Many miracles and wonders were being done through the apostles, and everyone was filled with awe. All the believers continued together in close fellowship and shared their belongings with one another. They would sell their property and possessions and distribute the money among all, according to what each one needed. Day after day, they met as a group in the temple andthey had their meals together in their homes, eatingwith glad and humble hearts, praising God, and enjoying the good will of all the people. And every day the Lord added to their group those who were being saved. Acts, 2:43 - 47
To: CLC Canada National Members
From: General Council (GC), CLC Canada
Re: CLC Canada Membership Fees
January, 2019
Greetings fellow members of CLC Canada:
A new year is now upon us! We are writing to remind you to submit your membership fee of $70.00 to CLC Canada by April 30, 2019 and to thank you if you have already done so. We also want to take this opportunity to share with you more about where your membership fee goes, how it is critical to our mission and a bit more about CLC Canada’s finances and operational costs as well as our solidarity funds.
“Financial co-responsibility” is integral to our way of life and call to mission
As an Apostolic community, we imitate the early Christians in their collective sharing of resources, providing us the financial means to carry out our mission efficiently. Within CLC Canada, we have both operating costs (supporting membership formation, communications, governance and apostolic initiatives) and solidarity funds (see more below). In addition, as one World body, a portion of our membership fee to the national is paid to the World CLC.
The CLC national membership fee remains $70 per year: $50 for National and $20 for the needs of your own region. This financial commitment applies to all of our members who have made a temporary or permanent commitment to CLC, although anyone is welcome to make contributions to CLC Canada. CLC Canada is a registered charity and tax receipts will be issued for both membership fees and donations.
In addition to our membership fee, you also have the opportunity to contribute further to the formation and mission projects that are outlined on our Membership Fee and Donations Form.
Membership “fee” or membership “donation”?
Yes, CLC is now using the term membership “fee” to refer to the $70 annual commitment expected of our members. While in the past, we used to use the word “donation” this does not reflect that being responsible for one another is an essential aspect of community life, an essential expression of our belonging to one national – and world – community, and a necessary means for becoming an Apostolic Body (World Assembly of Fatima 2008).
When do we pay our membership fee each year?
Membership fees are due on April 30
th
of each year. One reason for this timeline is that it allows the General Council to determine the year’s budget based on a certain assurance of having the finances needed for continued activity. Our budget is tied to our number of members (those of you who have made a temporary or permanent commitment to CLC). When we have members who omit to pay their fees, this places CLC Canada in a very difficult financial situation.
Your regional representative or co-ordinator will now be sending out regular reminders at fixed intervals in the year to help ensure that membership fees are paid in a timely manner.
Two convenient ways to pay and donate ….
You can pay your membership fee and make other donations to CLC, including to our solidarity Funds, in one of two ways.
By mail
You may fill out and mail in the attached form with a cheque to pay your membership and any additional donations. A tax receipt will then be sent to you by mail.
OR Online
You can pay your membership fees and additional donations online at Canada Helps at:
https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/christian-life-community-
canada
To pay membership fees, choose “01-Annual Membership Fee $70” on the drop-down menu. Canada Helps charges CLC Canada a 3.5% fee for its service, so please consider adding an extra $2.50 to your donation if you choose this method. You can choose other drop down options to make additional contributions. When paying membership fees, be sure to indicate your name and that of your community for record-keeping purposes. The website will automatically email you a tax receipt following your payment.
What if I cannot afford the $70 membership fee?
We recall that we are a community committed to helping one another. Various local communities have come up with some creative ways of raising money for fees such as:
1) If you have 18 meetings a year, pay $4 at each meeting.
2) Consider collecting additional Loonies/Toonies at each meeting as a communal act to help defray the costs for a member (s).
Some communities also send in their contributions together at a fixed time each year, which is another helpful way to ensure that fees are submitted by all members in a timely manner. If you do choose this method, please be sure to submit all the names, addresses and respective amounts to the CLC Treasurer so that correct income tax receipts may be issued and proper financial records may be kept.
What are the consequences if the membership fee is not paid regularly by our members?
If the annual membership fee is not paid by our members, one of the consequences is a negative impact on World CLC. Each year CLC Canada supports the world community’s mission and operational budget by sending an amount determined by the number of members in our national directory. Since all national communities in the World are inter-dependent, if we don’t send our share then other countries will need to compensate.
We have been very blessed for many years by the generosity of certain members to CLC Canada and its various missions. We gratefully acknowledge the generosity of these members. However, in recent years, General Council has been challenged in fostering financial co-responsibility in our national membership more broadly. Currently a significant portion of our members have not been regularly paying their annual membership fee,
which has created financial hardships for CLC Canada. At times, it has been a struggle to balance the books while realizing our mandate to provide CLC formation. We also remain accountable to pay World dues based on our membership, even when members have not paid their membership fees.
Your Regional Representative is available to help supply you with a detailed accounting of income and expenses and to answer questions you may have.
Closing
We thank all members for being mindful of this aspect of belonging to CLC. It is important that each shares responsibility for the well-being of all dimensions of community life including our finances. By paying our membership fees and making other generous contributions, we ensure our financial sustainability which allows us to fulfil our mission as CLC Canada and realize our communal apostolic vocation.
Yours sincerely in Christ,
Michelle Mahoney (National President)
Leah Michaud (Past President)
Fr. Trevor Scott (Ecclesiastical Assistant)
Bill Greenwood (Treasurer)
Linda Adams (Secretary)
Jane Abernethy Parker (Atlantic Region Representative)
Mary Lou Gonzales (Central Region Representative)
Howard Engel (Prairies Region Representative)
Janet Ho (Rockies Region Representative)
