October 9th, 2007
Commons 318
Meeting called to order 5:52 pm
Present: David, Christine, Joy
NESB:
Joy: Can you tell us about your fall regional conference?
Two of our major events for the year are our conferences. The biggest is in the Spring semester and the fall semester also has one. This semester the conference is in Arlington, VA. It is one of our main programs as it is a chance for our members to see what NESB is all about. At the conferences they have workshops, networking opportunities, chances to do research, social activities, etc. When people go to these conferences and see what the organization is about at the national level, our membership is solidified. The biggest issue with the conferences is money. This year we’re looking at 16 people going, so 4 rooms for 2 nights. A total of $1200.
David: You’ve reallocated $250 for registration to hotels. How much are you using for carryover?
We’re using $146 from carryover which is the total amount. We did reallocate to hotels. Our members are paying for registration.
Nayana: How do you decide who is going?
They register online after speaking to us.
Nayana: A first come first serve basis?
No, we try to let as many people go as possible.
Nayana: If more people want to go then how will you reallocate costs?
We will spread out the costs among the extra people who want to go.
NESB: When will we find out if we get our request?
David: We have only 3 voting members present today so we’ll have an emergency meeting later in the week. We’ll contact you after that.
Thank You
FASA:
Joy: Can you tell us about the Halloween social?
Its an event in which we bring together all old and new members to socialize. Right now we have a lot of new members. This event will be a good place to bring together the new and the old members.
Joy: What is the miscellaneous?
Plates, cups, things like that.
David: is this open to all UMBC students?
Yes
Joy: Where is it held?
We’re planning to rent out a lecture hall or classroom but we havnent worked that out yet.
District Six Turkey Bowl:
Joy: Can you tell us about the district six turkey bowl?
FASA is under an umbrella organization. Within that organization there are 7 districts of which we are the sixth. Within our district there are local schools and colleges. All the neighboring local schools come together and play flag football all day. It is also an event for networking and socializing among these different universities. This year it is occurring at George mason.
David: And youre asking for $400 for registration?
Well I made a mistake with the registration cost. Its actually only $250 for registration. But we’d like to use the other $150 for food.
Joy: And you’ll take food to George Mason?
Yes, we’ll take grills and cook there.
Christine: How was your networking event at Virginia Tech this weekend?
We actually had 30 people go to that. We had good speakers, and we learned a lot.
Joy: How many do you expect to go for the turkey bowl?
Roughly about 30-40. But since its open to everyone, we’re not sure how many will walk in.
Thank You
ASU:
Joy: Can you tell us about these extra costs for 1001 Arabian Nights?
Initially we had $1994 but we had additional costs. After our meeting with the Safe Committee our set up fee went from $38 to $70. The audio visual went up from $350 to $600 because we talked to operations and they said the sound and lighting, etc added up. We spoke to Tim from Sodexho and food jumped by $250. House keeping went from $168 to $220.
Christine: Is it free admission?
No, we discussed it with Finance board and decided on $1.
Thank You
JSU:
Joy: Are you coming here as JSU or Libertarian.
I’m not sure, I know members of both.
Joy: Are you a member of Libertarians?
Yes, im not on the executive board but I am a member.
David: The issue from last week is that we don’t want to give JSU more money as they owe us $2500.
Nayana: How does this relate to the Libertarians.
One of the Libertarian party’s most important issues is self defense. This leads to self empowerment through the ability to defend oneself.
Joy: How did it relate to JSU.
Krav Maga is the Israeli martial arts that has developed. We’re doing a lot of programming this semester trying to raise cultural awareness about Israel and its contributions. There’s such a rich cultural heritage there. We’re also doing an environmental awareness event. We’re also doing a photograph exhibition. The Krav Maga workshop is a cultural event as well as a self defense workshop.
Thank You
Joy: While we’re waiting this is for the Finance Board members. Since we don’t have enough voting members we need to schedule another meeting. Is 6:30pm in the SGA office ok?
Emergency meeting scheduled for 6:30pm in the SGA office on 10/10/07.
SGA Advisor: Another issue I see coming up today is non funded organizations coming for money.
David: Sailing is an athletics club.
SGA Advisor: The Honors College put on a ballroom event last semester and they received funding for it although it doesn’t have anything to do with its mission. However, the event was open to the whole campus.
Christine: But we can fund it this year because they’re holding it in conjunction with the Ballroom Dancing Club.
SGA Advisor: The sailing club is also attempting to use activity money to support athletes.
Nayana: But I thought we said we could fund sports clubs as long as they don’t buy equipment and if the events were open to all students.
Steve: Athletics could say that ‘we’d like to support sports clubs but we don’t get enough funding.’
David: Hopefully Dr. Brown will realize we’re not going to put up with having to fund sports clubs and we wont make enemies.
Joy: So sailing club is actually funded by the Athletics department?
SGA Advisor: They're one of the clubs acknowledged by the Athletics
department. It's the same with Ice Hockey. Ice Hockey is asking for activity
money for an athletics club even though they should be funded by the
Athletics fee. SGA is looking out for the best interests of the students
and so its hard to give these clubs trouble at both ends. However, it comes
down to whether SGA is going to dig into the issue of Sports Club funding or
whether SGA is going to accept that it is funding something that could be
funded from the Athletics Fee.
Ballroom Dancing and Honors College:
Joy: can you tell us about the Honors College Latin Dance night?
The plan is that ballroom dancing and the honors college which is a departmental organization NOT a student organization will plan an instructional ballroom dancing event. There will be a low fee and we will have a DJ, food, etc.
Joy: you said you were charging a fee, how much?
About $5. It is a lot less than what students would pay for such instruction off campus.
David: basically all the $150,000 that we have to give out comes from the student activities fee. Something we’re trying to do this year is to make charges for students as low as possible as they’re already paying through the fee. Is the admission fee going toward the event or toward profit?
No, we’re not looking for a profit, all our admission fee is going toward the event. We’ve stated all our costs. However, we don’t know how many people will show up. However, Honors College events generally have about 75 people show up.
Nayana: Honors College Council isn’t a student organization so is there anyway you can only use the ballroom dance organization’s name.
David:We can only give money to the ballroom dancing club out of the student activities fee so honors college is welcome to help out but for the purposes of the paper work only the ballroom dance club should appear.
Joy: How many people are you expecting?
In the event of a good turn out we’re expecting 200 people from the ballroom club alone. In addition, the 75 people from the Honors college as well.
Joy: How are you advertising?
We’re using fliers, etc. We don’t use the Retriever as it is so expensive. However we’re looking into different options.
David: Well the SGA purchases a page every month on the Retriever and so we let organizations use this space.
Organization: The other thing was that the ballroom and reservation fee was paid by the Honors College and it is registered by the Honors College. Would we have to redo this reservation? In terms of reimbursement would we have to have the ballroom dance club make the reservation.
David: yes, we wouldn’t be able to reimburse the Honors College.
SGA Advisor: Do you have a budget from athletics?
Well we have about $1200 from them but we use it for our instructors so we don’t have anymore money from them.
SGA Advisor: Youre expecting to bring in $1000 from this event. That’s more than enough to cover your costs.
Well judging by our financial situation now we don’t want to risk not having the money in case our revenues don’t pay our costs.
Joy: Have you spoken to the Safe Committee, etc.
See when we booked the ballroom we didn’t have to go through the Safe Committee as we were the Honors College which made the booking. Someone in the Honors College administration made the booking and so we didn’t have to go through the safe committee as a non Student organization. But now that ballroom dance club is picking up the reservation we may have to pay the Safe Committee’s security cost.
Honors College: If you could fund everything except the sound system then we could charge something at the door to offset the cost of the sound system and all that money could go to the Honors College.
SGA Advisor: There are three major issues here: The Honors College Council is not a student organization, Ballroom dancing is a sports club and SGA doesn’t fund sports club unless it is an event for all students, thirdly this brings up finance boards issue with fees and costs as the admission will bring in more than the cost. The risk involved due to the fact that not as many people may show up as expected is there however finance board has not decided on its policy in this case.
David: Finance board would prefer funding entirely if there were no admission cost.
Well the ballroom club is fine with taking on the cost of everything, however we should be secured that we wont end up in debt. The honors college can help bring in attendees, and make the event more successful.
David: I see no reason to request a change in the reservation and risk losing the ballroom. SGA can cosponsor any department’s event through the Finance Board.
Thank You
Nayana: What if an organization wants $1000 for an event but SGA says on $800 dollars worth of it is worthwhile and gives that full amount. Can the organization still charge admission if they still want that extra $200 worth?
Fouad: But isn’t finance board’s funding decision a contract and if the organization agrees not to charge admission then it cant change its mind later.
David: Yes, we could say that we wont ever fund the organization again if they charge after they tell us they wouldn’t.
SGA Advisor: Lets talk more about the Honors College Council and the
Ballroom Dance Club. Its very interesting as we have one organization that
ought to be funded by the athletics organization while at the same time
another organization is controlled by a department as it wants to be in
charge of it. Both are coming to you for money. Also, there is a policy that
you can fund an event by the ballroom dance club if it is open to the whole
campus. But they said that almost 200 will come from the ballroom dance club
and the honors college.
Fouad: But what if an organization says their event is open to the entire campus but most attendees are from the organization. What if a large number of campus students are part of the organization, what is the definition of “open to the entire campus.’
SGA Advisor: SGA has not defined “open to the entire campus.”
Christine: but we wouldn’t fund the honors college because it is a selective group.
SGA Advisor: But you can still go to the dance as it is open to non members.
Fouad: So what did you say about the hockey team?
SGA Advisor: Its an athletic organization.
Fouad: So youre just going to say that youre not going to fund them?
David: Well no, it’s a fan bus open to the entire campus.
Pagan Student Union:
Halloween celebration
Joy: can you tell us about the event?
We will be having a big event for Halloween which is the pagan new year. We will have a discussion on pagan customs, etc.
Joy: How many people are you expecting?
Hopefully 70.
Joy: Where will it be held?
In the UC Ballroom.
Joy: Have you spoken to Safe Committee about security?
We were not informed that we needed security.
David: Scheduling told you this?
They did not inform us about requiring security.
Nayana: I would double check that.
David: You should double check with them in case they just forgot to tell you.
Joy: So the candy and party favors you asked for $230 for that?
Yes we will be ordering them from Oriental Trading in bulk. Whatever we don’t get from them we will get from our own funds.
Fouad: About the ground fogger, what about the hazards of that?
Well we looked at the technicalities and the dangers of it. As long as it is on the ground and ventilation is present then there wont be any problem. We were told no one would help us set it up but they didn’t say there would be a problem us doing it ourselves.
Christine: Are these the cheapest quotes you could get?
Yes
Nayana: Don’t you think this is an excessive amount of candy?
Well people will just be walking around taking candy but I will try and get cheaper candy.
Nayana: What about the decorations?
We’ll be getting the fogger materials, streamers, balloons, etc.
Joy: So in the UC ballroom will you have tables set up?
Yes
Joy: Didn’t they give you a table set up charge?
They charged us $6 per table.
Joy: How much is coming from carryover?
We do not have much in carryover but we are having a fundraising raffle that will not be SGA funded.
Joy: What about fliers?
We were under the impression that we could get free fliers from SGA
David: SGA can print 100 black and white fliers. Speak to Jay Lagorio.
Thank You
Ice Hockey:
Joy: Can you tell us about your game vs Lafayette and the Fan bus?
Well its home coming weekend and we want people to come out to the games. We did that against College Park and we had a good turn out. WE’ve had the pep band play and particularly for homecoming weekend we want a large turn out.
Joy: What time is the game?
The departing bus will be at 7:30.
Nayana: How are you advertising?
Well for the CP one we sent out facebook messages to our friends. In the past we put out fliers but this year we didn’t put up fliers as there was no bus. But this time we have a bus so its more incentive for people to come. So we will be advertising this time
Nayana: How do you determine who gets to go?
First come first serve basically.
David: How many people are you taking on the bus?
Well it’s a school bus so the number of people that can fit on it.
David: Have you spoken to Athletics?
Yes they referred us to SGA.
Joy: Did you get this quote from UMBC transit?
Well we got it from our regular bus company that we use for our trips.
Joy: Do you expect to fill up the bus?
Yes, definitely we have a lot of sophomores and freshman coming who don’t have cars on campus so this will be a good way to get to a rink 25 minutes away.
SGA Advisor: The timing of their event coincides with SGA’s talent show.
Joy: I don’t think its fair for SGA to prioritize.
Nayana: Let students choose where they want to go.
David: I don’t think we should hold the sports clubs responsible for this, we should be talking to Dr. Brown. Its not our job to fund this but it does benefit students and we should take it up with athletics.
Joy: People did pay an athletics fee so they should be seeing some benefit but at the same time it isn’t our responsibility.
Jane: if you fund this does that mean they can come to you every time they have a homegame and ask for money and get it?
David: I think we can be as erratic as we want but this is homecoming so we should let them have the bus. I don’t see them asking for a bus for every home game.
Jane: My concern is that they’ll tell their own friends first and other people on campus may not benefit.
David: Well I think itll end up being whoever will stand at the bus and wait to go. I don’t think many upperclassmen would rather take a bus than drive.
Jane: How can they prevent off campus students getting on this bus?
David: I guess we can get them to check id’s. But I don’t think off campus people are likely to show up.
SGA Advisor: The reason theyre here is closely related to the fact that SGA paid for the tail gate party. The message has gone out to Athletics that SGA is funding athletic fan building.
Joy: I do think we do need more school spirit.
David: But this money isn’t meant for that.
SGA Advisor: The thing here is you're helping an organization that arguably
should be funded by another department but isn't. My question is where is it
in SGA the issue that who ought to be funding these Sports clubs.
Fouad: Shouldn’t there be a committee for this?
David: There is a somewhat unofficial committee.
SGA Advisor: The point is youre going to be getting more requests for building more school spirit through sports clubs.
Christine: But what if I as a non athlete goes on the bus, athletics doesn’t need to pay for me.
SGA Advisor: Well as elected representatives of the student body you should make sure that students who pay these fees know exactly how they are being spent. They should be the spent the way they should be spent.
David: So basically get a copy of the budget and see where this money is going?
SGA Advisor: Maybe.
Fouad: We have the student’s activities fee and the athletics fee. Cant we split it into three fees so that these sports clubs have a separate budget.
David: So basically pull out the $12 from the athletics budget and make a new fee.
Joy: Can we actually pull out this $12?
SGA Advisor: We can but the issue is after the $12 increase in the athletics fee for sports clubs, the athletics fee has further increased $146. How much of that is going towards sports clubs?
Fouad: But who makes the decision to add fees?
Yasmin: Don’t the athletics clubs get $1200 dollars from athletics as ballroom dancing mentioned earlier?Dont they get to choose how to spend that money?
SGA Advisor: Having been through 4 years of SGA meetings and seen the Athletics department meeting with SGA, watching you have to contend with this issue of clubs not getting money from the other source looking to you, is a hard task. It doesn’t put you in a particularly powerful position.
SGA Advisor: The athletics department is underneath the provost, so there’s a clue right there. If the provost wanted change then there could be change in the athletics department.
Joy: Any last comments? We’re going to be meeting tomorrow 6:30pm in the SGA office.
Roll Call: Same as before
Meeting adjourned at 8:21pm