Following an appeal at our last Church Meeting, three MBC members have offered to join the board of the Leeds and Moortown Furniture Store and/or LMFS Trading Ltd. Nick Taylor and Mike Stoodley are two of them who provided they can satisfy themselves on such issues as trustee liability, the exact difference between a registered charity and a CIO (a charitable incorporated organisation) and the implications of taking on a directorship are both ready and willing to sign up. The other is former L&MFS trustee Rod Russell who has indicated his willingness to return to the organisation but this time purely in a consultancy and advisory capacity.
The Leeds and Moortown Furniture Store Ltd began its life here at Moortown Baptist Church in 1986 when, led by Hilary Willmer a small group of members began collecting and storing used furniture and then passing it on to people in need. Today that ethos lives on, however, with the passage of time L&MFS is now a fully registered charity, makes a total of over 1,700 collections and deliveries a year and unlike the olden days when cellars and garden sheds were used to store donations runs two smart vans and operates from a 10,500 square foot warehouse in Seacroft.
Relatively speaking LMFS Trading Ltd, the charity’s retail arm which sources, supplies and in most cases fits new furniture, furnishings and white goods is a new addition. Formed a decade or so ago, and with Moortown Baptist Church as one of just two shareholders, the trading company does not actually employ its own staff but pays a quarterly management charge to the charity for the time its staff gives over. In theory it also pays over any profit it makes to the charity although over the last year and due to L&MFS narrowly missing out on an LCC procurement bid the chances of there being any profit soon is unlikely.
The addition of two potential trustees and an experienced advisor is a huge boon to the charity. However, recruiting from within i.e. from Moortown Baptist Church is nothing new in that right from the word go there has rarely been a time when this church hasn’t provided either s succession of trustees or of dedicated volunteers.
Naturally the arrival of young or metaphorically speaking not so young blood is wonderful news, particularly so with our enthusiastic new Manager, Chris Hutt, and the Store’s existing trustees seeking out every opportunity they can in making sure that L&MFS’s founding mission continues to be both effective and efficient.
L&MFS Mission Statement… A practical demonstration of Christian commitment to socially and economically disadvantaged people our mission is to relieve poverty by distributing donated furniture,.
You can find out more about the work of the Leeds and Moortown Furniture Store, LMFS Trading Ltd and its new eBay shop by visiting www.leedsandmoortown.org.uk or by asking Gareth, Nick, Rod, Mike or John to share their impressions of one of MBC’s most important and long lasting projects.
Just one more item of news from the Store and that is that after serving for over nineteen years first as a trustee and more recently as Chair John Sherbourne is bowing out just as soon as he is able. Of late John, who is now seventy-five years of age has not been in the best of health which despite outward appearances has actually been pretty draining. So, in many ways perhaps this moment in time is not only the right time for John personally, but also the time when the spark needed to ignite a change that the organisation needs.