[Imc-summaries] FULL TEXT: IMC-Finance Empowerment Proposal (Passed May 7, 2002)

[Sascha Meinrath]

FULL TEXT OF IMC-FINANCE EMPOWERMENT PROPOSAL
PASSED MAY 7, 2002

***

SUMMARY:

Proposal to have imc-finance empowered spend the money that is in the
global fund.  The proposal requires imc-finance to be a transparent,
faciliated working group composed primarily of empowered liaisons from
local IMCs.

***

PROPOSAL: TO EMPOWER THE "IMC-FINANCE@INDYMEDIA.ORG" AS A WORKING GROUP

BACKGROUND:

Every time someone offers a donation to Indymedia s/he is referred to the
local IMCs or specific Indymedia projects to donate to them directly.
However, often donors insist on giving their money to support the global
network.  Currently there is money in a bank account (managed by the
Urbana-Champaign IMC)  that has been donated specifically for "global
network" issues. As there is no network-wide decision-making process,
there has been no way to decide how to spend money given to the "global
network;" therefore, not a cent of the money has been spent.  Members of
imc-finance are moving to "empower" the list to become a working group
that would be able to make proposals about how to spend money in the
global fund.

PROPOSAL:

For IMC-Finance@indymedia.org to become an empowered working group that
will:

-- 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.

***

THE IMC-Finance Working Group is composed of people who:

1) BASIC CLAUSE: work for the network is some activity, that deliberately
   extends beyond the local [geographical] IMC group's work, for the
   purpose of  contributing to/creating some aspect of the Indymedia
   network as a whole.
   a) Definition of "work for the network". Local IMC groups nominate
      what their network work is/will be. If there is no objection to it
      in the Finance Working Group then that self-nomination of work is
      accepted.

2) PROVISION: for (newer, maybe first six months?)IMCs in more difficult
   situations, permanant or temporary.

3) STATUS of INDIVIDUAL *FROM* a local IMC group or a GLOBAL working
   group:
   a) [usual status] they are an empowered liason accountable to an IMC
      that does work [ie to a local IMC group that fullfils the Basic
      Clause] or
   b) [rare status] they do actual work in Finance Working Group *other*
      than just being involved in the decision-making process - eg
      facilitation, implementation, summary writing etc, as the
      contribution [fullfilment of Basic Clause] from their local IMC
      group.
   c) The imc-finance working group will send out an invitation to
      participate to all IMCs on the contact list, and will do so at least
      every three months.

4) STATUS of an INDIVIDUAL *NOT FROM* a local IMC group or a GLOBAL
   working group:
   a) Individuals who join the group must be there to actively do work.
   b) All who join this working group list must present a roll call.

5) DECISION-MAKING:
   a) A decision can only be stopped if there is an objection that it
      would contradict any functional principle [agreed in the group's
      formation proposal] and, or that it would endanger the existence of
      Finance Working Group and, or the Indymedia network.
   b) If a) does not apply, then a decision can only be blocked if some
      way to actually continue with the subject of the decision is
      proposed at the same time as the 'block', eg amendments,
      substitution, improvements, alternative solution(s) etc.