorporated charity which means that the charity itself becomes a legal entity and can own property etc. We found this out when we bought the new property we are currently developing. Standard UK charity status does not allow the charity to own anything in its own right. Purchases such as properties and any required goods are held in the names of the registered trustees or a subset of the same.

We accept, cash, cheques, card transactions, bank transfers and donations to our just giving account etc.

Nice of you to think of us.

[Whyperion]

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".

Catching up on this. The Raising Funds figure might look high. I think this would be you would have to look at the sites they have, which sell mainly new items (prices where applicable for goods bought in and sold have VAT on them) and presumably some paid shop staff with a management chain. This would mean that there is probably only a 10 to 30percent markup at best on prices paid in the shops - christmas cards , tea towels and so on. There is also probably some paid legacy management and other higher donations sought costs. Divide the £185million by each of the rescue stations to work out the rough cost of purchase repair of boats and facilities and I think you can work out even if most of the frontline staff are volunteers there is still a cost to actually set sail, including training runs.

[PanBiker]

I have often thought it a travesty that the RNLI and the Air Ambulance service amongst others are charities and not government funded. The overheads with paid employees in a lot of the mega charities are eye watering as are some of the salaries paid.

We exist on unpaid volunteers, trustees and all the small teams that run our charity shop. No one gets any personal remuneration other than out of pocket expenses.
For more granularity you can see more of what we are about on our website and social media accounts. We work on strict confidentiality for those we support both practically, emotionally and financially as required.