[Imc-finance] dakar request -- some thoughts

[Jay]

Hi imc-finance,

Some thoughts on the imc-africa proposal, and some possible ideas for 
making this work.

First, I apologize for the lateness of the request for funds. I know that 
puts a lot of pressure on imc-finance.  I haven't been involved in the 
planning of the conference, but about two weeks ago I wrote to Sphinx to 
ask how it was going.  He said that their fundraising plans had not yielded 
anything.  So, I volunteered to help spread the word through the Indymedia 
network, including helping focus discussion at imc-finance.  I wish I would 
have become involved earlier and would have been able to help develop a 
better plan for raising money.

Right now we're looking at a proposal for $7500, which is so much 
money.  I'm sure most of us would also prefer to see imc-finance funds be 
used for seed money or for matching funds with other fundraising, rather 
than to be used to fund something without other financial support.

There has to be some way, though, for imc-finance to feel comfortable being 
involved, rather than turn down the request due to the fact that it's so 
much money.  A couple ideas:

1) There are currently delegates intended to come from six countries, three 
with existing IMCs and three without.  Perhaps imc-finance could cut the 
proposal in half, to support the delegates from, let's say, the countries 
that don't have IMCs, who would be coming to Senegal to learn about how to 
build independent media in their own places.  That way it would seem more 
managable.  It would still then be an "international conference" that can 
bolster growth of independent media in Africa.  (check out the other e-mail 
I'm sending today to imc-finance for more information about how the 
conference is organizing in Senegal itself.)

2) The current proposal suggests imc-africa would pay back imc-finance 1/3 
of all the money it raises.  That's nice, but if imc-africa doesn't raise 
much money for the conference, that doesn't help much.  Maybe we could 
change that to indicate that imc-africa will repay the money on a 1 to 1 
basis, after a certain amount.  Let's say imc-africa raises $2500 over the 
next couple weeks.  Maybe they'd be able to keep $500 to support 
materials/food/lodging at the conference, and send the rest back to the 
global fund to repay some of the imc-finance money (let's say, $3000 for 
three delegates).  Hence, imc-finance would be providing a loan, of a more 
manageable amount, rather than saying goodbye to $7500 in one shot.

I don't want to confuse things.  I'm just trying to bounce some ideas 
around for making this more feasible.  Any thoughts from any imc-finance 
gurus out there?

Jay