GASi Fund

Welcome! The GASi Fund committee (currently Zoe Voyatzaki and me (co-chairs), Francesca Bascialla, Peter Zelaskowski and Sanja Janovic) has decided to provide regular updates in Contexts so that members are informed about what happens with this philanthropic arm of GASi and how your kind donations are used.

We are prompted to do so by the great news that Viv Harte is, almost single-handedly, in the final stages of organising Gift Aid for the contributions of UK members (virtually half the membership). This means that, because GASi is a charity, from the new year, depending on the UK tax bureaucracy, UK subscriptions and donations will be increased by 20%. (Do note, Gift Aid is a tax scheme for UK members only but that is still going to make a substantial difference.) With luck, by the next time you read this, Gift Aid will be up and running. Wait for the all clear before donating: we will keep you posted.

There is even more good news (how welcome in these troubling times). The GASi website reorganisation, also in progress, is opening up the opportunity of highlighting the presence of Donations with a button appearing on each page. It will get around the necessity of logging in to the Members Area to donate or waiting until signing up to an event. There are even more plans afoot – to add a graphic representation of donations and their destinations. Once HMRC (His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs) gets its act together for Gift Aid, the various website structures can get into gear.

All of which will increase the presence of GASiF and its purposes which are essentially to support attendance at events and encourage group analytic projects.

It seems only right to add that it is the closer cooperation of the Management and GASiF Committees that has aided these developments. GASiF committee members will take it in turns to produce these bulletins.

Watch this space!