[Imc-finance] some background for network funding, seattle's role and some next
steps
Sheri Herndon
sheri at indymedia.org
Tue, 16 Oct 2001 15:45:15 -0700
hi john and everyone,
it's a long email but well worth the read if you are interested in
the issue of indymedia network funding. i've provided some
historical background and context which has been requested by bart
and which until now i hadn't been able to find the time to do.
john, you've asked all good questions. i have a few answers and
thoughts and also some outstanding questions about how to deal with
these issues. susan gleason from imc-settle and i have been wanting
to write up a history of the finance issue from the seattle imc
perspective, but due to busy schedules, distractions and taking on
too much, it hasn't happened. but we are still working on it. this
has been discussed at the seattle spokescouncil level and it was
something we both agreed to do. we're getting closer :)
here's the outline for what we want to share. it'll give you a rough
idea of what we are wanting to talk about and hopefully accomplish.
this information can serve as background, context and hopefully as a
catalyst for movement forward for some of the unanswered questions.
and always trying to keep it as simple as possible given all of the
variables.
i know that there's other movement abroad in the larger network and i
can't wait :))
IMC NETWORK FUNDING
1. History of Network Funding
* Early history ... funding from Seattle etc.
* Recent history
* Seattle's Glaser grant to support the Network
2. Seattle Shifting out of the Network Funding Role
* Our intention
* A model/solution we're interested in; maybe others share this idea?
3. Dilemma of the Anonymous Donor
* Several calls have been made to the lists about this $, it
needs to be spent
* Donor wants Seattle to use/distribute the funds as it has
been doing w/Glaser
4. Where to go from here
* IMC-Finance - is this list an interim solution?
* Following up on the Decision-Making Process
5. Security
* How to have our financial discussions done in a
secure way that doesn't leave us vulnerable
(especially in the current climate)
that's a simple outline of some of the topics we wanted to discuss
and put out to this list to share some of the thoughts that we've
been having here in seattle and also some of the issues we are facing
(in particular with #3). we had hoped to do this a few weeks ago,
but the past month has been full of many important distractions. it
might be able to be finished in a week or so. rather than try and
write that document right now, i will respond to some of john's
questions in particular here and see how far i get. i think i will
focus on #1 in this email.
for those who don't know me, i've been involved with the imc since
before the wto meeting in seattle and currently live in seattle and
am active in local and network working groups, including grants wg in
seattle, the spokescouncil, media and process. in seattle, the
collective has been keenly (and at some points painfully) aware of
the role it is playing in having some oversight over the current
network bank and looks forward to when the responsibility and
oversight can be handled by the larger collective.
in order to achieve that, i am hoping that this list will become a
serious imc network working group with participation from as many
active imcs and working groups as possible. several people are
currently working on updating the imc network contacts list which
will be used to send out an invite to ALL IMCs to join this working
group. at that point, many of these questions and issues can be
discussed with the kind of participation we all are wanting.
for now, john, here are a few quick responses to your specific
questions. i'm hoping that jay, cinde or susan will jump in
specifically about the bank account history if they have more to
share. and of course others too about the other topics and things in
general.
>Just to offer some kind of context to the use of Seattle's bank account, can
>we review some of the details surrounding this account? For the record,
>which bank is the savings account with, in what name is the account and who
>are the signing authorities on the account, is the account associated with
>any cards, etc.? I'm comfortable foregoing information about signing
>authorities, assuming that they participate in this list, but that means the
1. History of Network Funding
(NOTE: this is incomplete because i don't have time to write up a
thorough document right now, but hopefully the questions will be
answered and some context will be provided, and we can build from
this simple yet important foundation of information)
* recent history
early on, monies were received by two different groups - direct
action media network (damn) and seattle imc. jay can talk more
specifically about the early history regarding damn. at the end of
last year, following a conversation i had with a private donor, we
received another $5K. since we currently had monies set aside for
the network, he agreed to send seattle the money. emails were sent
out to the global process list notifying people of this as well as
urging us to figure things out:
cash donation to imc network (12/22/00)
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-process/2000-December/001039.html
jay's response re damn's network bank account
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-process/2000-December/001041.html
another contribution email
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-process/2001-May/001751.html
interestingly enough, there was very little discussion in direct
response to these emails.
* global tech account
monies had also been received from early on that were designated
specifically for imc global tech. seattle also currently has those
funds and keeps separate accountings for those as well. micah works
closely with cinde on that account.
* global bank account background
at a certain point, seattle felt strongly that we needed to have a
completely separate account rather than just keeping the accountings
separate, so we set up the savings account. there is curently
$12,156.13 in the account gaining interest. the signers for this
account are the same people who are on the seattle account: cinde,
susan, sheri and jill. everyone is on this list except for jill.
there are no cards associated with this account and no checks.
the bank account that is for the global network is currently in
seattle at a washington mutual bank SAVINGS account. all we've
basically done is (1) set up the account, (2) transferred funds from
the seattle bank account; and (3) deposited some recent network
donations that have come in during the past months. jay and i have
been keeping track of all network donations and requests for
information. we have a list of people who have inquired about
sending in donations.
in terms of disbursement of any network funds, NO funds have ever
been taken out of this account since it belongs to the entire
indymedia network and we have been waiting for a process by which to
disburse funds democratically. we are merely acting as a steward and
hoping that we can shift the responsibility at some point to a
network working group, like imc-finance.
* wish list/imc projects list
another topic which we can address will be to establish a wish list
for all imcs, different network-wide projects and specific projects
that local imcs have -- all of this can be on the donate page and
people wanting to donate can pick something that inspires them. we
could also arrange for a paypal account so that people can easily use
a credit card. something we have discovered is that having people
send in checks is very inconvenient for people and we have received
some criticism for not making it easier for people to donate....i
think we must figure this out. we can set up the paypal account so
that it will designate where the monies are to be directed in terms
of projects, etc. if it is a local imc, they can have their own
paypal, at least here in the states. for most international imcs,
this can also be done, except some countries can't access a local
bank account - so we'd have to figure out how to do that, etc. but
we can work toward a system that works easily and efficiently). this
has been brought up several times in the past in various contexts.
perhaps this is something that can be included in the call out to
imcs or to the survey that some folks are also working on.
i'd love to hear from folks who have used paypal here in the states
and how that has worked and other imcs in other countries with what
works for them.
>account is ultimately being governed by imc-seattle and that this list
>(imc-finance) should make requests to imc-seattle for account transactions
>to be administrated appropriately. This may be the most secure means to
>administrate the global account for imc-finance, given that others at
>imc-seattle can assist in auditting the account and distribute the
>responsibility.
* Seattle IMC's Current Role
i have to respectfully disagree with the phrase the account is being
"governed by imc-seattle" because i think that gives the wrong
impression and it is also slightly inaccurate. we perhaps are the
custodians of the account. more than anything, we are eager for
ideas and a process for how to make it more democratic. i imagine at
some point in our future, we will have decentralized bank accounts
for regional imc network funding. but at this point, it's in one
account. we have no control over it other than we set it up and we
are doing some of the administrative tasks such as depositing funds
into it when they come in.
* Seattle's Fiscal Sponsor
seattle has been using our current fiscal sponsor, jam for justice,
for some of the donations that request a tax deduction. jam for
justice is a nonprofit. they currently take out a 4% administrative
fee, which is typical for fiscal sponsors. there is now an imc that
has its own nonprofit status - urbana-champagne imc.
>Otherwise, the idea of helping out imc-nyc print collective sounds do-able,
>however, if this opens imc-finance to all kinds of requests for services
>from other imc's or global work-groups. It depends on how much work
>imc-seattle is willing to take-on -- perhaps this can be distributed between
>imc's in the future, for different kinds of imc-finance requests. Are there
>any other ideas that people are working on?
in direct response to "opening up imc-finance to all kinds of request
for services from other imc's", i think we need to really figure this
out. because we need to have a way of supporting the network as
different imcs and different working groups and sister-city
relationships start raising money, writing grants, finding people to
support specific projects, etc.
seattle has been in a position to be able to help out and we continue
to be committed to helping out as best we can, but ideally, there
must be some kind of decentralized network structure that can handle
these requests. like a bank account on every continent that has
regional oversight by all the imcs there and that also work with the
imc finance global working group....as one possibility. there are
many. for now, it is seattle who is keeping the global bank account.
how we transition this to the network as we develop a solid working
group will be important. we can continue of course to do
administrative support until something is figured out and can
disburse funds once a process is agreed upon by the network and the
working group.
* Seattle's Glaser Grant to Support the Network
Last fall, seattle wrote a grant proposal to a local foundation
requesting money to help 'build the global communication network".
we received 15,000 from the glaser foundation to help us in this
respect. we can provide a more detailed account of specific global
projects that we have supported, but some include: (1) money for the
brasil imc ftaa paper; (2) funds for imc-argentina at a critical time
of their growth; (3) start up funds for imc-south africa for the
world conference on racism; (4) travel stipends for us-based imc
folks as well as folks from chiapas, belgium, australia and brasil to
come to san fran for the press freedom/imc convergence in april; (5)
nyc print paper following events of 9/11; (6) travel funds for
argentina and italy folks to come to dc and spend some time
networking with other imcs here to increase north-south and us-europe
imc networking; (7) travel funds for tech person to attend imc-europe
meeting....for example.
we are down to the last few thousand dollars of that grant and feel
really good about the choices we've made in supporting the network
with these micro-grants. alittle money can often go a long way,
especially in indymedia. we've done phenomenal work on a shoestring
budget.
i'm sure there's more to say on this but i'll just stop here.
hopefully susan and i will be able to put together info on the other
points in the above outline, but for now i hope this begins to answer
john's questions and provides more context and background.
love & solidarity
sheri
ps - interesting email from michael albert from the archives:
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-finance/2001-July/000046.html
> Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2001 15:41:56 -0700
>> To: IMC-Finance
>> From: Sheri Herndon
>> Cc: mikeburke99@yahoo.com
>> Subject: [Imc-finance] Fwd: NYC IMC --Emergency Grants for
>Peace
>>
>> hi friends,
>>
>> here's a request from imc nyc to use the global bank
>account. as
>> some of you may know, that bank account is currently in
>seattle and
>> it is a savings account, accruing interest. it is a
>completely
>> separate bank account from any of the seattle funds,
>although seattle
>> people have been doing some of the admin work as well as
>jay from
>> philly imc and damn (direct action media network - during
>early days
>> of imc).
>>
>> does this work for everyone? i imagine that if they
>received the
>> funds, it would be deposited into this account and we'd
>write a check
>> or get a cashier's check since we don't have a checkbook
>for this
>> account and write it to the print collective in nyc.
>>
>> thoughts? concerns?
>>
>> in solidarity
>> sheri
>>
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