Financial Accessibility Statement

The Femme Conference is funded entirely through registrations and donations and is organized entirely by volunteers. It is not a tax exempt organization (501(c) 3) nor do we have a fiscal sponsor at this time. We are also committed to ensuring that the conference is as accessible as possible. In order to do this, we have created the following resources for Femme 2012: Pulling the Pieces Together. We hope you find these resources useful. We are happy to help in any way we can in order to make the conference affordable and accessible. For more information about The Femme Collective or the Femme Conference, please see our Mission Statement or About page.

Low Attendance Fees: The Femme Conference has historically offered some of the lowest registration fees of any conference in its vein. In addition, we have discounted early registration, a volunteer discount, and are proud to be one of the few conferences that does not charge our presenters and performers a registration fee (although we do ask for and hope for support from all participants). Because of the additional financial challenges so many of us are facing during this recession, we have maintained our 2010 costs and committed to getting/giving support individually as Collective members.

Discounts for Volunteering: Attendees that commit to at least two 2-hour (total of four hours) volunteer shifts are eligible for a discounted registration fee. Please see our Volunteer Page for further information.

Support for Intra-Community Fundraising: We encourage you to hold a fundraiser to send your local Femmes to the conference! Check-out our Houseparty Fundraising Toolkit or contact our Fundraising Chair if you need help getting started.

Registration Donations-towards-Scholarships:  The funds for these scholarships are provided by individual donors who have contributed to the conference with the specific intent of covering registration fees. If you are able to donate a registration and/or know someone else who is able, please visit our Donate page and note that you are “Donating a Registration” when you make your donation.

Ride Board/Housing Share Board:  use the rideshare and housing share boards to help you cut costs [and carbon!] getting to Baltimore, and to have a slumber party room-share or make new friends. We also encourage you to use your best judgment and be safe when sharing housing or rides with new [to you] folks.

Scholarships: Registration and Housing/Travel

Scholarships are awarded on a first-come, first-served basis according to the funds we have available, and can be applied for by filling out our Registration Scholarship Financial Aid Application. All scholarship applications are due by June 20, 2012. Applicants will be notified by July 15, 2012.

Registration Scholarships will reduce or waive the registration fee. Femmes and allies who find the cost of a ticket to be a challenge are encouraged to apply for scholarship funds to cover 50%, 75%, or 100% of a ticket.  It is extremely important to us that femmes and allies of all socioeconomic backgrounds are present, since we are interested in the intersections of femme identity with multiple other identities, and this creates opportunities for richer workshop discussions and social/networking connections for all participants.  We feel that our scholarship and “no one turned away” policies benefit the entire conference, and hope to have a high level of participation in the scholarship program.  We welcome those who are able to make individual donations to support our scholarship fund, as well.

We recognize that a national conference brings with it a level of travel and housing cost that may be particularly challenging for folks coming from farther distances.

Travel & Lodging Assistance Fund
For the first time in the conference’s history, we are organizing financial assistance for low income femmes who, without travel or lodging assistance, may not be able to attend Femme Conference 2012. We have developed this fund with a special eye out for femmes who belong to traditionally under-represented groups at FC: femmes of color; femmes living with chronic illness; femmes with dis/abilities; transgender, genderqueer, fluid and gender non-conforming femmes; working class femmes, superfat femmes, and femmes over 50.

Our hope is that this will be a first step towards addressing the need for travel and lodging assistance and will provide a structure for those who are committed to financially supporting conference attendees, but have not had an avenue through which to do so. Due to our own financial and capacity limitations, we are unable to pre-fund lodging and travel costs; awardees must pay their costs upfront and they will be reimbursed upon arrival at the conference. We apologize in advance for the barriers this may create and understand that this may keep those most in need unable to financially access the conference. Keep in mind if this doesn’t work for anyone we do have volunteering opportunities to help cover the cost of registration. We hope to do better on this in the future!

Applicants are eligible for up to $100 in reimbursement for travel and $100 in reimbursement for lodging. To apply: Please fill out the scholarship application found here: http://femme2012.com/home/register/financial-aid-application/

For questions or more information, please contact our Registration Chair or our Accessibility & Awareness Chair.

No One Turned Away:

In addition to the options available for discounted ticket prices, scholarships, and volunteering, the Femme Conference also operates with a “no one turned away” for lack of funds policy.  While contributing towards ticket prices is *strongly* encouraged, and many options for financial assistance exist, we will not turn anyone away from the conference for lack of a pre-registered ticket or adequate funds to cover a ticket.  We encourage all participants to pay as you are able, and we welcome any questions or concerns about the cost of attending, as well as donations to support our scholarship fund, please contact us via email: registration (at) femme2012 (dot) com