Organization support

The main objective of this policy is to define the role that the Ville de Saint-Lambert intends to play in the areas of culture, recreation, sports and community services. Through the municipal offices concerned, the City acts as a facilitator by orchestrating the technical, physical, professional and financial support offered to recognized organizations.

The Organization Recognition and Support Policy is therefore designed to:

• foster a friendly, dynamic living environment conducive to the development of community, cultural, artistic and sports activities that in turn contribute to residents’ fulfilment and well-being;
• put in place a reference framework that defines relations between the City and organizations operating on its territory; and
• define the City’s commitment to supporting activities and
• define the conditions that qualify organizations to benefit from the City’s support.

To qualify for official recognition and support from the Ville de Saint-Lambert, each organization must meet a number of eligibility criteria. Most importantly, they must:

1. Be a Saint-Lambert-based cultural, sports, recreational or community services organization. Organizations with esoteric, spiritual, religious or political vocations (as determined by their mission statements) are not eligible for support;
2. Be a duly incorporated non-profit organization with a charter issued by either the federal or provincial government, or be duly affiliated with an organization holding such a charter;
3. Hold an annual general meeting (AGM) at which general by-laws, operating policies, mandates and terms, the annual activity program, budget and financial statements must be approved by the members;
4. Offer directly to the people of Saint-Lambert a specific activity different from those offered by any other City-recognized organization (this criterion applies to new organizations only).

The City wishes to identify and clearly differentiate the organizations with which it plans to create priority partnerships in order to offer services to the population as a whole.

The City has four categories of recognition for organizations offering services to the population:

Local organization
Non-profit organization:

• Legally constituted
• Operates in the cultural, sports, recreation or community services fields
• Head office in Saint-Lambert
• Majority of members of the board of directors are residents
• More than 60% of members are residents
• Category A: 81 to 100%
• Category B: 60 to 79%
• Operates on Saint-Lambert territory
• Not funded primarily by another level of government

Regional organization
Non-profit organization:

• Legally constituted
• Operates in the cultural, sports, recreation or community services fields
• Majority of members of the board of directors are residents
• Has members who are residents
• Category A: 40% or more
• Category B: 39% or less
• Operates on Saint-Lambert territory
• Not funded primarily by another level of government
• Has regional influence

Partner
Parapublic or public agency:

• Offers an activity or event on Saint-Lambert territory
• Offers activities or events in an area of municipal activity (culture, recreation, community services or sports)

One-off event or activity
Citizens’ group:

• Legally constituted or not
• Non-profit goal
• Offers activities or events on Saint-Lambert territory that promote citizens’ health and participation
• Has at least one Saint-Lambert resident among the group organizers

However, the City also hopes to support other organizations that do not necessarily meet all the eligibility criteria for official recognition or that offer special attractions, because it sees the latter as providing another opportunity for enhancing the community’s well-being. Specific agreements could be drawn up in these cases.

Professional support consists of giving organizations access to a resource person’s skills, specifically:

• consulting services regarding organizational operations
• facilitating services for sectoral roundtables.
• offering insurance plans
• organizing volunteer recognition events.

Technical support is offered to relieve organizations of certain technical tasks and to reduce the related operating costs. It consists mainly of assisting the organization in its administrative activities, including:

• postal mailings
• photocopying
• door-to-door soliciting for fundraising or promotional purposes

Physical support takes the form mainly of leasing rooms, activity facilities and equipment belonging to the Ville de Saint-Lambert or under its responsibility. Facilities are assigned at the City’s discretion, and the order of priority for assigning spaces is as follows:

1. city activities
2. activities of recognized organizations with a link to the facility, room or equipment
3. other recognized organizations
4. residents
5. partners
6. others.

School board facilities covered by a memorandum of understanding come under the City’s jurisdiction. Organizations must submit their requests to use such facilities to the City-designated resource person.

Financial support means the amounts granted to organizations whose services are offered to the entire population. Direct funding takes the form of grants and requires City Council’s approval.

The City does not define any criterion for awarding financial support in this policy, as it will eventually be the subject of a separate policy.

All requests for financial assistance must be addressed to the municipal office concerned.

The Ville de Saint-Lambert makes promotion and advertising tools available to organizations under certain conditions. These conditions include adherence to delivery deadlines for material to be published and to the technical specifications.

The organizations are responsible for production, delivery and transportation costs. The City produces no material for them. It also reserves the right not to publish content.

a) Microsite for organizations

Available to all recognized organizations, the organization microsite includes:

- Directory
- News
- Calendar
- Newsletter
- Share buttons

The terms of use and the application form are available directly on the microsite at https://organismes.saint-lambert.ca/en/publishing.

b) Social media

The Ville de Saint-Lambert will automatically generate a weekly publication on its social media using news published on the microsite for organizations.

c) Digital signage

The Ville de Saint-Lambert provides access under certain conditions to these indoor and outdoor billboards. Terms of use and application form are available on the Digital display panels page.

This service is reserved for local and regional organizations as well as, by agreement, with one-off event or activity organizations.

d) Bulletin boards

Organizations wishing to post materials in the spaces provided for this purpose in municipal buildings may take their posters to the reception desk at City Hall and make a request to post them.

e) Municipal newsletter

The space reserved for news from organizations is limited. To give more organizations the chance to benefit from this visibility, news items must be no longer than 75 words.

To ensure equity among the requesting organizations, a maximum of two messages may be published per year per organization. However, the Communications Management Division reserves the right to increase this number if space allows. The space available in each issue will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.

To qualify for inclusion, the news item must have been published on the microsite for organizations.