A way forward?

Confirmation today that using DBSR to administer our funding is not acceptable to CDF. The time spent arranging this is wasted, except that the complexity of involving another organisation in the process has been highlighted, so this may be just as well.

Where do we go from here? Well, I have discovered someone in our congregation with many years of H.R. experience who would be willing to manage the employment of our researcher, and that will include the recruitment process. I have formulated a fullsome project briefing and a job specification, and even produced application forms based upon an old CofE job application form I found in my archives.

Dead end

The response to my enquiry was more questions about the relationship between the Parish and the Diocesan Board of Social Responsibility.

The view from CDF is that the Parish is the recipient, and cannot simply make use of the services of another diocesan agency to administer the funds on our behalf, unless there is a prior 'service level agreement' in place.

Even though the DBSR is a perfectly respectable body holding and managing funds and grants made for its own projects, we will have to find another way of doing this.

Project ownership

Tonight's meeting of City Centre Churches Together council welcomed the award of the CDF FCCBF grant. and was happy that St John's should be its appointed recipient. The proposal that it should be managed by the Diocesan Board of Social responsibility was entirely acceptable. This meant that the proposed way of handling CDF requirements is acceptable to both local stakeholders involved in the application.

Wrote off to the grants administrator Martine Davies, to relay our decisions, and ask if they was an acceptable way to proceed.

Promise of funding

A letter arrived at St John's Church today advising me of the awarding of a Grant applied for in great haste last November, from the Community Development Foundation's Faith Capacity Community Building Fund. CDF - FCCBF

We have the promise of £30,000 to spend on our project between 31st March 2007 and 31st March 2008. It's enough money to employ a research worker, mount a conference and produce a decent publication. But it all requires a lot of management.

The project grant application was made in the name of St John's City Parish with the full support of the City Centre Churches Together. However, the grant is to St John's as the lead partner in this venutre.

Immediately, there's paperwork to be read, signatures to be acquired, in order to manage the money, a lot to be organised in a relatively short space of time, to ensure we put in place the appropriate employment mechanisms, and the means to handle the finances.

As St John's doesn't have any administrative staff, this could prove something of a problem. There's now some talking to be done with the Diocesan Board of Social Responsibility, and with the Churches Together council, which meets, fortunately, next week.