[Acrylic-bob]

Please don't misunderstand, Margaret, I am not criticising, just trying to think ahead and play devil's advocate.

I agree with Gayle that free would probably be the best idea otherwise you would get into all sorts of complications with the need to keep accounts and make them public to show where any money raised would go and then there is the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise, to avoid having to hand over any of the proceeds to the government in taxation you would need to become a registered charity which means bookeeping and lots of it. Which means having people to keep the books and having money to pay them wages and NI contributions, and on and on and on.... I think free, small and local is probably best for now. As it is, you would probably have to keep some sort of accounting system to demonstrate that any grant funding was spent on what it was intended for. The granting body, or bodies, may well ask for some sort of end of project report too.

What we are taking on here is quite a commitment, even if it remains at local level. If it becomes National.......!

I think we all need to do some very careful thinking this weekend.

Oh, by the way, if we do decide to go ahead with this project, it might be an idea to register the band or ribbon etc in order to prevent the unscrupulous from making a fast buck at the expense of our public spiritedness and destroying all our good work.