as of March 20152016

Establishing and Governing the DPCA Travel Fund

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Awards will not be granted for attendance at Regional Meetings or the Democratic National Convention.

The Application for Travel Fund Awards

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Determination of Need:  The applicant must give an indication on the application form of genuine financial need.  No personal financial information will be collected by the Committee.  The applicant must also provide an estimate of travel costs to the Global Meeting, to exclude lodging and miscellaneous expenditures.

Determination of Under-representation at Global Meetings:  The applicant must provide information about the home Country Committee’s attendance at past Global Meetings and the applicant’s own history of attendance at past Global Meetings.

Sensitivity to Diversity:  The applicant may voluntarily provide minority status information to assist the Committee in meeting affirmative action and gender balance goals, in line with recommendations established by the Diversity Committee.  Diversity information will not be used as a primary factor in evaluating applications but will be used by the Chair as a tie-breaker in the event two applications are ranked the same.

Endorsements and Letters of Reference:  Applicants who are not serving in elected positions within DPCA at either the international, country committee, or chapter level must provide a letter of reference from an elected DPCA member at the time of application.

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1. Invalid applications are discarded by the Chair of the committee.
2. All members of the committee read all valid applications and meet once to discuss the applications.
3. All members of the committee rank all valid applications in order (1, 2, 3, 4…), submitting their ranks secretly to the Chair of the committee.
4. The Chair of the committee sums all the ranks for each applicant to determine an overall ranking. In the event that more than one applicant have an equal aggregate ranking, the Chair of the committee shall determine the order between them.
5. The committee shall award $500 to each selected applicant, beginning with the “lowest” ranked applicant, until less than $500 is left in the fund. The remainder is left in the fund for the next in-person DPCA meeting.
6. The Chair of the committee will contact each potential recipient in order. If a recipient states that he or she will not attend the meeting, then $500 will be awarded to the next highest-ranked applicant.
7. Under no circumstances should the committee increase the amount awarded to an applicant or even inquire whether a larger award would allow an applicant to travel. Any money not awarded due to lack of valid applicants or applicants willing to attend should be kept for the next DPCA meeting.
8. The names of award recipients shall be publicized through appropriate DPCA channels, including the DPCA Leadership group and at the Global Meeting.
9. The Chair of the committee should request the record of attendance from the International Secretary as soon as practical after the meeting and submit a full report to the International Chair for the use of the next Chair of the Travel Fund Committee.

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