The St Catherine of
Siena Institute
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Our St
Catherine of Siena Institute is a network of thousands of people spread around
the world. It is a network of volunteers.
Our present
central office is located in Rickmansworth (North London, UK). We may move our
headquarters to nearby Chesham if we get the opportunity. |
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Organization
Like
any other organization we have our structures,
with legal, practical and
academic subdivisions.
But
we prefer to look at our structures in terms of people,
all of whom
contribute to our projects as members of a world-wide team.
Our
‘structures’ are themselves only a small percentage of our true wider
network,
our international family, which includes all the thousands upon
thousands of people who avail themselves of our services.
To see a fuller diagram, click here!
Location of our
central administration
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At present we
rent a small office at 111A High Street, Rickmansworth, which is part of
greater London.
The office
occupies two floors over an Espresso Bar.
Our total
floor space is 45.5 sq. meters ( = 491 sq. ft). It contains the following
rooms:
- one small,
parlour/meeting room with a kitchenette in the corner;
- two
medium-sized office rooms with space for 6 desks in all;
- a smaller
two-desk office room ;
- a
toilet.
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Our facilities
are basic, but they allow up to eight of us to work there on computers at the
same time.
It is the
nerve centre of our administration and international
network. |
Our
annual running costs
[ Example
taken from Jan - Dec 2004]
Since
we depend on public support for our work,
we publish here a typical account
of our day-to-day expenses. It will give you an idea of why we need financial
support.
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Staff costs
Administrator's salary, National Insurance, etc.
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£ 18,585
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Office expenses
Rent,
rates, insurance, gas, water, electricity, cleaning, etc.
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£ 9,066
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Research expenses
Costs
of feasibility study ( Compton ), Charity Bank commitment fee, survey,
valuation, etc. etc.
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£ 8,447 |
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Website expenses
advertising, software licences (Dream weaver, Sage), subscriptions, domain name
registrations, on-line payment facility, virus protection, etc.
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£ 7,170
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Web promotion
advertising
in newspapers, etc.
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£ 2,315 |
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Annual audit of accounts
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£ 2,500 |
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Postage, telephone & stationery
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£ 3,224 |
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Travel refunds for voluntary staff
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£ 1,583 |
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Depreciation of equipment
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£ 1,479 |
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Books, magazines & subscriptions
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£ 233 |
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Coventry office refund
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£ 60 |
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Total Running Costs in 2004
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£ 54,662 |
Our building blocks
are people
Yes,
all of us are volunteers. Only one person receives a (small) salary: our
full-time office administrator. Our collaborators contribute, each in their own
way, by giving us their time, skill and expertise without expecting payment in
return - because they believe in our cause. Among them we find professors,
researchers, translators, leaders in commerce and industry, religious, clergy,
teachers, and so on. It is not possible to make an accurate financial estimate
of their contribution. It would be a considerable amount.
But all these
contributions would not serve their purpose without the services of our central
office. That is where all strands meet. That is where our research projects are
coordinated, where documents are processed for insertion into the various
language sections on our website. Communication in all our languages and
personal responses are directed from that centre. Our core team is the
hub around which everything turns.
By helping us put
our central office on a secure footing you support the voluntary work of our
whole international network.
As you have seen, our annual running expenses are not very large.
They amount to + £ 50,000 [= $ 80,000] a year. But we need this income to
survive. Therefore we urge you to support our international effort
by becoming a ‘friend’,
by giving us a
donation or by
leaving us a legacy.
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