The Icelandic Canadian - 01.11.2007, Side 46

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 61 #2
Report of the VIP Fund Committee: September, 2007
The Icelandic community generously
supported the highly successful Valuing
Icelandic Presence Millennium Campaign
and continues to do so. The proceeds from
that Campaign were used, in part, to fund
the capital cost of the new Iceland Reading
Room and Collection space, the remainder
was invested as part of the University of
Manitoba Trust, the proceeds of which
have been used to support initiatives in
both the Department of Icelandic and he
Icelandic Collection. In accordance with
the agreement signed between representa-
tives of the community and the University,
the responsibility for disbursement from
these funds lies with the VIP Fund
Committee. That Committee is pleased to
provide an up-date on the uses and benefits
of the funds to date as well as the current
financial status.
As reported before in 2003 and 2004,
the Committee (half community and half
University) has continued to serve the
(anticipated) useful purpose of bringing
representatives of the community and the
University together for discussions of mat-
ters of mutual interest. To emphasize this
aspect of its responsibilities, it had the
additional pleasure of having Atli
Asmundsson at its meeting of November
29, 2004.
As set out at the time of the VIP
Millennium Campaign in its three initial
purposes, the uses of the moneys since dis-
bursed by the VIP Fund Committee have
been principally:
- to create the new space for the
Icelandic Collection and the Iceland
Reading Room in the Elizabeth Dafoe
Library (which, we dare say, most of you
will have visited and admired);
- to stabilize the on-going funding for
the second academic position in the
Department of Icelandic by providing a
significant contribution to the costs of that
position (The other principal source of
funding of that position has been the
Multiculturalism Fund established at the
time of the H. I. P. Campaign.); and
- to restore and sustain the annual sub-
scriptions for periodicals, and purchase
missing back issues and other retrospective
monographs and materials for the Icelandic
Collection.
The VIP Fund Committee has been
faithful in recognizing these as the primary
purposes of the funds available to it but
also responds, from time-to-time to other
needs identified by the Heads of the
Department of Icelandic and the Icelandic
Collection that fall within the stated pur-
poses of the Fund..
Since its last report, receipt of dona-
tions and investment of funds as part of the
University of Manitoba Trust have contin-
ued to add considerably to the account bal-
ances of the VIP Fund. At June 30, 2007 the
three components were as follows:
Capital $1,231,805
Capitalized Revenue 25,561
Current Revenue 48,587
Total $ 1,305,953
By the agreement that established the
V. I. P. Millennium Campaign, the pro-
ceeds of the first $900,000 of capital created
by that campaign must be distributed to
the Department and Collection on a 65%-
35% basis. This has resulted in what have
been sustained allocations which currently
amount to $29,250 used to support the
salary and benefits of the second position
in the Department and $11,250 principally
used for acquisitions, including the impor-
tant continuation of periodical subscrip-
tions, by the Collection.
The availability of these substantial
annual funds has not only provided the
assurance needed for on-going expendi-
tures but also has freed-up the use of mon-
eys arising from the other Trust Funds
available to the Department and Collection
in order to support a multitude of other
activities important to the sustaining of the
Icelandic Presence at The University of
Manitoba and, indeed, in the broader