Student Assembly Finance Commission
April 17th, 2006
5:00 p.m. — 6:00 p.m.
163 Day Hall

I. Call to Order

The Meeting was called to order at 5:00 p.m.

II. Roll Call

Commissioners

Jillian Dorans, Erica Fischer, Jennifer Hsu, Brittni Levinson, Kim Lewis, Scottie McQuilkin, Samuel Miller-Little, Nadia Ormsby, Spencer Pepper, Eric Schulman, Anastasiya Sidorova, Riti Singh, Evan Walker, Marissa Wilson, Joey Zielinski, Luke Chernosky, Mary DePalma, Alex Saltman

III. Business of the Day

Policy Issues —Final Changes

E. Fischer started out by saying that the interviews are this weekend. She said the commission needs to be there at 1030am, and will probably leave at 5pm.

S. McQuilkin said the interviews would be in 160 and 162 Goldwin Smith. She then told the commission to dress business casual, which meant no tie, but something nice. She mentioned that no one should be hung-over, asked that every commissioner take a shower, and that all members look respectable. She said the SAFC would be taking 5 full commissioners and 3 to 5 alternates out of the 40 applicants.

J. Zielinski said that after the meeting the SAFC e-board would meet to review the applications and that anyone interested in running for an e-board position later on should probably be there.

S. Pepper congratulated the commission for having no attendance issues.

E. Fischer passed out the sheet of paper that had all of the changes to the President and Treasurer’s Handbook (P&T) that were thought of this semester.

S. McQuilkin started by going over the price quote section. She wants to eliminate the end notes and make the groups have a real price quote, not a word document. This would require a change in the definition of documentation and she is for this idea.

L. Chernosky suggested that the SAFC change the wording in the document from “printout from” to “printout of”.

A. Sidorova said that using the word “directly” would also help.

S. McQuilkin said that she would change the wording in that section. She also mentioned that one of the changes was to take out the “more than 8 people” rule.

J. Zielinski mentioned that documentation is different that price quote and this needs to be stated in the P&T.

S. McQuilkin agreed with Mr. Zielinski.

J. Zielinski said that he thought this was important because the SAFC has to be explicit with “these people”.

A. Sidorova asked how the SAFC would be publicizing these changes. S. McQuilkin answered that the SAFC gives the groups a bright yellow sheet every semester with changes to the P&T stated on it.

A. Sidorova said that she thought the letter of intent should be explained better as many commissioners themselves do not know what it is or where it is.

S. McQuilkin responded by saying that the SAFC would publicize that the forms are in 109 Day Hall. She moved on to discussing the documents and price quote section. She explained that documentation is more “I need X people” instead of “This costs X”.

E. Fischer moved on to the Administrative section of the P&T handbook. She said that the SAFC would change the budget to have the number amount instead of the dollar amount.

A. Sidorova said that groups would still take advantage of this.

S. Miller-Little said that this addition makes the SAFC appear to be micromanaging too much.

E. Fischer stated that, in general, this addition would save the SAFC money.

J. Zielinski suggested putting a cap on the number of copies.

E. Fischer pointed out that groups will just purchase up to that certain amount.

S. Miller-Little thought that this section was fine the way it was, and also agreed that groups would just ask for the cap amount.

B. Levinson pointed out that some groups rely heavily on their copies, so putting a cap on the number of copies could cripple some groups.

J. Zielinski said that if the cap was set at 1000 copies that would be more than enough copies for any group.

A. Sidorova thought that this would be unfair to big groups.

S. McQuilkin pointed out that groups can still have more copies for events and publicity because there is a different section devoted to those copies. She said that the cap of 1000 copies for administrative copies would be put into the changes. She added that the SAFC will also be eliminating funding for the use of telephones.

E. Fischer moved on to the local events section. She said that a change would be to just put in the general rules for receiving funding for any event/speaker. She also mentioned that since rental cars are not in the P&T handbook they should be taken off of the budget application. Next, Ms. Fischer moved on to the Durable Goods section. She suggested adding a long list of things the SAFC does not fund. J. Dorans said that groups will point out things that are not on that list and ask for them.

J. Zielinski clarified Ms. Fischer’s idea by saying that the list would only be an example list, not an all-encompassing list.

E. Fischer moved on to point out that the SAFC does not fund for the purchase of costumes just rentals.

E. Walker asked if the SAFC funded for seeds.

S. McQuilkin replied no.

E Fischer stated that the SAFC will not fund for luxury good and that this would be put into the P&T.

J. Zielinski said that this would allow the SAFC to point to this rule when they ask for items.

S. McQuilkin said that his allows the SAFC to be a bit more subjective.

J. Zielinski said that DSP was just “stupid” for deciding to go with a leather case for a projector. This added rule gives the SAFC more legitimacy.

L. Chernosky asked that if the group only asked for a high end product, would the SAFC fund for a lesser value one.

S. McQuilkin said that without another price quote they cannot fund for a different item.

S. Miller-Little said that the SAFC should just leave the rule the way it is already since this was an isolated incident.

L. Chernosky asked if the SAFC should ask groups to get price quote from specific websites that would give price ranges.

E. Fischer pointed out that this would be absurd.

J. Zielinski said the SAFC would leave the rule the way it is for now.

E. Fischer moved on to say that for a group to get funding for books, they would need to have documented proof that the book is not in a Cornell Library.

A. Sidorova asked if groups could go to the library and get a librarian to sign off on it.

E. Fischer just said it would be easier if the SAFC required some sort of printout. She then moved on to discuss the Travel Events section. She said the SAFC eliminated the section that discussed more than 8 people going on a trip.

S. McQuilkin said that the SAFC would accept signed notes of signed email as proof of needing a certain number of participates. She also mentioned that the SAFC should say this also pertains to club sports.

E. Fischer moved on to the Co-organized section. She said this section is a new section devoted to co-organized events.

J. Zielinski said that this section would go after Category 5, and all changes made before this meeting are on the sheet that was previously passed out.

E. Fischer asked that the commissioners write down a question or two for the interviews and email them to her.

IV. Meeting ended at 5:45 pm.

Respectfully Submitted,
Daniel Kantor
SAFC Clerk, Office of the Assemblies