This fund is designed to assist rural and regional financial counsellors to attend our upcoming 2026 Community Disaster Resilience Summit, to be held on 17 March 2026.
This fund is reserved for travel and accommodation costs only and does not cover the cost of the Summit ticket. Individuals (and their employers) are still required to pay for an FCVic Summit ticket. Reimbursement amounts will be calculated by a points-based formula.
Eligibility criteria
- Must be a current member of Financial Counselling Victoria
- Must be located (either home or office location) further than 100km from metropolitan Melbourne, per the below map.
- Eligible travel costs (receipts must be provided within 4 weeks of the conference, dated within two days of the Summit) include accommodation and transport (plane, bus, train, fuel, taxi, rideshare, parking) costs
FCVic reserves the right to close the Travel Fund once allocation has been exhausted. FCVic also reserves the right to open up eligibility for the Travel Fund to those who live closer than 100km depending on levels of demand. This will be assessed regularly in the weeks leading up to the Summit, and any changes in the administration of the Travel Fund will be advertised in the weekly Gazette newsletter for FCVic members.
How will travel reimbursements be calculated?
Each application will be allocated points to determine the amount of reimbursement available to the applicant. Each point is worth $35 of reimbursement value. Points will be allocated for:
- Direct distance from Melbourne CBD: 5 points for within 500km, 4 points for within 400km, 3 points for within 300km, 2 points for within 200km, 1 point for within 100km
- Size of employer and financial counselling team: 4 points if applicant is the only financial counsellor, 3 points for 2-4 FCs, 2 points for 5-9 FCs, 1 point for 10 FCs or more
- Seniority: 3 points if practicing 0-4 years, 2 points if practicing 5 years or more, 1 point if a senior FC or Team Leader, 0 points if not a FC (working in an affiliated role)
- Additional factors: 1 point each for – English as a second language, living with disability, First Nations
Example:
Sarah is a new FC (3 points) working in a service with 6 other FCs (2 points) in Warrnambool (3 points). She speaks English as a second language (1 point). Altogether, Sarah has 9 points allocated, worth $315 of reimbursement. Sarah puts this approved reimbursement amount towards her $350 hotel booking, leaving only $35 (plus fuel and parking) to be paid by her employer.
What is the process?
- Submit application through dedicated online form for FCVic review
- FCVic will confirm if your application has been approved within a week, and how much reimbursement has been allocated to you
- You send travel costs receipts to FCVic through a dedicated online form within 4 weeks after the Summit date.
- FCVic will process reimbursement requests on a fortnightly basis.
Any questions?
Please send all questions about this travel fund to achan@fcvic.org.au.
We thank the Essential Services Commission again for their generous support of this FCVic Summit Travel Fund.
