Student Assembly Finance Commission
October 27, 2008
5:00 p.m. — 6:00 p.m.
163 Day Hall

I. Call to Order

The Meeting was called to order at 5:02 p.m.

II. Roll Call

Commissioners

Lee Blum, Jack Castle, Maddie Ehrlich, Elyse Feldman, Charlie Feng, Danielle Fernandes, Varun Gehani, Michael McCormick, Taylor Mulherin, Yulia Neverova, Yuliya Neverova, Lauren Nicola, Jonathan Raymond, Scott Rog, Benjamin Schreff, Arthi Sridharan, Wai Kin Wong, Huiling Yu, Dan Gusz, Vivien Pillet, Lauren Rosenblum, Cameron Scott, Qing Zhao

III. Business of the Day

Elections Information/Changes Brainstorming/ Handbook Analysis Groups

J.Castle started off the meeting by asking those who were leaving the commission next semester to raise their hands. He said that five people would be gone, but two people would return from abroad. J.Castle announced that the elections for the new executive board would take place November 10. He said that one of the running positions is his current title as Vice-Chair. He went over a few of the responsibilities, including that it was a two-semester position and that it required, like all other e-board positions, to meet at 4:30 before the general body meeting. He said that during budget hearing days, he had to stay for about seven to eight hours longer, and that he would spend about ten hours during the busy parts of the semester on SAFC projects.

T.Mulherin added that his position also required him to visit the Office of the Assemblies about once a day.

J.Castle said that the position as Co-Chair had the responsibility to set the calendar, run meetings and budget hearings, delegate to the rest of the commissioners, put in additional hours of work between appeals and hearings, budget corrections, and sending out appeals information.

J.Raymond went over his position, Vice-President of Internal Operations, which would also be open during the election. He said that his general responsibility was to work with the executive board as a whole. He added that he also was in charge of planning and structuring the handbook, enforcing attendance policy, and setting up table assignments and groups for the budget hearings and appeals.

E.Feldman went over her position as Vice-President of Public Relations, which she said was responsible for making and distributing quarter cards, reaching the president of every student organization, responding to negative publicity, and training. She added that it was a fun position to be involved in for SAFC.

D.Fernandes went over the responsibilities of the Vice President of External Operations — a position she held in previous semesters. She included that the position set up the liaison system.

J.Castle explained the liaison system and added that it may or may not be implemented next semester under V.Gehani’s direction, although some people requested that it be returned. He clarified that the staggered terms of the two Co-Chairs will ensure that an experienced commissioner always fills one of the positions. He answered that this was the only semester that there was a transition into staggered terms. He suggested to the commissioners that they should run for the executive board as sophomores so they could run for Co-Chair as juniors. A.Sridharan asked if it was possible to run if a commissioner went abroad during junior year and was not here for the preceding semester.

J.Castle answered that it was still possible, and said that in previous semesters Co-Chairs occupied alternating terms according to when they went abroad.

T.Mulherin told commissioners that if they wanted to run, there would be nominations next week. He asked if there were any questions or suggestions for future budget hearings and appeals processes.

M.Ehrlich commented that scrolling in the computer system has been a problem every semester. She also asked for more specific funding breakdowns in the computer program.

A.Sridharan asked the executive board where to draw the lines where SAFC funding was for charity, or for raising money for charity.

J.Castle and T.Mulherin agreed that those lines were definitely blurry and needed to be clarified.

It was asked among the commission as to how to define funding for costumes for shows. J.Castle answered that SAFC will pay for costume rentals but not purchase. He explained that while making the revisions for the funding handbook, some of those things were left undefined to make it more flexible. He said that if this caused problems, the guidelines could be stricter in the future.

A.Sridharan commented that it was not about the flexibility of the guidelines, but how to make a standard not just for one, but for all organizations.

J.Castle noted that this can be solved in the future through commissioner training and communication to make sure of some basic ground rules.

V.Gehani said that the basic rule of thumb was that whatever was in the guidelines takes precedent.

Y.Neverova suggested that in the future everyone would wear nametags during help sessions and hearings, so that the commissioners would have a sense of accountability for the groups. She also suggested that there would be two separate columns for allocated and granted in the budget forms.

J.Castle agreed and said he hoped for a system update.

Y.Neverova suggested that groups, such as the Men’s Soccer team, should list the aggregate amount of miles and hotel feels, as well as the number of people traveling which is not specified in the letter from the advisor.

L.Nicola inquired how the policies of funding for travel which could be cheaper.

J.Castle answered that SAFC would generally fund for the less expensive mode of travel. He added that there are caps on international travel.

Q.Zhao said that the car rental option on the computer system was confusing.

J.Castle agreed that the system needed to be updated.

L.Rosenblum said that the SAFC should clearly specify what forms of proof should count as valid. She explained that when Women’s Club Lacrosse emailed a question about valid documentation proof they did not get a reply in time.

J.Castle explained that the 25% rule caused many issues, and that it was difficult to address things right away. He asked the commission if the 25% rule should be kept.

L.Rosenblum said that although it was annoying, it improves relations between the SAFC and the rest of the student organizations.

T.Mulherin said that if the 25% reduction rule is kept, then the commission would have to stay for an additional day of budget hearings. He said that the rule created a week’s worth of work.

C.Casey suggested that the budget appeals should be pushed back a week if the rule is kept to balance the workload from the budget hearings.

J.Castle said that it took two weeks to work through the issues caused by the 25% rule, and that in order for it to work everyone needed to contribute. J.Castle said that in order to implement the 25% rule money needed to be taken out of next semester’s funding. If it had not, caps would have been much lower; $4,000 to $5,000 rather than $7,000-$8,000, and student groups would not be very happy.

C.Casey asked how much lower caps would be for next semester if a portion of its funding was used for this semester’s 25% rule.

J.Castle answered that it would depend on how much money would roll back for the current semester, and stated that it has been a pretty substantial amount in the past.

Q.Zhao commented that this implementation could be problematic.

V.Gehani agreed, suggesting that maybe the percentage of reduction should increase in the future.

M.Parry said that he found it unfair that the rule seemed to be benefiting those who made mistakes in documentation while taking future funding away from other groups.

J.Castle said that one of the sections will look at the 25% rule and it will be discussed whether it could be altered to be more specific as to what will or will not be turned in.

J.Castle divided the commissioners into groups to look through and analyze specific sections in the handbook, which could also be found on the SAFC website. He asked the commissioners to read through, make notes, and assemble responses for next week’s meeting. He assigned a spokesperson for each group to compile responses and lead discussions.

IV. Meeting was adjourned at 5:45 pm.

Respectfully Submitted,
Valerie Pocus
SAFC Clerk, Office of the Assemblies