BE Bosom Friends Information and Fund Raising Events

[Stanley]

Ian, your point about high salaries in some charities is well taken. When I was corresponding with funding charities during my time running Ellenroad I was struck by the easy life and good conditions many of my correspondents had. One had his office on a golf course and guess what he did for most of the year..... Running a charity can be very lucrative.
As an aside, I can remember when the adverts for football pools had to include the amount of the pot expended to run the pool. As I remember it was usually about 27%. What a good idea if all charities had to be equally transparent!

[PanBiker]

First Tuesday of the month so its the cancer support meeting tonight. Saturday will be our next Coffee Morning.

[PanBiker]

Nothing is moving on our new property refurbish as we are back with building control and it''s like watching paint dry! Cant be long now until we get our slightly revised plans sorted.
In another part of the existing forest we will be absent from the next coffee morning as we will be on holiday. It''s no problem as we have cover for running that. I just need to make sure that the right volunteers have the key code for the Green Street property. Also that anyone else that uses our facilities also have the info.
I normally do the banking for the group and we have the shop takings covered for the period that we will be away. The shop is closed for the duration of BOTS (Friday, Saturday and Monday) as the Town Council fence the road off in front of the shop and use the area for the Portaloos. They remunerate us for the loss of revenue.

The groups mobile phone for support and contact will also be handled by another trustee for the duration.
Hoping to be able to arrange a cheque presentation from Silentnight before we go on holiday, they ran their annual inter factory department football match day and raffle for us the other week at Victory Park.

[Stanley]

Any change of plan always sends Building Control into a tail spin! Hard luck Ian, I've been there....

[PanBiker]

We took advice from two independent fire safety experts who suggested a more workable option for escape. The bottom of the stairs is too far away by (1m) from what will be the front door of the premises. We cant move the front door as it is part of the shop front. The fix is to extend the wall at the bottom of the stairs to provide a safety corridor nearer to the door. There will be an auto close fire door at the end of the wall, which will also isolate and secure upstairs while the shop is open. It's a lot more practical than the original plan. It's a very minor change in the vast scale of things and maintains safety in the event of fire.

[PanBiker]

Sally and I attended Silentnight this week to receive their cheque from the Michael Hartley and Family Fun Day and football match event held last month. A very healthy £2,200.00 was donated to the group.



Sally and three volunteers attended Foulridge Social Clubs Ladies Day even yesterday.They handed over £2,500.00 from their annual event which was for our charities benefit this year.



Click to enlarge either image.

Donations from fund raising events are ring fenced for local folk who need support. We are currently supporting individuals who vary in age the youngest is 18 months old and the eldest 80 years. So all efforts like the above who donate to us are very welcome.

[Tripps]

Donations from fund raising events are ring fenced for local folk who need support

It has to be said that there is no way from the Charity Commission website accounts, that I can find, to trace exactly how much has been given to whom, and for what purpose. This opens the door to potential mischief. This is for all charities not just this one. There are of course matters of medical confidentiality, and I feel a bit churlish to even raise the subject.

There must be total trust in the trustees, but I would regard this as a disincentive to donation.

[Stanley]

I suppose we just have to rely on that old fashioned quality, faith, David. The assumption of honesty is usually correct.

[PanBiker]

It has to be said that there is no way from the Charity Commission website accounts, that I can find, to trace exactly how much has been given to whom, and for what purpose. This opens the door to potential mischief. This is for all charities not just this one. There are of course matters of medical confidentiality, and I feel a bit churlish to even raise the subject.

You have hit the nail on the head there David, we maintain strict confidentiality on who we give support to. That applies to conversations in our support groups as well as those we are supporting with financial aid. It may seem like a secret society but it is not our position to announce the woes of other individuals but support them the best we can in their journeys. It seems to work OK as we continue to have a lot of support in the town and surrounding areas.

The Charity Commission gets full account returns each year which does show the various revenue streams but they also only report an overview of assets. If you search us now on the Charity Commission website you will find that we have two entries with two different registration numbers. The current one has no financial information whatsoever as we have not had to report yet. The difference in the entries is that our original standard charity registration did not allow the charity to own property in it's own name. We have regularised that now by becoming an incorporated charity, from a legal point of view.

Going forward that allows the charity itself to own all the assets including properties. It is a legal entity regardless of who are the actual trustees which of course do change from time to time. For the first time in the 25 year history of the group we actually own the property we are developing on Frank Street. Our other property at Green Street is actually owned by Gus's wife Mary and my wife Sally. Mary has retired as a trustee as has Gus so you can see how that could become problematic in some groups with individuals legally responsible for group assets even though they may no longer be directly involved with the charity. We are in the process of selling our Green Street property and for us this will not be a problem.

[Stanley]

Sounds as though faith in BF would be justified

[PanBiker]

Public notice has gone up on Frank Street regarding changes to our plans. A minor change to the shop front and the formation of an emergency exit, refuge and fire escape stairs at the rear of the property from the first floor. We knew that this could become a requirement. Not ideal as it will impact on the rear yard for bins and recycling storage. Safety comes first though so we have to accept it. Looking at the revised plans and documentation end of July or early August seems to be the cut off for any comments or objections so we cannot proceed before that date.

[Stanley]

There are times when the planning rules seem to be loaded in the objector's favour...... I can see the reasons why but it can be so bloody annoying!
You have my commiserations Ian.

[PanBiker]

There hasn't been any objections Stanley it's just a requirement of the fire regulations as we will have the upstairs for meetings and community use. So temporary multiple occupancy which has to be safely catered for. The regs were beefed up disproportionally by the previous government as a knee jerk to their inaction over the Grenfell tragedy. They opted for a one size fits all approach. Same rules apply to a two story as a thirty story building, it is what it is and we will deal with it.

[Stanley]

[PanBiker]

Had to get a bit creative today. Wax & Taps on Albert Road requested some collection buckets for an event they are running on Saturday.

We have both tubs and buckets for donations for the group and have or I should say had custom labels for both. I have generic labels for the tops of the buckets but none for the front with the group name, charity number and contact information on as required by law. The tubs use a rectangular wrap around label and the buckets have a sloping side so require an oval label with the required information. We have new labels with the change of our charity number updated on order but they have not been delivered yet!

Fortunately we supplied the artwork from Canva which is the design package that we use for all our printed and publicity material. It does posters, flyers, labels and any other graphic output needed and can generate social media specific graphics that we use for Facebook and our Instagram accounts. It holds all our branding fonts and colour schemes etc that we use for the charity.

I managed to find the original artwork that we did for the first run of labels so I used that, I changed the charity number and then downloaded the design. I shoved it into MS Publisher and rescaled it so that it was the correct size for the buckets. I overlaid an oval guide line on the design then printed copies on our colour laser. I cut out to the shape of the ovals and then laminated the design. I cut out the ovals again and then tac fixed them with double sided tape on the back then secured them properly with clear tape over the top. Fixed the lids with cable ties and then finished the tops with the generic thanks for your donation labels which we sill have a stock of. They should be fit for purpose and legally compliant for Saturday.

I think they have turned out quite well, click to enlarge:



When I get the new labels I will have to pull in all our tubs from various retailers and supporting establishments around town and update them accordingly.

[Stanley]