Developing a fund to allow us to operate and pay for things that cost money
While much of what we can achieve is through cooperation and people power small regular donations from MfC members who can afford it will allow us to:
develop a website
pay expenses incurred by shared holders
make a small contribution for our use of Loomio
create a buffer in case future hui run at a loss and pay other costs incurred.
The aim of this thread is to discuss how to develop the fund and where it could be located and what might be the criteria for spending from it.
Nick Laurence Mon 19 Dec 2016 6:15AM
Thanks Jan for initiating this, and Patricia for your comment.
1. At the moment, the account is a personal account of mine that was initially set up when Mindfulness for Change was the name I used for running mindfulness classes. This has run its course and I'd like to set up a new account for use from the start of next year onwards.
2. Perhaps we could create a role to be "treasurer", that someone from the shared-holder group could hold, once that group is set up in the New Year?
3. Agree on offering the opportunity for regular and irregular payments.
4. That's a good question about becoming a legal entity, my sense is that this proposal wouldn't require us to become a legal entity, but that we may need to become one at some stage next year.
5. I think we can and should be transparent about our finances to all contributors, and that keeping this communication open and transparent would fall under the role of "treasurer"/ whatever we call that role.
6. My sense is that it's too early to think about that just yet. I'd also add that the Enspiral model isn't a financially successful one. Most of the money would come through ventures, I'd imagine, rather than MfC generating a whole bunch of income on its own. As a tangent, it would be interesting to explore whether in future we could internally redistribute income - to give monetary value the things that the market doesn't value (i.e. caring work), which would be generated from people doing work that the market does value.
Patricia Morgan Tue 20 Dec 2016 3:18AM
Hi Nick, I was interested to read your comments and it sounds like a good idea to take some of the actions suggested - such as opening and MfC bank account. I really like the idea suggested in your 'tangent' and look forward to discussing that next year.
Sam O'Sullivan Fri 23 Dec 2016 5:50AM
I think this is a great idea. Thanks @janrivers for starting this up. I also like the idea of regular and irregular payments.
It would also be cool to host Mindfulness for Change events for the public and put any money made back into MfC. However, this seems like a few steps down the track as we will need to be a legal entity and agree on a process to associate our identity with events.
Patricia Morgan · Fri 16 Dec 2016 7:47PM
I think this is a great idea and am happy to contribute where I can. A couple of things I was wondering about are:
1. Should we use the account that is already set up?
2. Is there a good way to look after the 'donations' - and if so what is this, and who would do this?
3. I think it would be good to offer the opportunity for regular and 'irregular' payments
4. With contributions coming in do we need to become some sort of legal entity?
5. Whats the best way to let MfC-ers know how much is coming in and how it is being spent?
5. It may be too soon for this question but when groups within MfC start making money and if we follow the Enspiral model - then this would also provide income and do we want to start thinking about how to manage that income now?