Communication Team Finances

Communication Team Finances
(From a discussion at YWAM ICN, Colorado Springs)

We believe that YWAM ICN's role with Communication Teams is visionary, motivational, empowering, and facilitating. We recognize that we need to establish field desks at ICN in order to accomplish our responsibilities.

One of our concerns is that as we develop financial guildelines we do not develop a centralized structure or one in which "he who has the money has the power", or that the teams are not motivated to seek their own financing.

We asked if there was any model in YWAM we could draw from and could not recall any initiative in YWAM that was similar.

In addition we spent some time considering the possible need for training that might enhance Communication Team multiplication.

We noted that there are 4 areas of finances needed for Communication Teams to succeed:


 * 1) Start-up.
 * 2) Personal staff support.
 * 3) Communication Teams' ongoing work.
 * 4) Travel to conferences and special meetings.

Start Up
Start-up costs include needed equipment and offices. We felt that because Communication Teams are part of a vision launched by ICN it would be appropriate for ICN to be involved in providing start-up funds. While it may be possible to come up with an estimated internal figure for ICN budgeting purposes, the actual funds provided would be determined by a dialogue with the start-up team.

Personal Support
We believe that long term the Communication Team staff need to be supported by support other than ICN. It may be necessary in the short term to help some with support from ICN but we should also consider helping them with support fundraising. We understand that this is difficult in countries where the church does not or cannot support YWAMers. If we as ICN engage in fundraising might it be possible to connect individual staff with supporters?

Travel
We separated Communication Teams' service travel from the travel to conferences or special meetings like CRIT. For instance, for CRIT we believe it would be good if 2 members of each Communication Team could be present. If we accept this, then ICN needs to be prepared to provide significant funds to make this possible. Again for internal budgeting purposes it may be possible to come up with an estimated figure but the actual amount would need to be determined by a dialogue with each team.

Service
For Communication Teams' ongoing service we felt that the teams should move toward being self sustaining financially. This could be by fundraising (as AFRICOM does for the field newsletter) or possibly by advertisement space in a field/regional newsletter. We wondered if it would ever be possible for bases in a field or region, in appreciation for a Communication Team's contribution, to consider a small contribution to the team's finances. We also recognized that in some cases a local base may provide office space at little or no cost, thus lowering the financial need.

Training
We have a general consensus that unless we are proactive in training we will not be able to see the rapid establishment of more Communication Teams. We did not discuss what this training might look like; a week, 2 weeks, 3 months; or where the training might take place.

Here are some of the thoughts about subjects we might cover in training.

Not in order of priority and not complete:


 * 1) Fundraising.
 * 2) How to start a Communication Team.
 * 3) How to relate to local, regional, and field leaders and bases.
 * 4) How to form a team.
 * 5) Team building.
 * 6) Decision making.
 * 7) Possible serving initiatives for the fields and regions and how to implement them.
 * 8) How to relate to ICN.
 * 9) Servant leadership.
 * 10) Use of technology.
 * 11) Graphic design.
 * 12) Video.
 * 13) Research.