as of March 20162017

Establishing and Governing the DPCA Travel Fund

Contributions to the DPCA Travel Fund shall be considered to be ordinary donations to the DPCA for all purposes except DPCA budgeting and the ExCom’s authorization of disbursements. Thus, contributions to the Travel Fund must be governed by the usual laws and regulations (e.g. from US citizens only, at least 18 years old, not anonymous, not in excess of campaign limits).

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Timing Proposal: The International Chair should appoint a Travel Fund Committee of at least one Chair and four other members at least one member from each of the three regions by January 1 of each year. By February 1 or ninety days before the next in-person meeting of the DPCA (whichever is sooner), the International Treasurer should inform the chair of the Travel Fund Committee of the amount of funds available in the Travel Fund. The Travel Fund Committee should work with the International Chair so that a detailed description of the awards available and the application procedure are available no later than the date that registration is opened for the DPCA meeting.

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Eligibility: All DPCA members (both voting and non-voting) in good standing are eligible to apply for Travel Fund Awards.  Individuals who have received a Travel Fund Award in the previous five (5) DPCA Global Meetings are not eligible to apply.

Application:  An applicant must complete and submit an application form, which shall be provided by the Travel Fund Committee on the DPCA website.  Information to be supplied by the applicant will include, but will not be limited to, a two-paragraph statement from the applicant detailing the applicant’s past and present involvement with DPCA at the chapter, country committee, and international levels, and describing the vision of the applicant’s future roles within DPCA. 

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 Underrepresentation 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 the 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.

Conditions of the Award:  Travel Funds Fund Awards will be granted to recipients by the International Treasurer at the DPCA Global Meeting as reimbursement to ensure that the recipients are physically present for the entirety of the meetingat the meeting.  Recipients are required to attend, in person, the DPCA Global Meeting in its entirety.  Failure to attend the meeting in full, absent a genuine and verifiable emergency, will result in forfeiture of the Award.  Awards will not be prorated for partial meeting attendance.

Determining Recipients of Travel Fund Awards

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 multiple applications 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 receiving the lowest numerical score, until less than $500 is left in the fund. The remainder is left in the fund for the next in-person DPCA meetingGlobal 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 meetingGlobal 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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