Submerged in paper

Almost drowning in it, in fact.

(As an aside, Blogger is playing up - again!  That little bar across the top offering "next blog" and "new post" etc has disappeared.  It's been doing that quite a lot lately.  Could it just be me?)

But to get back to the paper.  It's all a result of last night's Lions meeting.  This was the first since I took over responsibility for grants and donations and I had three proposals to put to the meeting plus one other case to be discussed.  I'm pleased to say that the three proposals were accepted nem con or maybe even unanimously so we easily spent some ten grand - £5000 to Martlets Hospice, £2500 to Leo House at Home and £3000 to Brighton & Hove Community First Responders.  The first two are for general use: we have supported Martlets since even before it was open, and Leo House was set up by Brighton Lions.  The £3000 will cover the cost of two kits needed by the volunteers, plus a bit extra to cover things like parking permits, vehicle signage etc.

I was slightly surprised how easily the club agreed to the other request.  I had been undecided and I full expected there to be a lot of discussion and an almost even split on whether to give the money requested by an out-of-work man who had been an alcoholic drug user and has lived in Brighton for only a few months.  He wanted us to pay for a course which, he hopes, will enable him to get work helping others.  Now all I have to do is arrange for the course providers to accept nearly £1300 from the Lions and apply it to his course fees, and write to the others sending them their cheques.

There's even more paper relating to the Housing Society.  We had wanted to change the rules - the Society's constitution, the equivalent of a company's Memorandum and Articles of Association.  But what a palaver!  The new rules have to be approved by the Financial Conduct Authority, a government quango, and I as secretary had to go to a solicitor to swear a statutory declaration.  We had the proposed changes to the rules looked at by a (different) solicitor who thought them OK, only to have them turned down by the FCA.  I have now redrafted them and have a whole wodge of paper to resubmit to the FCA.

So I had better get on with it.

~~~~~

Skip posted a pic of the main north-south railway in Anderson and I expressed surprise that it was single track.  It seems that is the norm in the States whereas here in England, at least two tracks are usual.  This is the London to Brighton line as it enters the tunnel under Clayton Hill.