Privacy Policy
MNPS does not lend, share, sell or distribute our membership information to any group or organization. If another entity wishes to distribute information to our group, the Board will determine if it is relevant, and then MNPS will distribute the information.
Email Policy
The Maryland Native Plant Society wishes to minimize costs associated with informing members about society events. E-mail is an extremely economical method for notifying many people. Yet unnecessary e-mails, uninformative e-mails, and too many message will dilute the effectiveness. Therefore, we aim to send messages only to members who wish to receive them, only once a month (with exceptions for special events or notices), and include only relevant MNPS information.
We include any member who provides her or his e-mail address, and will remove any member from the list when requested. Currently, more than two-thirds of our members have provided e-mail addresses; therefore e-mail reaches a large majority of our membership. E-mails support the dissemination of our programs since members often forward our events to their friends and colleagues, reaching a much larger number of people.
Financial Policy
Most expenses are generally assigned to a broad budget category (for example: Chapter, Publications, or Membership). A specific Committee is in charge of determining how the money should be spent, with general guidelines. Spending within a Committee budget is flexible to accommodate the special projects the volunteers undertake; therefore most expenses are considered ‘budgeted.’
Budgeted Expenditures
- under $100.00: must receive general committee approval
- ex: spend about $75 for office supplies
- between $100.00 and $200.00: must receive specific committee approval
- ex: Committee decides to spend $125 for a weed wrench
- over $200.00: must receive specific committee approval and Finance Committee approval
- ex: Committee wants to spend $300 for printing flyers for distribution at an environmental fair
Non-budgeted Expenditures
- under $50.00: must receive general committee approval
- ex: spend about $40 on ad in a local newspaper
- between $50.00 and $150.00: must receive specific committee approval
- ex: Committee decides to spend $100 to purchase plants for a native plant display
- over $150.00: must receive specific committee approval and Finance Committee approval
- ex: Committee wants to spend $200 on a computer printer
If Finance Committee approval is required, the Finance Committee will determine if a full Board approval is required for either type of expenditure based on, among other things, current financial status, known budgetary surpluses or deficits, and relevance to Society policy and initiatives.