March
1, 2010
NW10-006
To: SPEEA NW Council
Members
FROM: Northwest Governing
Documents Committee
SUBJECT: Pre-submitted New Business: Motion
to establish policy dealing with requests for funding from educational
organizations and institutions
______________________________________________________________________
Background
In
recent years, the Northwest Regional Council has received numerous requests
from educational organizations and institutions for financial support of
various programs and events in this area.
Many of such requests have resulted in some level of funding being
granted by the Northwest Council.
However, the discussions surrounding motions dealing with such requests
have proved to be rather contentious.
The
Northwest Council Officers requested the Northwest L&PA Committee consider
this issue and develop a procedure for the handling
of such requests. The NW Governing
Documents committee reviewed the procedure developed by the Northwest L&PA
Committee. Therefore, the following
motion is submitted for the Council’s consideration:
Summary of the proposed
Policy to process requests for educational funding:
It
shall be the policy of the SPEEA Northwest Council to employ the following
process regarding requests for funding from educational organizations and
institutions as summarized below:
·
The
Northwest Council Treasurer shall prepare the annual
budget with an educational grant commensurate with the past actions of
the Northwest Council.
·
Grants
requests from educational organizations will be submitted on a standard written
application prior to August 15th each year.
·
A
seven (7) member Grant Review Special Committee will be formed.
·
The
Committee will review the applications for accuracy.
·
The
Committee will verify the qualifications of the requesting organizations.
·
The
Committee will provide a recommendation of which organizations to fund, and the
amount of funding.
·
The
Committee’s recommendation will include how much funding they recommend go to
each organization.
·
The
Committee recommendation will be submitted to the NW Council in the form of a
motion.
·
The
submitted motion will be in a form easily modifiable during NW Council debate.
·
The
NW Council will debate the single motion requesting funding for all requesting
organizations.
·
The
NW Council may revise the amounts to be given to requesting organizations.
·
The
NW Council may approve or reject the motion to provide the funding.
·
After
NW Council approval of the motion, the NW Treasurer
will release funds in accordance with the council action.
Motion
It
is moved
that the SPEEA Northwest Council adopt
the following policy:
SPEEA
NW Regional Council Policy,
Educational
Grant Process 1/25/2010
The membership of SPEEA has
benefitted greatly from the educational opportunities made
available to them earlier in their lives.
They understand the value of their educations and support the education
of the technical work force of the future.
In recent years,
the Northwest Regional Council has received numerous requests from educational organizations and institutions
for financial support of various
programs and events in this area. Many
of such requests have resulted in some level of funding being granted by the
Northwest Council. However, the
discussions surrounding motions dealing with such requests have proved to be
rather contentious.
It shall therefore be the policy of the
SPEEA Northwest Council to employ the following process regarding requests for
funding from educational organizations and institutions:
1. Qualifications
a. Grants shall be reserved for non-profit
organizations and institutions which have a focus on science, technology,
engineering and mathematics (STEM).
b. Grants shall only be made to organization
which include SPEEA member participation, e.g. as a coach, mentor or parent.
2. Application
3. Budget
The
Northwest Council shall establish an amount in each year’s budget commensurate
with the past actions of the Northwest Council.
Such amount shall be determined with the advice and involvement of the
Northwest Council Treasurer, the SPEEA Comptroller, and the SPEEA Treasurer.
4. Grant Review Committee
5. Northwest Council Officer processing
The Northwest
Regional Secretary will:
a.
Certify
the application by noting the date received on the original application.
b.
File
the received and dated application form.
c.
Route
copies of the dated application to the other Northwest Council Officers and to
all Grant Committee members.
d.
Provide
an email response acknowledging receipt of the application to the SPEEA member
contact within fifteen (15) days of receipt of the application.
The
Northwest Council Treasurer will:
a.
Inform
the Grant Review Committee and other Northwest Council Officers of the current
fund balance.
b.
The
Northwest Regional Treasurer will promptly process all grants approved per
Section 7 of this policy.
The
Northwest Regional Council Officers will:
a.
Review
each application to assure that the request is legible, understandable and
complete in that it appears to meet the minimum requirements as defined in Section
1 of this policy.
b.
If
necessary, the Northwest Council Officers will direct the Northwest Council Secretary or a Grant Committee member to request more
information and data from the applicant.
c.
Monitor
Grant Committee activity for compliance with SPEEA governing documents.
6. Grant Process Committee processing
The
Grant Process Committee will:
a. Meet within fifteen (15)
days of the August 15th application
submission deadline, and meet thereafter as needed.
b. Research and analyze
each requesting organization to verify:
i.
It
is a qualifying organization per current Northwest Regional Policy
ii.
SPEEA
member participation in that organization
c. Review all submitted
applications, to assure:
i.
Statement
of purpose or objective provided
ii.
Background
statement provided
iii.
Actual
program budget or expected budget provided
iv.
Potential
funding sources identified
v.
Meets
all other requirements of this policy
d. Summarize the data
and information from all the applications
e. Evaluate the merits
of all requests, taking into account previous SPEEA funding and organization’s accomplishments
and achievements in the community, and will determine recommendations
f. Draft a
recommendation of suggested recipient organizations with the amount proposed for each organization
in the form of a Motion to the Northwest Council. The recommendation should:
i.
Specifically
identify the recommended recipients
ii.
Specifically
identify the amounts to be awarded to each recipient
iii.
Be
in a form readily modifiable during the Northwest Council meeting
g. Forward the
recommendation motion to the Northwest Council Officers for inclusion in the
agenda for the September Northwest Council meeting.
7. Northwest Council processing:
The
Northwest Council will debate the motion for educational grant(s) from the
Grant Process Committee per the established procedures for a pre-submitted
motion to the Regional Council.
All
approved grants will be forwarded to the SPEEA Northwest Regional Council
Treasurer for processing.
8. Disbursement of approved grants
a.
It
shall be the duty of the Northwest Council Treasurer to authorize the SPEEA
Comptroller and coordinate with the SPEEA Treasurer to make payments for
approved grants.
b.
These
disbursements shall be made within thirty-one (31) calendar days following
Northwest Regional Council approval.
9. Expectations of recipients