IN DECEMBER 2002 SPCK announced that they were to rejoin USCL and FTM from January 2003 with a new Memorandum of Association in which all three parties agree
'to work together through the structure of FTM which will be the vehicle for promoting objectives agreed by the Parties. These objectives will include providing grants and support in the development of Christian literature and Christian education, publishing and distribution, libraries and theological education, training and other charitable activities'.
The Director of FTM, as Chief Executive, would represent all three parties and serve as General Secretary of USCL and as an Assistant Secretary of SPCK. USCL and SPCK were to remain as independent charities with their own Trustee Bodies and the Trustee Body for FTM would be the FTM Executive Committee.
A Grants Committee representing all three parties was set up to monitor the Grants Programme, oversee the international aspects of the work and recommend grants to their respective parties. Apart from the fact that FTM was more amenable than SPCK to make grants for publishing capital, the programmes of the three parties, which had much in common and had changed little since the earlier days of partnership leading up to and through the Campaign, merged smoothly. SPCK contributed their Books for Life programme and USCL their Overseas Book Awards. SPCK’s Bray Libraries parallelled USCL/FTM’s UK Book Awards, and FTM's Overseas Book Service and Theological Book Review fitted like a glove.
The new arrangements opened the door to a new professionalism, improved quality and value (and therefore increased income), reduced costs and gave a better service to beneficiaries.
New Guidelines for Grants were drawn up but were little different from those which had gone before and the Founding Fathers (Bray and his cohorts) were still much in evidence. The four main areas were still
- Christian Publishing and Bookselling.
- Literacy Awareness Programmes, particularly to empower women and young people.
- Resources for Church Life and Mission (hymn books, prayer books, and the requirements of TEE.
- Library Grants for Theological Colleges and Bible Schools.
Subsidiary factors were the encouragement of indigenous creativity, local scholarship and writing rather than western texts, caution with journals, periodicals and magazines and nothing to cover free distribution.
An overall look at the first Joint Grants Programme for 2003-04 tells its own story and shows little change.
Staff Changes however tell a different story. From 1993-2007 FTM had three different Directors, each with different skills and initiatives, prior to the arrival of prior to the arrival of Josephine Carlsson with 25 years of experience working with communities in the global South, amd
'with a strong belief that literacy is the most effective and far-reaching tool to improve people’s lives'