[Gsc-hca-family] GSC surplus funding: up-date on family related proposals

[Anna Häggman]

Hi everyone,

I'm writing to thank you all for the proposals that you submitted for the GSC surplus funding - we received many great proposals from MIT families. Thank you for putting in the time and effort to writing them! 

The Family Subcommittee chairs have shared all the ideas with the HCA Chairs and the GSC vice-president. After many discussions on the feasibility of the ideas, the first proposal that we are going to pursue is a $30,000 Family Childcare Fund. 

The idea of the Family Childcare Fund is to help subsidize parents when they need to use short-term childcare, be it back-up childcare when child or caretaker gets sick, or childcare during MIT events etc. Back-up care is costly for most graduate students, who are then forced to rely on their network of friends or stay at home. The fund would be used to subsidize a portion of the rate of select service providers. The Family Subcommittee is going to set the guidelines of the fund in the coming weeks, but you can find the general guidelines of the resolution below:

____________________

"6. Family Childcare Fund
1. This fund will be used to subsidize short-term childcare for graduate students with children.

2. All allocations will occur with the oversight of the GSC Treasurer.

3. Awards will be in the form of reimbursement for expenses, following submission of receipts, in accordance with the rules specified in the Family Childcare Fund Guidelines.

4. Usage per graduate student will be capped at $100 per semester.

5. This fund will exist until June 1st 2016, or until the fund is depleted, whichever occurs first. The fund may then be extended by vote of the General Council, or the service this fund provides may be transferred to an office within the Institute."
____________________


I'm happy to let you know that the resolution was passed in the GSC Executive Committee meeting on Wednesday, which means that it will be voted on in the upcoming GSC General Council meeting (Wednesday, March 6th at 5:30pm - 7pm in 32-155 Stata Center (dinner at 5pm)). We are going to present the resolution and give a presentation on why we think it is important to create the fund. 

It will be essential to have many people in the meeting who are willing to speak up about the importance of support for families with children. So, please, if you can make the meeting, come and speak up about your concerns. We are convinced that having enough families there to talk about their needs, will make a huge difference on how the resolution is received.


If you have any questions/thoughts/concerns, please feel free to send them our way. We would love to hear your feedback!
If you can make the meeting on Wednesday, please reply and let us know.


Thanks, and hope to see many of you in the meeting!
Best,
Anna & Emily
GSC Family Subcommittee co-chairs