Present: Christi, Randy (via Skype), Bas, Steven

Announcements

• Marialena arrived last Wed.
• Kamila is on holiday
• The Youth in Action grant agreement arrived
• We should know about the EYF Visegrad publication grant by the end of the month
• The balance payment for the EYF 2006 administrative grant arrived last Monday, the payment order for the 1st payment of the 2007 EYF administrative grant is pending, we should be receiving the EC core grant balance payment from 2006 soon.

Agenda
1. Financial situation
2. NESsT Organisational Readiness Exercises
1. Financial situation

• Core grant: It looks like we have to take the EC Youth in Action Core grant. The DG Environment reopened the call for proposals until mid June; therefore, money is unlikely to come until nearly the end of 2007, and we wouldn't have a decision from DG Environment by the deadline for accepting the youth grant. Taking the youth money now and giving it back later appears to not really be much of an option because of the way the contract is written. Stephen Welin of DG Environment advises that in our situation it is probably best to take the youth grant and assures us that it will not negatively impact our chances for DG Environment core funding in 2008 or anytime in the future. Basically, we need official consensus that we should take the youth grant and withdraw the application and withdraw the DG Environment application.
• The grant agreement has our old name, even our application has our new name. Christi has contacted the DG Ed & Culture. We have been advised to sign and send the current contract with an accompanying letter regarding the name, and the Agency will prepare an amendment. They appolgise for the mistake and say that this is the best way to avoid a delay in receiving the money.
• Co-funding: The operating budget in the youth grant agreement says that they will give us 26.500 in funding, that we will get 16,150 from IVF, 16,000 from EYF, 9,689 from self financing (member dues, magazine, resource centre and conference fees), and that the rest will come from other sources and our own contribution. Radka and Christi did some calculations. Based on funds already secured, the projections of self financing, and the expected IVF money, we will have nearly all the co-funding needed but will have to come up with 2,915 Euros. This calculation was made without consideration of the potential NESsT funding. With the NESsT funding, we would have an excess of slightly over 4,000 Euros (based on the operating budget in the agreement). The NESsT money does not seem to have a requirement that we spend it all during the year in which we receive it; therefore, it might be wise to put some of it aside for the beginning of 2008.

DECISIONS: We will take the Youth grant and withdraw the DG Environment application. We will have Michal track IVF spending to make sure that we spend the 16,150. Christi and Radka will give Randy more details about member dues and conference registration fees. We will make sure to stay on track with the provisional budget.

2. NESsT Organisational Readiness Exercises

• The exercises are mostly complete. Thank you for returning the surveys. The only thing we need to talk about is the financial mix. They have asked us to set goals for 5 years in the future. For background:

-The current mix is: 4.4% Foundation grants, 80% Government grants, 3.6% Individual donations, 10% Self-financing, 2% In-kind support -The strategic plan calls for: 50% funding "virtually guaranteed" by 2011, Carbusters more profitable, Increase in individual giving

My input was: Foundation grants 23%, Government grants 21%, individual donations: 20%, Self-financing 30% and In-kind support 5%. Rationale: Self-financing + individual donations = 50%. There are no "guarantees" in NGO funding, but these two types are most secure of all possible sources.

Radka and Kamila, who aren't here, already shared their thoughts with me. Radka commented that perhaps Foundation grants should go down a bit and government grants should go up a bit. Kamila commented that this is good if we are trying to set a realistic goal, but that a more idealistic goal should be 50% self-financing. So now, I need the thoughts of everyone else, before we decide what the 5-year goals should be.

DECISIONS: Take an average of Christi's suggestions, Kamila's suggestions and Radka's suggestions.