Policies & Procedures - 4.1.9 Membership Development Support Grant

Objectives
The Membership Development Support Grant (MDSG) has been established to initiate, promote and support activities of individual ComSoc members, local chapters and regions in strengthening the Society, supporting membership development growth, and making it a world-wide professional community.

In particular, the MDSG Program has been implemented to achieve the following main objectives:

• ComSoc membership growth
• Member professional development
• Local chapter growth worldwide

Supported Activities
The MDSG program will encourage and support the following activities by regions, chapters and individual members:

• Organization of special events to promote:
  • Membership development and retention, including student membership
  • Membership level upgrade
  • Member professional/technical development and growth
  • Participation and connection with industry
  • Establishment of new chapters
  • Outreach to industry and other societies
    
     
• Travel of members to meetings and conferences deemed valuable to ComSoc, including:
  • Local/regional chapter lectures, seminars and workshops
  • MDC, MPD, RCCC Congresses, and other conferences to support membership development initiatives
  • Outreach to industry, professional, and other societies’ meetings/conferences to promote membership growth and members professional development
  • Participation of ComSoc budding leaders in Society activities
    
     

Grant
The Membership Development Support Grant (MDSG) may be awarded to individual members, chapters or to a region under following guidelines:

• The grant will not exceed $1,000.
• Amount of the grant will be decided on case by case, based on estimated expenses and value to ComSoc.
• No more than one grant will be awarded to an individual or a chapter in a given calendar year.
• All awardees will be required to submit a written report
  
   

Application & Selection Procedures
The following MDSG application submission and awarding processes have been established:

• Individual members, chapters and regions must submit the MDSG Application Form
• and provide details on the proposed membership development activity, how the funds will be used and the expected value to ComSoc.
• The application must be received by Director, Membership Program Development no later than 10 weeks before the event.
• Applications from individual members and chapters should be sent to their Regional Director for review and recommendation.
• All applications, including the applications from regions should be sent by Regional Directors or by a person specifically appointed by Regional Directors to the Director, Membership Programs Development.
• Applications will be reviewed and awardees selected by the MDSG Committee. Director, Membership Programs Development will approve the grant.
• HQ staff will notify each MDSG applicant (individual members, chapter or region) of the MDSG Committee’s decision as to whether the applicant has been awarded a grant or not no later than five (5) weeks prior to the event. Awardees will be instructed on actual financial procedures of processing the award funds.

Disbursement of Grant:
Once approved, honorariums to individuals will be issued by the ComSoc Finance Manager. Other expenses, travel, lodging, meals, conference room, food, A/V, and other incidental expenses will be settled via expense report to the Finance Manager. ComSoc policies and procedures will apply in settling any expense requests. Pre-approval of expenses for local lectures or events is required. An MDSG awardees or the organization must submit a written report highlighting the achievements to Director – Membership Programs Development. The report may be received any time between the event or when the expense report is processed.
 

Membership Development Support Grant (MDSG) Committee
The MDSG Committee reports to the Director – Membership Programs Development who chairs the committee. It consists of three voting members appointed by the Chair in consultation with the VP Membership Development. Each member serves a two year term coinciding with that of the Director of Membership Programs Development. Members may serve no more than two consecutive terms.

MDSG Application Form