October 25th, 2007
Commons 318
5:35pm Meeting called to order
Present: Oy, David, Ozell, Ashley
Persian Student Organization
Yalda
Joy: Tell us about the event.
Its a celebration of the longest night of the
year. We'll be giving out
refreshments,
drinks, etc. We're trying to make it as big as
possible with people
inviting parents and
other people from off campus.
Joy: How many people are you expecting?
250
David: Are you charging?
For UMBC students its free, for non- UMBC
students we're thinking about
charging $10.
David: Are you planning on requesting funds later
in the year or should we
consider these
your two maor requests for the year?
Thie is our main event for the semester. WE have
another one next
semesteras well with
about the same price. we're thinking about having
a few smaller events
later but
not as big as these.
Joy: can you tell us about the decorations?
We're going to have small centerpieces on the
tables, small fish, etc.
We're going to bring
in more traditional things to make the UC look
nicer.
Ahsley: Did you get these quotes from the proper
people?
Yes, they're exact quotes.
Ashley: What will you use the admission that you
charge off campus students?
Save it, use it for other events, charity etc.
Igor enters 5:41pm
Joy: The fruits and sweets...what are those?
We're going to have some fetta cheese,
nutritional fruits such as
pomegranetes, grapes,
apples etc.
Joy: And the advertisements are being given by
common vision?
yes
Thank You
SEA
Joy: Can you tell us about the event?
Yes, it was brought to you a few weeks ago and
was tabled. Its going to
take place at
the Sculpture Park. We have had it before and it
was extremely
successful. Its an
educational event as well as a celebration of
Greenspace on campus.
Greenspace is a
program which plants trees all over the world
with rocks next to them and
eventually absorb them signifying a metaphor.The
trees on campus are 4
years old now
and are growing well.The Fine Arts Dept paid for
about $400 and asked us
to pay the balance.
SGA Advisor: The reason the finance board tabled
this was because the
request wasnt timely.
What has changed?
I didnt think that it was timely beceause there
was no planning to be done
and all we had to
do was pay our share of the money.
SGA Advisor: It wasnt tabled because the finance
board cant fund something
thats taking place
within 14 days.
Joy: What is the mapping cost for?
The maps were printed for the event and theyre
maps of the Greenspace
trail on campus.
Joy: Can you explain the lunch cost again?
The lunch cost is basically to provide lunch for
ppl coming to the event
and Fine Arts
asked us to chip in.
Ashley: So this event hasnt happend yet?
Yes it has happened.
Joy: So youre requesting a reimbursement?
Yes.
Joy: So who paid for the costs?
I did, out of my pocket. The reason I didnt
submit the invoice on time
was because I didnt
think it was something that needed planning and i
neglected to read
budgetary policy.The maps
I just decided to have printed because it
benefits the whole campus and
educates people. Fine
Arts also told us that the maps had already been
printed.
David: Are the maps event specific or do they not
have a deadline?
NO theyre all over campus for people to pick up.
Fine arts went ahead and
had the maps printed
from the company and paid their share and we had
a separate invoice for
our share. I dont mind
paying out of my pocket but it benefits the whole
campus and if I can get
reimbursed that woudl be
great. I dont want to break a rule but if I can
then that would be great.
PreGame tailgate:
Joy: Can you tell us about the event.
We're having another tailgate event like we did
last time. We're expecting
300-400 people again
and it should be as succesful as last time. We
dont expect the cost to go
up either, its the same
as last time. Last time the commons terrace was
full, we almost ran out of
food but we managed.
WE are going to be advertising more this time.
We are speaking to RSA,
Residential Life, etc for
co sponsorship so that we dont have to bear the
whole burden. $250 is the
max we expect to pay
but if we get co sponsors then itll be less.
SGA Advisor: You talk about this as a strategy to
encourage athletics to
deal with SGA and students
a different way. Would you at any point say that
we've tried this method
before, its not working,
we need to stop and change?
I think that these events do help. On one end
we're tryign to nurture a
relatinoship with Athletics
to develop a better understanding with students.
On the other hand this
is also just a school
spirit event to increase school spirit on campus.
In answer to your
question I really dont know
when that point will come. Ive been doing a lot
of thinking about that
question and you guys will
get a report about Athletics spending but on the
other hand I dont want to
hurt student life by
getting athletics to hav a better relationship
with us.
Question: Would there be anyway to see in numbers
how many people come to
this event and then
go to the volleyball game?Can we do that next
time?
Yes we can.
David: maybe we could get some kind of ticket
that people can get at the
tailgate and then turn it
in at the game and possibly get something in
return so that we can track
the numbers?
Yes we can definately do that. This is going to
be a great game as its
Womens basketballs first
home game. There'll be free tshirts at the game
as well.
Question: How do you decide whichc team you hold
a pregame for? What if a
team asks why you arent
supporting them?
We basically just decide based on the best day
and time. WE picked a
friday this time because
we've got the name of the tailgate out and ppl
should stay back on a
friday for it. We picked the
womens game because the mens game is on a
saturday and will be well
attended while we've already
done an event for womens volleyball.
Thank You
Deliberations on JSU's deficit:
David: If an organization goes into deficit for
its carryover then its
their issue. We have nothing
to do with their carryover. What happend 4-5
years ago was there was a co
sponsored event led by
JSU. Each of its sponsors was responsible for
different parts of the
event. What probably happened
was that the co sponsors probably didnt pay their
share. This legislation
will basically take
the funds out of the the JSU's SGA account and
put it in its carryover.
Fouad: So we wont be losing money?
David: we already lost the money 4 years ago.
Question: What happens if an organization goes
into a deficit?
David: They basically owe us the money and are
responsible to pay us back.
The reason we're trying
to help JSU is because none of their officers or
members were here when
the debt took place and
we dont want to give them a hard time.
Question: Where is the other money coming from?
Basically they will pay $500, and we'll hold them
in good faith and wipe
the other $2000 clean.
However we'll be taking it out of the GL and
putting it in their carryover
to even it out.
Fouad: Wont this open doors for other
organizations?
This is the first time the SGA has fixed this
problem this way. Its on a
much larger scale and
the biggest complication is that it took place so
long ago.
Fouad: Couldnt we hold the co sponsors
accountable?
WEll co sponsorships are no longer handled the
way they were 4 years ago.
Now we give all the money
to the lead organization and they deal with the
co sponsors.
Question: The SGA President and treasure
embezzled about a quarter of a
million a few years ago.
What happened was that altough the SGA after this
event wasnt responsible
for the occurence,
they were responsible to pay back the money
slowly.
SGA Advisor: Even if SGA officers tried to
embezzle money they would get
Student Judicial services
involved and it would be much harder. This was a
mistake of the policy.
Question: Couldnt we make them a limited funded
organization for another
year and slowly make them
pay back the debt?
WEll we could but not many of their officers
would be willing to work to
pay back the debt.
Steve:ust like JSU has inherited this debt we've
inherited the problem
that JSU has been funded
and the debt has been ignored. But now theyre
going to be cleared of the
debt, that just seems
a little unfair.
David: There really isnt much we can do, its a
four year hole thats been
ignored.
Deliberations on PSO's Yalda:
For $2454: 4
Opposed:0
Abstaining:1
Passes
Deliberations on SEA Greenspace:
David: We cant pay for the lunch since its
already passed.We could fund
the map cost however.
James: I think we need to make the 14 day policy
concrete. Why cant we add
in a last day clause
or make it a lesser deadline. My point is the
Agape event was something
we would have funded
and was a good event and we probably could have
got them the money in time
but we decided not to
fund them because of the 14 day clause.
Joy: The other thing aobut the 14 day policy is
that it makes groups plan
ahead but i also see your
point about being able to fund them. I think that
now they know that there
are consequences to not
planning ahead then they will be more prepared.
Fouad:Couldnt we set the date with respect to our
meeting time. It would
make it a lot easier.
Instead of making it 2 weeks before the event,
couldnt we make it two
weeks before the meeting
or one week before the meeting?
James: We could add a clause saying that it is
upto the discretion of the
finance board whether
ornot an event can be funded even if it is past
14 days. We could make
the clause more elastic.
There might be events wehere the 14 days arent
necessary although it can
be used as a reason to
reject and allocaion. But we can say tht it is
also at the discretion of
the finance board to
decide whether or not to fund something. that can
leave room to allow
funding for an event that
would be positive and possible.
Joy: I agree with some aspects of what you're
saying. But sometimes
organizations come late
because of misundersatndings for the
organization.
James: thats why the discretion of the finance
board clause would be
useful when reviewing
such events. Lately we have been seeing possible
events that would have
been positive but we
couldnt fund them because of the 14 day policy.
We could make it more
elastic.
SGA Advisor: The 14 day policy does allow the
finance board to call
organizations back
for questioning. Without it the finance board
might hav to vote without
full information.
James; Right but thats why the 14 day policy
would be in place so that it
can be used to reject
requests for time contraints.
SGA Advisor: But then organizations can ask why
they werent funded under
14 days while another
was.
David: Well we could explain to them why 14 days
wasnt enough to process
their request.
James: I think we should make the deadline the
time at which we really
cannot get the money to
the organization in time.
David: What if an organization's cost for an
already allocated event went
up and they came back to
us for more money within 14 days. Could we fund
that?
SGA Advisor: Your rules dont allow that.
David: Then we need to fix that.
James: So the finance board be willing to
consider a change in legislation
to the 14 day policy?
SGA Advisor: I would suggest that a super
majority of the finance board
would have to accept the change
in the policy in order for it to be passed.
Joy: back to SEA, how did everyone feel about
this?
David: We cant fund the lunch cost, but we can
fund the map cost if we
decide its beneficial.
SGA Advisor: I dont think you can fund the maps
either because theyve
already been funded.
Joy: So do we just not vote?
David: We could vote and just fail it, or can we
just automatically fail it?
SGA Advisor: Well if it does get passed then it
can go to the supreme
court. But if it isnt then
theres no problem as it dies. The last thing you
want to do is to
encourage students to spend their
own money with the hope of getting reimbursed.
Discussion Tailgate;
For: 4
Opposed: 0
Abstaining: 1
Passes
JSU issue:
For paying off JSU's debt from General Ledger:
For: 4
Opposed: 0
Passes
Roll Call: Igor, Joy, David, Ozell, Ashley
Meeting adjourned at 6:45pm