TTBS Christmas message
15 December 2020On behalf of the Timber Trades Benevolent Society’s (TTBS) trustees, our national president Paul Snape, vice-president John Taylor, the TTBS board of management and our many UK beneficiaries, I would like to thank you for all the support you have given the Society throughout 2020, which has been a most difficult year for us all.
By the end of this year, we will have distributed circa £170,000 of regular allowances and other benefits to our beneficiaries.
Our beneficiaries are helped in many ways with a combination of grants and allowances, including quarterly payments, TV licences, telephone allowances, payments in the spring and at Christmas, a winter fuel allowance and luxury Christmas hampers. We also make one-off grants for domestic appliances and disabled equipment as well as the occasional respite break, debt relief and help with funeral expenses.
The circumstances of the 2020 Covid pandemic has put an enormous strain on the Society’s finances, with a massive fall in the value of our investment portfolio, built up over 123 years, which provides the basis for our activities and also the cancellation of all but one of our programme of national and regional events, together with all the major industry events which support TTBS.
We are hugely grateful to the London Hardwood Club, the Timber Trade Federation, the Worshipful Company of Builders Merchants, James Donaldson, the TTJ Virtual Awards and its headline sponsor Combilift, Richard Jarvis and Peter Howarth from the National Timber Group for their Corona Cut Challenge and all other individuals and companies who have supported us financially during the year despite the difficulties. Thank you to everyone who has donated to help us continue our vital work to assist the retired and less fortunate from our industry.
We continue to seek out new beneficiaries and this will be an ongoing priority and, through company’s HR departments, the TTBS strives to ensure employees know where they can get help in the future.
Critically, the Society continues networking with the timber industry to ensure that we are in the forefront for charity support.
Finally, we hope that 2021 will see an improving situation for us all and may we take this opportunity to wish you, your families and all your business colleagues the very best festive season possible and a healthy and successful year to come.
Ivan Savage
TTBS general manager
(Past National President 2017 & 2018)
