'To be or not to be'

With the dreams entirely established, examined and entertained, we thought it time to actually do something tangible about it!

It was summer, so we undertook exploration separately, family schedules and fun in the, somewhat sparse, sunlight allowing.  Many more dreams evolved alongside the research that brought us both excitement and terror!

The crux of it all seemed to rest on the old question of ‘To be or not to be’ ….…. a charity?!

We have gone back and forth like a pendulum with the pros or cons of charities versus community interest companies.  There is so much to consider.  Yet after much googling, picking the brains of others and, perhaps most significantly, panicking, we have decided to become….pause for effect and imaginary drum roll…………………….a COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY.

There are many reasons why this company structure suits us best, but these are my top three:

1.       You must write a community interest statement and report back to it each year, to ensure you are doing what you set out to do for your community – I love a bit of accountability.

2.       There is an asset lock; no one can be looking to get rich quick, as any profit over a certain level must be ploughed back into the community.

3.       There is much less chance of us being imprisoned for accidental fraud because we have mistakenly broken one of the million rules involved in running a charity.

The forms are in the pipeline for ‘Filling the Gap Community Café CIC’.  If the stupid computer had saved them correctly they would already be in the post, but we live and learn the idiosyncrasies of pdf files, don’t we?! 

So now Renee and I are Directors, almost officially.  Or at least we will be soon.  Cue lots of jokes about joining exclusive, generally bigoted London clubs and smoking cigars whilst reading the FT.  Perhaps the fact that the blog, email and food suppliers were all established first is a measure of where are true talents and passions lie! The official admin feels like a necessary evil, I am truly afraid that I will spell something wrong and mess it all up.  We both just want to dive in and get food on plates, but that is still very far away. 

Someone said the joy is in the journey, I hope they are right.