[Imc-finance] original imc finance working group proposal - guidelines

[Sheri Herndon]

hi again,

this is from the original proposal for this working group.  good 
stuff here for us to remember and use.

-- Make decisions according to consensus principles on a public, transparent
e-mail list, the archives of which will be open for viewing through the
"http://lists.indymedia.org" page.  It will post a budget and other relevant
financial information to "http://finance.indymedia.org" when that web page
becomes active.

-- Be empowered to make grants in response to requests for less than $500
internally, without notifying the rest of the network, not to exceed $5000 each
month.  Imc-finance will make these allocations primarily for emergency needs,
specifically for network infrastructure.

-- Be required to alert the network, through a post to both
imc-process@indymedia.org and imc-proposals@indymedia.org, when allocating
grants of more than $500, or after allocating $5000 within a month.  This is
for the sake of transparency, and will encourage members of local IMCs and
individuals to express their opinions on the imc-finance if they disagree with
the decisions being made.

-- Be required to write a monthly summary of the money allocated, to be posted
to imc-summaries@indymedia.org.

-- Always have an active facilitator who will help focus discussion, encourage
everyone to participate and help debates turn into decisions.  Facilitators
will rotate out of the task every two months.  Imc-finance will not allocate
funds unless there is an active facilitator.

-- Emphasize decentralized fundraising, consistently work toward empowering
local IMCs to help one another, support autonomous fundraising affinity groups
and other projects that raise money for the network, support the idea of giving
"matching grants" (matching money raised by a local IMC's fundraiser to support
effective, creative fundraising ideas), prioritize allocations that 
will help build network infrastructure and support the formation of 
IMCs and IMC projects in the "Global South," where financial 
assistance is
requested.