Bay of Plenty MS Society's 'brink of closure' crisis averted

The Bay of Plenty MS Society's finances are no longer in a dire state thanks to the support of the community and stakeholders, says its acting president.

Sharon Hitchcock came on board as acting president in December to help the society to turn its financial fortunes around.

Hitchcock, whose tenure as acting president comes to an end next month, said the society had been on the brink of closure "more than once" in the past 12 months due to debts of almost $40,000.

"Unfortunately, our income wasn't keeping up with the demand for our services and sadly, we were forced to let two paid field workers go and significantly reduce our overheads."

Hitchcock said the society had gone back to a grassroots operational model and no longer had any paid roles nor costly overheads, such as paying rent and vehicle costs.

"It is also thanks to the support from the community, our members and repayment negotiations with some of our stakeholders these debts have been cleared.

"It's exciting for the society to be back in the situation where perhaps we can start to look at reinstating some of our paid staff and put in place more services for our members."

Hitchcock said the society's future looked more assured.

"We are starting to rebuild for the future and things do look a lot brighter as we work back towards more stability."

She said the society needed $30,000 to run each year, and now it was debt-free it could apply for grants from charitable trusts.

However, it still relied on support from the community.

The Bay of Plenty MS Society which has been operating since 2004 and has 180 members.

"Our aim is to keep people with MS engaged in their community, working as long as possible, and help them to gain the confidence to manage their lives well."

Committee member Fiona Clarke said the committee was excited to be at a point where the branch's future seemed assured.

Clarke said the society was not only looking for a new president but wanted to attract "new blood" to join the committee as treasurer, secretary and an administrator.

"People don't need to have MS they just need to be passionate about helping people and have experience in working in a committee governance role," she said.

Anyone interested should pop along to the Society's AGM at the Pāpāmoa Library on August 3 from 10.30am.