Crucial Corso budget meeting

Press, 28 July 1976, Page 16

Crucial Corso budget meeting

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

\ Corso still has some way . to go before it is' again a j united and purposeful international charitable organi-a I tion. Members spent two days ; in May thrashing out a new i constitution, and Corso is I likely to experience just as I much difficulty in reaching an acceptable budget for the I 1976 calendar year when the • annua] meeting resumes in | Wellington on July 31. A decline of a third in the return from Corso’s annual public appeal — from $313,500 last year to about $210,000 — will not make it any easier for delegates to decide budget priorities. Corso’s financial year is already more than half over. Before the budget decisions can be made. Corso will have to decide how many regional offices and officers it is to have, how many paid staff it can employ, the division of responsibility between its national and regional offices, and the percentage of its income to be spent on campaigning within New Zealand.

The allocation of funds between overseas aid. admir istration. and advertising is crucial tor the future direction of Corso. None of rlie-e issues will be settled easily when the annual meeting is resumed. The\ were all points- which made it harder for Corso tn reach a decision on who should bold and exercise power within the orgamsa tion last May. although tn the event it proved possible to shift power from a cen tral authority to regiona'authorities without actually settling any of these issues Corso must revert from being a professional aid agency back to a voluntary one, in its present financial circumstances. It can no longer afford th* administrative structure it has had in recent years This, in turn, may lead to a postponement of the inevitable wrangling over what sort of aid agency Corso is to be. But some indication of the future political complexion of Corso must emerge from the budgetary decisions made this week