LCF Guidelines

LCF operates in an informal neighborly way, without needing much in the way of rules and regulations. Nevertheless we have found it helpful to use the following guidelines. If you have some thoughts on how these guidelines might be improved, please join in the discussion in the LCF Guidelines conference. These guidelines were adopted at the LCF monthly meeting on April 5, 2004 and updated at LCF monthly planning meetings on March 14, 2005 and April 11, 2005.

E-mail list:

• Anyone who requests to be put on the e-mail list is put on.
• Provision will be made for including those without e-mail addresses.

Working groups:

• Anyone who is on the e-mail list and who agrees to these guidelines can form a working group.
• The formation of the working group will be announced through the communications system.
• The working group will have a name that it will use consistently.
• The topic, purpose or issue of the working group must be Langley-specific and have an understandable relationship to at least one of the Forum's overall purposes.
• The working group will designate a contact person and a person to represent it in the Liaison group (can be the same person for both roles).
• In communications with the press and the general public, working groups will describe their projects and activities by referring to both the working group and the Forum, as in: "a project (or activity) of [such-and-such] group of the Langley Community Forum."
• Working groups will report regularly on their progress to the rest of the Forum at the monthly planning meetings and through the communications system.

Working groups are entitled to:

• Have their own online conference.
• Communicate with and appeal for help from the rest of the Forum through the monthly planning meeting and the communications system.
• Gain the coordination benefits from participation in the Liaison group.
• Represent themselves to the public as a working group of the Forum.

The Liaison group:

• Helps the working groups coordinate the timing, resources, and process of their various projects with each other.
• Has a member from each working group plus one from the Hearth group.
• Assists the monthly planning meeting facilitator in developing the agenda for the next meeting.

The Hearth group facilitates the Forum as a whole by:

• Maintaining the e-mail list, the website, and the online conferences.
• Maintaining the LCF bank account, accounting, and post office box.
• Staying aware of how well the guidelines are functioning and recommending changes where appropriate.
• Providing a contact point to the Forum as a whole.
• Providing a spokesperson for the Forum as a whole when needed.
• Having a representative on the Liaison group.

LCF Monthly Planning Meetings are :

• For the purpose of coordination and planning among the working groups and dealing with any Forum-as-a-whole business.
• Open to the public.
• Held on the second Monday of the month, starting at 7 pm. If the second Monday is a holiday the meeting may be moved a week earlier or later.

Monthly planning meeting facilitation:

• Each monthly planning meeting should have a designated facilitator.
• The facilitator for the next meeting should be chosen before the end of the current meeting.
• If the designated facilitator becomes unable to serve, the Hearth group will find a new facilitator.

Facilitator's role (to be done directly or delegated):

• Develop an agenda in cooperation with the Liaison group.
• Announce the meeting with its agenda on the online conference.
• Get a key for the meeting place if you don't already have it.
• Call someone at the meeting place (currently Irene at the Methodist Church) on the day of the meeting to get the heat turned up (if needed).
• Bring marking pens and other such supplies.
• Unlock the hall in time for the meeting.
• Take notes, write them up, and communicate them back to the Forum using our communication system.
• See that a facilitator for the next meeting is identified before the end of the current meeting.
• Make sure the space is cleaned up and put back as it was found.
• Turn down the heat, turn off the lights, and lock up.
• Pass the the meeting place key to the next facilitator.

Use of the e-mail list is:

• Available to the members of the Liaison group.
• For content that is Langley-specific and related to the purposes of the Forum.

Decision-making:

• Decisions about Forum-as-a-whole questions (such as modifying these guidelines) will be made at the monthly planning meetings.
• Decisions about the activities of a working group are made within that working group.

Handling money:

• The hearth group will:

  a. Designate a hearth group/LCF treasurer.

  b. Maintain one or more bank accounts and bookkeeping for them.

  c. Maintain a fund for overall LCF expenses [such as the website and the monthly meetings]. The hearth group is responsible for fundraising, allocating, and accounting for this fund.

  d. Maintain good records on all its financial activities and make these records available to members on request.

• As self-governing and self-responsible entities, each working group is in charge of its own financial management, including its own fundraising.

• To assist working groups, the hearth group will:

  a. Help working groups set up their own internal financial management if so requested.

  b. Receive funds in the name of (and destined for) any working group. These funds are available to the working group at any time simply on the request of the working group's treasurer.

  c. Maintain a matching fund.

• Every working group that wishes to make use of the financial  services that the hearth group provides must designate a treasurer and set up is own internal bookkeeping that matches standards set by the LCF treasurer.

• The matching fund will be a 50-50 matching fund available to help working groups, assuming there is sufficient money in the matching fund. It will operate under the following rules:

  a. The hearth group is in charge of raising the money for the matching fund and of administering the fund. A working group anticipating the need of these funds should communicate that need to the hearth group as early as possible.

  b. Any working group is eligible for up to a maximum of $200 over the life of the working group.

  c. Payment out of the matching fund will be 50% reimbursement for already incurred expenses. It will be made to the working group treasurer on presentation of copies of appropriate receipts or similar proof of purchases. The working group treasurer will be responsible for reimbursing original purchasers.

  d. Payment for services provided by one or more of the members of the working group is not eligible for this matching money.

  e. The working group is responsible for maintaining its own records of all expenses submitted to and paid from the matching fund and  for making these records available on request.