COC Travel Subsidies

1. COC Educational Travel Grant Applications are invited from COC societies for the annual COC travel subsidy. Applications must be received by August 31 of the current year for the Orchid Season from September 1 (current year) to August 31 (following year).
2. Funds can be used anytime in the Orchid Season.
3. Any society in good standing can apply for the educational subsidy in one of several ways:
   • to match society funds 50/50 to bring in a speaker of choice.
   • to join with other societies to bring a speaker who will go to several societies, thus increasing value for funds outlaid; the matching 50/50 formula would still apply to each society’s contribution and a maximum of three societies can apply for tour support (to allow the money be distributed nationally in an equitable fashion).
   • to pay bus or other travel costs for society members for travel as a group to another center for a speaker at a show, or other educational orchid event. Funds would be matched 50/50 as above.
4. Preference will be given to applications from geographically isolated societies (those farther than 200 km from a major urban orchid society), to small societies (those societies having fewer than 75 members), and to societies that didn’t receive the grant the previous year.
5. Eligible expenses will be limited to travel costs of the speaker or group transport vehicle but will not cover accommodation or meals. Societies are required to identify the matching amount required up to $200 and present documented evidence of the expense items to the Treasurer of the Canadian Orchid Congress.
6. Applications should be sent to the Education Chair, by e-mail on the application form available for downloading below.
7. The Education chair and other members of the Board will review the applications to determine that selection criteria are met. Allocation of funds will be made on priority and time-of-receipt basis, e.g. the COC will not determine the worthiness of the application, but only if it meets the selection criteria.
8. The decision on applications received will be announced within 15 days of the application deadline, September 15, and sent first by e-mail to all participants.
9. Societies with successful applications are required to submit receipts for costs, along with a short write up and photograph which can be published in the COC newsletter. Once these are received, the Treasurer will release funds to the society as documented (cheque or bank transfer) up to $200 for $400 of expenses.
10. The COC will make an annual report on the program to the AGM.
11. The policy will be reviewed by the COC on an annual basis. Any policy amendments will be presented as a motion at the Annual General Meeting.

Finalized policy.
Approved AGM June 20, 2020: Reviewed AGM July 10, 2022