October 16th, 2007
Commons 318
Meeting called to order at 5:35pm
Present: Igor, Christine, David, joy, Ashley
Alani:
Useful to communicate with rest of SGA.
Nayana: The purpose of the House last year was to better events for the university.
But all the work the house was doing bogged them down and made it hard to help
organizations put up events. Last year we created the Student Orgs Advocates.
Their job is to make resources available to student organizations.
Alani:
Its good for the various bodies of the SGA to know what the others are doing.
The organizations have to be able to coordinate, share contact information, etc.
The Improvement project is getting on its way. We're beginning to form committees
for the project. We also need to have a tab on the spending on the project. We'll
talk about that more later. Also you've been talking about athletics, etc. One thing
you may or may not have known is that you're not alone in youre issue with Athletics.
Other boards within the SGA are communicating with Athletics and we are working on
this issue. SGA is as frustrated with this issue as you are. ONe last point, if you
would like to bring up an issue to SGA you should include it in your reports. YOur
reports make up the newsletter. Thanks.
Common Ground:
Hip Hop Dance
Joy: So wee have Common Grounds here. Tell us about your event.
We were invited to a dance competition and we're taking the team up there. This is our
first big event that we've been invited to outside campus and we're the only non tri-state
area team to be in the competition.
David: is your organization try out based or open to anybody?
Our performance team is try out based but our club is open to anybody.
Joy: How many people are you expecting?
30
David: The hotel accomodations are those price quotes or just approximations?
I got the quotes from the hotel. The transportation is based on 6 cars at 25 mpg.
Ashley: The costumes are those only for this performance or will they be reused.
They'll be reused.
Joy: If full funding isnt given how do you plan to pay?
We're planning fundraisers but right now we're collecting $15 from every team member.
Street Kred Competition:
JOy: can you tell us about it?
Its the same idea but this one is in New Jersey, not New Ark.
Nayana: you asked for $200 for costumes again, cant you reuse them?
WEll each competition has different guidelines so we'll be modifying our other costumes
and getting new ones.
Joy: what part of these events are most important to you?
The hotel Accomodations.
Pagan Student Union's Halloween Celebration
Joy: Can you tell us what the new budget requests are for?
We found out we need more house keeping, etc. We already yhav $116 in our account, we
just need $72 extra.
David: SO what is the break down exactly?
$176 for housekeeping $12 for chairs.
Ashley: This is in additon to what you requested last week?
Yes.
Christine: how many people are you expecting?
about 70 thanks to your funding enabling us to advertise.
Joy: Have you been to the safe committee.
I went to scheduling and they said we didnt need to speak to the safe committee.
Also, the money needs to be in by the 21st or our event could be cancelled, is that possible?
David: Well if it passes then definately.
Thank You
Fouad: is it just me or did the dance competitions not seem to help anybody on campus?
Ashley: We cant fund them anyway.
David: Before the other group comes, can we go over the Jewish Student union. Basically
4 yrs ago they had an event and a bunch of organizations that took part in the event never
paid JSU. So JSU never paid us back the plus $2000 they owe. For the past 4 yrs this has
just been carrying on and theyve functioned like a regular organization. All the officers
from then have graduated and no one in the organization today was there then. Right now theyre
just asking us to pay of a debt owed to us basically.
Fouad: COuldnt we force them to pay and fundraise?
David: Well none of the current officers are here today but it shows that they are trying
to resolve the situation. The other thing is this was 4 yrs ago and the records dont go
back so far. Its a mess, for the past 3 years theyve been given a budget as if the debt
didnt exist.
Voting on Common Ground NJIT:
For $1800: 0
Opposed: 4
Fails.
Chinese Student Association:
Paint Ball social:
Joy: Tell us about the event.
WEll I'm having a paint ball social. Itll be an educations event where we'll role play as
ancient generals and reenact old wars. It was during the Han dynasty between 200-280 AD.
We're going to limit the event to 30 people. We've had this in past years but we never
requested money. Its about $40 for the whole package which includes equipment, rental etc.
It covers transport to the location. The amount im requesting is only half.
Ashley: How do you choose who gets in?
First come first serve.
Nayana: is it an open event?
Well its a CSI social.
Ashley: So only CSI members can go?
No anyone is welcome but we generally only have CSI members.
Nayana: Are you charginga dmission?
No, everyone basically pays for themselves. Its $1200 total, im only requestion half $600.
Every year its been getting bigger and bigger. My last turn out was 36 people and it was
a pain to manage as it was only me organizing. The place I go to has offered me a discount
since I bring them a lot of business. If that comes through Ill be refunding people the money
I get discounted for. But right now im asking for a full down payment.
Nayana: Do you want to ask for the full amount?
May I? I didnt want to be greedy
Ashley: You can ask for the full amount.
Ok I'll do that.
Joy: If more people want to come how will you accomodate them?
Well if a few more people want to go then I'll charge a buck or two and that should cover the
1 or 2 extra people. If my discount comes through thatll be perfect.
Joy: How will you advertise.
Itll be word of mouth mainly but we're having a social event tomorrow where we will advertise.
nayana: In terms of the rest of the year how high is the priority of this event?
Its pretty important, its probably number 2.
Thank You
Voting on Common ground Dance Street Cred Competition:
For $1800:0
Opposed: 4
Fails.
Discussing Pagan Student Union: Asking for $188 for HOusekeeping.
Fouad: You said theyre prepared but this is last minute stuff.
David: Well it was because of scheduling, they do that to you a lot.
Voting on pagan Student union Halloweeen:
For Pagan Student Union: 4
Against: 0
Passes
Tea Empire Tiben Trip:
JOy: Tell us about the trip.
We go to a tea house. We have a sign up list where people in the club, people they invite,
other people.
Ashley: How do you alet people know about htis?
We basically do it by word of mouth.
Nayana: How many people are you taking.
Our sign up list has 18 right now.
David: As far as 18, is it only 18 or more?
We had a deadline and its 18 right now after the deadline.
Joy: DO you have a carryover account?
We hav a carryover account but im a new officer and we have negative funds in there.
Ashley: If we were unable to giv you the full amount would you have fundraisers etc?.
Well we have a contingency plan in which we'd go to a cheaper cafe thats closer.
Joy: So this isnt the cheapest quote?
Well it would be a completely different experience. Tea on the Tiben is a Victorian type
experience but our contingency plan involves just having tea together. There would be
no scope for cultural learning.
Sweet Ice Tea:
Joy; Tell us about he event
Well this is another form of tea we're studying.
Joy: How many people come to your meetings?
About 25.
Thank You
David: We cant fund this event. Its happening within 2 weeks.
Agape Fellowsip Conference:
Joy: Tell us about he event
Its basically a conferencec between several schools in Maryland, Pittsburgh, north Carolina,
etc. Its basically religiously themed and itll be a weekend away from school.
David: Is it open to everyone ?
yes
Ashley: Where is this happening?
In west virginia.
Joy: How are you getting there?
We're driving.
Fouad: HOw would other students find out about this?
We have fliers up.
Ashley: How many people is this for?
WE're expecting about 40 students.
Thank You.
HOmecoming car smashing:
Joy: Tel us aboutthe event.
Well basicalyl after the saturday soccer game we're gonna have a car smashing event.
We already have pricing for the car, etc. We're just trying to get more school spirit.
The problem is we are a group of primarily athletes but athletics is giving us no funding at all.
So basically we do fundraising ourselves. Athletics has no money and athletics at UMBC
has to fund varsity, intramural and clubs.
Nayana: Is it open to everyone? How much does it cost?
Its open to the whole student body. Its $1 per hit and $2 for 3 hits.
Fouad: What about safety issues?
We have goggles, etc.
David: WE're trying to do something new this year, instead of charging admission,we'd like
to make events open to UMBC students. We want events open and free to UMBC students.
WE know that you wont have that carryover later on in the year but if you need more money
you can come back to us again and ask for us. So if we give you more funding would you make
it completely free?
Yes ofcourse, we really only want to get people involved.
Fouad: How are you going to organize the hitting?
Well we have an idea, we're probably going to have cones and have people line up.
Thank You
Panhellinic Association
Northeast Greek Leadership Association
Joy: Tell us about the event.
We go off campus for a weekend. The conference teaches you about leadership, and we inspire
people to become leaders.
David: Do you have to be in PHA to go?
Yes you have to be in one of the Greek councils to go.
Joy: SO its not open to all students on campus.
No, but it was funded by SGA two years ago because it can benefit the entire campus.
Joy: What are the fees?
Its $125. For the two extra people its $485 total($300 extra).
Joy: If youre not given funding how will you do this event?
We'll host some kind of fundraiser.
Joy: Can you explain how it will benefit studnets?
Well you meet with other greek leaders and they bring back what thhey learn about greek life
to the campus and make greek life at UMBC better for the future. This will happen especially
if we send younger members.
Thank You
David: We really cant fund this.
Nayana: We cant fund this because it benefits the campus because it doesnt. We talk abou
benefitting the campus because it is open to the campus.
Ashley: So why cant we fund this?
Nayana: Well in the past it was funded because SGA had a lot of Greeks. That was
probably the only reason it was passed. Its not an open event as well, we only fund
Greek Life if its an open event.
Discussing Chinese Student Association:
Fouad: I dont feel it benefits the campus, if they advertised it might be better.
Ashley: Well it is open to the entire campus.
David: WE're allowed to fund them because anyone can join the CSU, Even though theyre not
advertising
FOr: 4
Opposed: 0
Passes
Tea Empire
Nayana: I dont liek the question "is it the cheapest?"
David: Yea, you mean 'is it the best quality at a decent price?"
Nayana: yea why would we want them to have an event of inferior quality. Theyre not being
ridiculous like some other organizations.
Voting on $450 for Tiben Trip:
For:3
Opposed:0
Passes
Sweet Ice Tea: Too late to vote on, within two weeks.
Agape Campus Christian Conference:
Yasmin: Does this pass the 2 week rule?
Joy: Yes i think so, it was submitted sometime last week.
SGA Advisor: One thing to be careful about is sticking to your rules. A rule is a rule,
you can say that its 2 weeks after it was submitted but you have to be consistent with that.
Question: Well I was in the office when they came in but they had an issue with their budget.
David: So basically it wasnt their fault they wanted to submit it earlier.
Nayana: Is it 14 days when it is submitted or when it is presented to the board.
David: Well she gave it to me last Friday, so it was submitted exactly 14 days before the
event.
SGA Advisor: Well the policy says before 14 days.
Fouad: Can we make it more clear to organizations as to how many days exactly so organizations
are sure.
SGA Advisor: Wel it says requests made 14 days or less will not be considered for funding.
Ashley: Well the bottom line is we cant vote on it till we amend the 14 day policy.
Nayana; well we dont really know when it was submitted so thats a fault on our part.
Ashley calls Agape Campus Christian to find out when allocation request was submitted:
Monday.
David: So we cant fund them.
Fouad: So we're not going to amend the 14 day policy at all?
David: I dont think we need to amend it.
Joy; but waht about if an organization waits till the last minute to submit a request
because of something that was our fault?
Fouad: Well what about if we make it so that a group has to submit something with someones
signature proving that it was something that was SGA's fault.
SGA Advisor: Well if you wanted to make an exception to fund an organization because of an
error you made you could pass legislation and send it to the senate for next monday. Then you
could fund the organization.
David: So for this one we could say that we couldnt fund this event even though we wanted
to because it was turned in too late. If you have an event like this again then please
turn it in on time so we can fund you.
SGA Advisor: Another thing is that its 14 days before the money needs to be spent. Not 14 days
before the event takes place.
David: I dont think we can fund this, we cant keep looking for loopholes for organizations
every time.
Pan Hellenic Association:
David: Do you know how this got funded in the past?
SGA advisor: Unlike Greek chapters, the Greek government organizations are considered funded
organizations under SGA policy.
David: Well we asked her if it would be open to anyone on campus and she said you had to be
a member of Greek life.
SGA Advisor: Well in the past any Greek Chapter could become part of the council.
David: But you have to be a member of the chapter before you can be on the council and that
itself is selective.
Joy: Their argument was what they bring back will benefit the campus.
David: Well any organization can say that I dont think we should pay attention to that.
Ashley: So we dont fund any greek organizations?
David: Only if theyre events open to all UMBC students.
Ashley: So if a sorority was having their formal we coudlnt fund that but if they were
having a karaoke night then we could fund that?
Nayana: yes, if its open to the whole campus.
David: Bottom line is I dont think we can fund this.
Voting on Full Amount $485:
For: 0
Opposed: 3
Fails
Car Smashing:
Joy: They said that they were initially supposed to be funded by the Homecoming budget, but
werent.
Fouad: Who votes on General Ledger funding?
David: We vote and the Senate votes. I thought this organization was an athletics organization,
I thought it was athletics trying to ask us for money again.
Christine: So should we send this to General Ledger.
David: We cant because Senate meets next Monday by which time this will be over.Plus with the
ongoing issue with athletics we really shouldnt decide now.
Joy: But this event is promoting campus spirit and benefitting the UMBC campus.
Nayana: But thats not the issue, this event is in 3 days, even though its fromt he general
ledger, the senate doesnt meet in time.
SGA Advisor: i think there is an issue here that could not be a Finance Board issue. Its that
what is the line between funding athletic groups when theyre benefitting the campus and when
theyre not.
David: I think we need to make a distinction between not liking athletics because they dont
fund their own groups, and something that we can fudn even if athletics funds it because
it benefits the whole campus.
Nayana: I think it comes down to us not trying to screw over sports clubs because theyre not
getting money from where they should be getting it.
SGA Advisor: Well your policy says that you shouldnt be funding sports clubs because athletics
does it.
Nayana: Well my point of view is that they pay their $78 and if they want to spend it that way
then we shouldnt stand in the way of it.
David: I think te point is we're trying to not be the rock and have the sports clubs
stuck between athletics and us and not get any money.
Fouad: I think if we created a small athletics activity fee then we could have a separate
budget for these clubs.
SGA Advisor: Well Finance board shouldnt be creating more fees when money from one fee
is spent.
Calling Jay:
Ashley: If we make the car smashing free then can we fund them with homecoming money?
Jay: Well if it was free then you could but at this point HOmecoming money is off limits.
Couldnt you just fund it out of Activity money?
Ashley: its too late theres only 4 days left.
Jay: Ok then theres no money i know about that can be used for it.
SGA Advisor leave 7:19pm
Jade leaves 7:21pm
Jay enters 7:22pm
Jay: We dont pay for events where UMBC students will be charged.
Joy: We asked them if they would be fine with not charging.They said that would be fine.The
Next question is why cant it come out of the homecoming budget?
Jay: I dont know that it cant but I dont know how much is left in there.But athletics has
a huge budget, why cant they find a $100.
christine: But theyre not an Athletics organization.
Jay calls Emma:
Jay: is there a $100 in the Homecoming budget?
Emma: yes definately.
Joy: So we'll cancel it out of our agenda, can you take it up now?
Jay: We'll take it up with the understanding that it is free for UMBC students.
Jay leaves 7:26pm
Nayana: Weren't we told that sports clubs get $1200 from athletics.
Joy: but theyre not an athletics organization. But we can send it to the homecoming budget.
Its automatically denied though since its within 14 days.
Nayana; Basically the students orgs dinner is a way to bring student orgs closer to SGA.
We can tell organizations about various events we're planning throughout the year. Its
basically going to be set up initially as a reception where "hors d'oeuvres" will be served.
They can chat beforehand and network. Then we'll explain to them all about our plans.
This will be extremely upscale and we are inviting all Presidents and Treasurers upto 250
people. This impacts all student organizations.
Joy: So its only presidents and treasurers?
Yes presidents and treasurers of all student organizations and most people in SGA.
Joy: what is the audio visual for?
Mics.
Fouad: What date is this supposed to be?
Nov 9th. We feel this will be a place where SGA members can meet the people who will be
coming to us for various things and we can show them that we are nice people and not to be
disliked.
Joy: Can you explain the carryover account request?.
I dont know if you know about the event planning handbook but its a means of teaching
organizations how to plan excellent events. We came up with a list of organizations who have
put on great events from our and their points of view. I think we hav a list of 6 organizations
like this. We'd like them to turn in a paragraph or 2 about how they went about doing this.
Fouad: So basically they get $50 to write a paragraph?
Well they wont do it otherwise and the benefits are much greater than the costs.
Voting on $6657 for dinner: (General Ledger request)
For: 4
Opposed: 0
Passes
Voting on $300 for Carryover:
For: 4
Opposed: 0
Passes
Budget Deliberations:
David: Im trying to compile all the information from the hearings. We have hours of audio
input and we'll probalby have one or two finance board members at the deliberations.
Nayana: What happens to all those organizations who missed their hearings?
We rescheduled them.
David: Just a last question: So we're sticking to the policy of no funding t- shirts.
JOy: A lot of groups come and say they want to do certain events but theyre often not sure,
but then they dont go through with it and we end up with thousands of dollars coming back to
us.
Nayana: Did you look into pulling in SGA funds on a monthly basis?
David: yes i did, we're working on that.
Nayana:So will this theoretically get rid of reallocations?
David: We hope so, it should. We're talking about pulling in a couple hundred for the big
events, not for the small one.
Roll call: same as before
Meeting adjourned at 7:46pm.