1) COMMITTEE MAKEUP:

a) The Committee shall consist of six (6) alliance members appointed by the President consisting of the "Major Fundraiser Committee" Chair; two (2) members of the Board of Directors who do not serve on the Major Fundraiser Committee; two (2) members from the Major Fundraiser Committee, preferably who do not serve on the Board of Directors; and one (1) member from the general membership who serves on neither the Board of directors or the Major Fundraiser Committee.

b) The President and President-elect are ad-hoc members of this committee, and as such, do not have a vote. These ad-hoc members should limit their participation in committee discussions to those items that are relevant, germane and essential to committee discussion and deliberation.

c) The Chair shall be the Immediate Past President.

d) Except as outlined in (b) above, all committee members, including the Chair, have the right to vote and participate in a full and complete discussion.

2) APPLICATION PROCESS:

a) Applications are requested by mail, email, fax to the Lee County Medical Society and phone.

b) As the applications are returned, an eligibility checklist will be attached to the front of each application.

c) Only applications postmarked by the applicable deadline will be considered.

d) The Chair, and if necessary, one (1) additional committee member, will review each application according to the eligibility checklist.

e) Those applications that are determined ineligible will be documented, including the reason for the ineligibility and presented separately to the Committee and the Board for information purposes only.

f) Applications to be scored are Xeroxed (including front checklist) and numbered.

g) The first meeting will begin with a discussion of the LCMSAF Conflict of Interest Policy with particular reference to the Mini-Grant applicants. Each committee member will be asked to disclose any potential conflict of interest with the applicants and, if appropriate, will refrain from discussion during the second meeting. In addition, each committee member will sign a Conflict of Interest statement as it relates to the Mini-Grant applicants.

h) The Committee will receive information on mini-grant and major recipients from the past five (5) years in order to ensure that the following two (2) goals are met: 1) DIVERSITY among the applicants and previous recipients as to the NEED being addressed and the POPULATION being served; and 2) The emphasis on giving funds to those organizations and projects which will have the greatest COMMUNITY IMPACT and touch the greatest number of lives as possible.

i) After the above guidelines are discussed in detail, a deadline will be set to return the scoring sheets to the Chair and the meeting will adjourn. Committee members will review and complete the scoring sheet on each applicant in an individual capacity. Ex Parte discussions (discussions outside the committee meeting) are prohibited.

j) Each committee member, including the Chair, will score each application on a grid sheet with a score from 1-5 based on the criteria outlined on the sheet.

 

k) Each committee member will total and average her/his scores for each project to get an individual average score (IAS) and record these numbers on the grid sheet.

l) Each committee member will then send her/his score sheet to the committee Chair.

m) The Chair and one (1) additional committee member will meet and will then add and average each IAS for each project from each scorer to obtain a cumulative average score (CAS).

n) The CAS will determine the ranking. Each project will then be placed in priority from highest CAS to lowest CAS.

o) After the ranking is complete, a committee meeting will be called to discuss the ranking results and funding recommendations.

p) The Chair will announce the total amount of money to be distributed and the total number of applicants to be considered. No projects with a CAS less than 3 will be considered.

q) The applications will then be considered in their rank order with an open and complete discussion both on the merits of the project and the amount of funding to be awarded.

r) When the process is complete, the Chair will prepare a BOARD PACKET containing the following: 1) A list of all disqualified applicants and the reason for disqualification; 2) The remaining applicants in rank order with their CAS displayed; 3) The committee recommendation on the applicants to receive funds, the amount to be received and the rationale for the decision. This Board Packet will be mailed to board members so as to be received at least one (1) week prior to the board meeting.

s) A form will be provided in the Board Packet for each board member to indicate agreement with the recommendation, disagreement with the recommendation and the reason(s) for that disagreement and concerns or issues with the recommendation.

t) The Chair will present the committee recommendations to the full board at the appropriate board meeting. The President will then open the floor for discussion. If a board member is unable to be present but has provided the Chair with the signed Board Form, the information on the form will be shared with the board during discussion.

u) After presentation and open discussion, the recommendation may be approved, disapproved or amended.

v) The Chair will notify all applicants in writing of the final decision on their application. If appropriate, those not receiving requested funds will be encouraged to apply in the future.