<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;">Hi Durl-<br><br>Chris and I met last week and concluded that, as we suspected, we have no anticipated operating budget for 2011. When we do projects any donated funds or new members go directly to the IMC, not through our group, and any costs are incredibly minimal (due to necessity of not having a budget!) and are covered personally. <br><br>Unfortunately, this has led to a little bit of burnout, because we've never been able to directly track the financial impact we have on the IMC overall (e.g. if 300 people come to the open house, and some of them become members, does that mean we might be able to recapture some of that for future events? The answer has traditionally been: no) and therefore have had to DIY all the costs.<br><br>If we had our dream situation we would have a small budget to cover printing, food, and art supplies, to the tune of about
$800-1000 a year/average of $50-100/month. However, it's our understanding that there isn't any general operating support available. If this is incorrect, or you know of some other support option that might be available, do let us know!<br><br>Though somewhat burned out, Community Connections is still active, in the sense that we are trying to keep a general eye on the overall cohesiveness of the IMC and to jump in to support that where needed. Our listserv is active, we respond to emails, etc. We hope that IMC Awesome (an inter-IMC recognition project) will be project sometime this year. Also potential: movie nights, dance parties and other 'IMC-ers get together on a shoestring' projects. <br><br>It's our hope that a lot of the outreach we did (e.g. open houses) will get undertaken by the fundraising/outreach group, and the skillshares will get undertaken through Makerspace, leaving more energy for our core purpose: supporting the relationships between
groups and each other, groups and steering, steering and the IMC as a whole, and the IMC and the community. <br><br>Let us know if you need any more info. Thanks!<br>elizaBeth<br>p.s. in the future please email the community list so that it goes to the group: community@lists.chambana.net<br><br><br><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><hr style="width: 100%; height: 2px;"><span style="font-style: italic;">learn about my latest project:</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br>Celebrate Urbana People's History Project</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br></span>www.urbanapeopleshistory.wordpress.com<span style="font-style: italic;"><br><br><span style="font-weight: bold;">support Creative Intervention Agency and Change of State Performance Project!</span></span> <br>We provide workshops, trainings, and mentorship to support activists, performers, communities, troupes, and organizations with tools from across the arts/organizing
spectrum.<br><br><b><span><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://tinyurl.com/aquatowndonation"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1270843960_1">http://tinyurl.com/creativention</span></a></span></b><br><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span>(please be sure to designate your donation to CSPP)<br><br><br><div id="RTEContent"> </div><br><br>--- On <b>Sat, 1/15/11, Jan & Durl Kruse <i><jandurl@comcast.net></i></b> wrote:<br><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"><br>From: Jan & Durl Kruse <jandurl@comcast.net><br>Subject: 2011<br>To: "Elizabeth Simpson" <elizacorps@yahoo.com><br>Date: Saturday, January 15, 2011, 10:40 AM<br><br><div class="plainMail">Hi Elizabeth,<br>IMC Finance Committee is preparing the 2011 IMC budget for the Steering Committee meeting on Feb. 3. As part of the IMC financial structure, we need Community Connection's 2011
anticipated revenue and expenditure estimates to incorporate into the IMC's overall budget plan. A budget planning worksheet is attached below to supply this information. If you could fill it out and email it back to me by Wednesday, January 26, it would be greatly appreciated. That will allow us time to review the information from each working group at our January 27 Finance meeting.<br><br>If you have any questions don't hesitate to email or call me at 328-2789. I would also be happy to meet in person with you or your group to address any questions and explain the process being conducted by Finance.<br><br>Again, thanks for your assistance and hope to receive the worksheet by January 26.<br><br>Respectfully,<br>Durl Kruse<br>Finance Committee<br><br></div><div class="plainMail"><br><br>PS- Hi Beth,<br> I'm not certain whether Community Connections is still an active working group of the IMC. If
not, just ignore this request and email me telling what the program's current status is.<br>Much appreciated,<br>Durl<br></div></blockquote></td></tr></table><br>