A Christmas message from the Timber Trades Benevolent Society

We could not do it without your company and individual financial donations or without the amazing support for our national golf and all the other social events, throughout the year, around the UK, organised by our nine Regional Committees.

Our committees are made up of very hard-working volunteers who go to great effort to organise a calendar of fantastic events which can all be found on www.ttbs.org.uk

As you are aware, much of our funding comes from our well managed TTBS investment portfolio, which we need to maintain, and hopefully continue to build on, to provide the basis for our funding for the future years. The balance of our overall annual requirement is provided by legacies, donations and the proceeds from our fund-raising efforts.

So we most definitely need your continued support!

Our beneficiaries are helped in many ways with a combination of various grants and allowances including quarterly payments, TV licences, telephone allowances, payments in the spring and at Christmas, a winter fuel allowance and Christmas hampers. We also make one off grants for domestic appliances and disabled equipment as well as the occasional respite break and help with funeral expenses.

In 2013, we are expecting to distribute over £100,000 to assist the retired and sick from the timber trade and also some younger beneficiaries, who have fallen ill, have become handicapped or who have lost partners and are still caring for children.

All the help the TTBS gives is in addition to state assistance and benefits, so we are able to bring a little additional joy into our beneficiaries' lives.

We have two major challenges that we are currently working on very hard.

The first is to find more new beneficiaries to help. With the ever changing industry, much of the personal contact from "family" businesses has been lost and when people retire from work, they are invariably forgotten. So the TTBS needs to address this through the HR resources within companies, to ensure that ex employees know where they can get help from in the future.

Secondly, the TTBS needs to continue to improve their "networking" with the timber industry to ensure that they keep pace with the changes - something that we probably have not done too well in recent years, but are trying very hard to put right.

Please help us in any way that you can, particularly by providing us with HR contacts and/or your retired employees.

Finally, may we wish you and your families, a very happy Christmas and a healthy and successful 2014.

Ivan Savage TTBS general manager inf@ttbs.org.uk