Charity status

BeYOU has been provisionally accepted for registration as a charity. The Charity Commission has asked us to make some changes to our constitution. These changes have been agreed by the management committee and will be put to the beYOU membership at an Extraordinary General Meeting being held in the afternoon after the 2003 AGM. Once that has been agreed then we will be able to proceed with the application which we hope will be completed by the end of the year.

Information management

We now have an online database of all the information we have on a wide range of organisations. We are looking for people to help us expand and develop this. As you can see from this report we have a digital statistics collection system on all our activities. This will enable us to give more accurate information when applying for grants and make better informed strategic decisions.

Recruitment of lesbian volunteers

We have managed to recruitment more lesbian volunteers. However, more are always welcome.

Training

As well as our regular on-going training for volunteers we have started regular meetings where contact volunteers can discuss situations that have arisen in their contact with our clients.

Developing existing services

We have not been able to do as much strategic development as we would have liked. However, we have overhauled our operational polices, improved our office management systems and have reorganised the redecorated our office in order to make it a much more pleasant place to work.

Community building

We have not been able to make the inroads to the business community that we would have liked. It is hoped that our forthcoming registered charity status will help with this. However, we have maintained good alliances with local LGB venues and organisations.