Our bylaws restrict our administration costs to under 10% of our total budget. This means that at least 90% of all donations to the Institute are spent on the delivery of special projects and our educational programs to the individuals served. Our only salaried employees have always been our teachers, caretakers and mentors. Our leadership is all volunteer. Our 501(c)(3) status as a not-for-profit charity makes your donation tax deductible.

Why become a Friend of the Institute?

Even modest contributions of $25-$50 per quarter, which are easier for many people to budget, can make a significant difference over time.

Becoming a Friend is easy. Simply email us and we will forward you a form, indicating the amount of your gift and your preferred method of payment. Then, every three months we will accept your donation automatically. You can increase, decrease, postpone or stop your donations at any time. You can also elect to make a single donation of $100 or more for the entire year.

We will issue an official tax receipt for any and all donations.

Volunteers will complete a leadership course, and have the opportunity to gain experience and seniority through team leadership and accomplishment of goals.

Prospective volunteers complete an application form, pass a background check, and attend a new volunteer orientation. Volunteers also interview individually to determine a service schedule, and can get advanced training through our email leadership course.

We invite you to email us for an application and look forward to you joining our team as a Volunteer.

Our organization is one which fosters the notion of one world, one spirit. We trust in the goodness and power of God, and in the intrinsic worth of all creation.

Our mission is to rehabilitate humans born in captivity, and release them back into the wild.

I. ACTIVITIES

Therefore, relying on the Sacred Source Of All Life, this organization must cherish all human beings, and make no exclusion in hiring policies, enrollment or criteria for membership on the basis of age, gender, race, religion, political opinion, nation of origin, social status or nature of mutually consentual adult relationship.

While experiential and physical differences may limit the ability of an individual to participate in a given program, consideration will be given to taking advantage of these differences so that some appropriate level of participation may be possible, without restricting the potential of other participants.

In accordance with a caregiver attitude toward the earth, no action shall be taken against non-human life, except as a form of sustenance, such as food, shelter or clothing, humane purposes such as grave injury, or protection of individual humans, plants and animals under the care of the Institute. Such activities may include hunting (culling the weak, according to Gatherer hunting ethics), mosquito and tick control, destruction of rabid and dangerous animals, and the thinning of plants for the purpose of strengthening the remaining ones, always with the object of strengthening both the humans and the species of plant or animal as a whole. If an animal or plant is killed, every effort will be made to utilize all available resources of that plant or animal and return the unused portions to the biome from which it derived.

The Gatherer Institute will sponsor no activity which, in the opinion of the majority of its members, will be detrimental to the spiritual or physical development of the individual. Specifically, this definition includes activities which have as an element the recreational/ entertainment use of alcohol, or narcotics . The Institute will not sponsor games of chance, fortune telling, pharmaceuticals except when prescribed by a medical doctor, pornography, or fund raisers in which living things are viewed as objects- such as, but not restricted to auctioning off dates, holding beauty contests, or other activities which encourage libertine or wanton conduct.

The heart of learning is a confidence in a free flow of ideas. We seek to provide such an environment, and as such support an individual's right to disagree with our policies, express contrary opinions and speak, write and express without fear. We cannot hope to improve or dissuade in the development of our students when these students are too afraid even to express their true opinions. For this reason, We shall make no attempt to repress or restrict speech and written expression simply because we disagree with it, but have no obligation to broadcast such speech via our publications, websites or other media.

We will take no action to effect legislation or intervene in any way in political campaigns, including the publication or distribution of statements.

We will take no action to cooperate with governmental agencies when the object of this action is to restrict individual liberty or to restrict the ability to assume responsibility over one's own life, pursuit of happiness, level of privacy, or formation of family relationships, unless specifically ordered to do so by a court of law, or when there is an imminent danger to life.

We will take no action to cooperate with governmental agencies when the object of this action is to restrict the practice of religion, or the following of a spiritual path, so long as this practice does not infringe on the rights of others to practice their own religion, and will not compel priests, ministers, rabbis, shamans and other spiritual guides to reveal the confidences of those who seek their counsel.

We will take no action to cooperate with governmental agencies when the object of this action is to reveal what is prohibited by mne9o tradition to be discussed with those outside the tribe.

We will sponsor no activity whose purpose is, by consensus of the voting members, to encourage conversion to a specific faith (including atheism) although we may sponsor activities by religious organizations whose purpose is to serve the community in a broader sense.

We will sponsor no activity whose purpose is, by consensus of the voting members, to deny the existence of spirit, the intrinsic worth of life, or the existence of God.

We will sponsor no activity which by its nature is a self-referential sacrilege, such as the exhumation of bodies or sacred objects in order to study the culture that buried those objects, the violation of lands considered sacred, any conduct which would be offensive to those who constructed a given place of worship, whether or not the culture in question is still in existence. In such cases, re-creations, models or other means will be used to study the culture in question. Whenever possible, when studying a culture and a belief system, those within that system will be consulted to understand the taboos and these taboos shall be respected, or the activity will not be conducted.

II. MEMBERSHIP

1. Members shall consist of anyone who has attended three consecutive meetings, either in person, by telephone or via computer. Voting members are those who have actively participated in at least on Institute project, have a written statement of principles- written, or memorized, rules of conduct. (Rules of conduct shall be a brief list of important principles which govern the individual's actions) and are approved by the board.

2. Membership is rescinded upon failure to appear at six consecutive meetings.

3. Officers are voting members nominated by the membership, approved by a committee of voting members appointed by the president, and elected by the voting members. Officers must agree to abide by the non-discrimination declaration.

4. The Officers shall be: President, Vice President, and Financial Officer.

The President shall be responsible for all executive duties, including enforcement of procedural rules for meetings, the appointment of a parliamentarian, and the appointment of appropriate individuals, with voting members approval, to all matters pertaining to setting goals and steering the general direction of the organization. Sec.2: The President shall set the date, time and place of the meetings, and may call special meetings as the need arises.

5. The Vice President shall be responsible for all duties, the appointment of a secretary with the majority approval of voting members. The Vice President shall be responsible for all matters pertaining to carrying out the details of individual programs.

6. The Financial Officer shall be responsible for all duties pertaining to flow of assets within the organization, and shall, with the approval of the voting membership, appoint a treasurer. The Financial Officer shall make available, at each meeting, a general accounting of assets both owned and available, all expenditures, accounts due and payable, and an overall financial outlook for the organization.

7. Officers are elected in odd-numbered years, and serve two year terms. The officers are limited to two consecutive two-year terms.

8. If an officer cannot continue, s/he may appoint a replacement from among the membership, pending approval by the President, and subject to majority approval of voting membership at the next meeting. Substitutes will serve out the remainder of the officer`s term.

AMENDMENTS

Amendments may be proposed by any member, and approved by a two thirds majority of the voting membership, and subject to unanimous approval by the officers.

1. MEETINGS
1. The organization shall meet at least once per quarter, on some date close to the solstices and equinoxes.
Special meetings may be called by the President. Notice of each regular meeting shall be given to all members not less than two weeks before the meeting, and notice of special meetings shall be given to all members not less than a week before the meeting.
2. In order for a meeting to be official, it must be attended by at least three-quarters of the membership, either live or via telephone or electronic means.
3. All propositions to be voted on will be distributed by e-mail or other means, or communicated verbally to the membership. The membership has a week to vote on the propositions, and to send a response. The officers may, without convening a meeting, put issues to a vote in this fashion. In order for a vote to be binding,
at least three-quarters of the voting membership and all of the officers must vote.
4. The Board shall make available an annual report to all members of the Institute and to the public.
5. Meetings shall be run according to Robert`s Rules of Order.
6. The focus of the quarterly meetings are as follows:
a.. The winter meeting will focus on programs, both proposed and ongoing, and include a progress report on all of the Institue`s program goals. The Program Leader (Hired by the President, with voting member approval), will submit a list of goals for the following year.
b. The Spring Meeting shall focus on fund raising, recruitment and publicity.
c. The Summer Meeting shall focus on the records of the fiscal year, the election of officers, and will include the signing and dating of this document, to reflect any amendments, and the by-laws shall be reviewed to see if changes are necessary.
d. The fall meeting shall focus on unfinished business and loose ends, as well as expansion of the organization.
Each meeting will include a report from the President, outlining how our organization is living up to its mission statement and fulfilling its goals.

SAMPLE PRINCIPLES

1. I am responsible for my feelings, thoughts and actions.
2. I do not give power to fear. God is good.
3. I am true to my word.
4. I make my food my medicine.
5. I make my work my play.
6. I make my actions my exercise.
7. I make my life my worship.
8. I strengthen my body.
9. I see God in all things.
10. I honor family.
11. I waste not.
12. I honor relationships over ideals.
13. I honor tsl0ma.
14. I make my life a gift to life.
15. I remember the Ancestors, and make use of their stories, that I may one day be honored as an Ancestor.
16. I will write better rules than these.
17. I am loved!

Note: This is a complete copy of the original signed and dated document.