FiCom January 23 Retreat

OPENING DISCUSSION

 * review schedule. Changes?
 * Advertising for Spring (posters at Mida's) - DeeDee will pick up, decide on advertising next week
 * Meeting times for Spring

FIRST SESSION: Spring Budgeting
(20 minutes)


 * Reportback from Jackie


 * Should there be some final cap on the total amount a single student group can spend out of the SAF?


 * What should we give out in initial funding?

SECOND SESSION: Bylaws
(30 minutes)

Changes to the bylaws. Get in small groups to craft language for:


 * Addition of SAF Guidelines as guiding document


 * language for Director of Council Relations


 * language for Community Liaison


 * Cut office manager


 * relationship to COCA/COCD - tabled


 * Voting members (keep in mind push to have everyone come in week before classes begin)

THIRD SESSION: Officers
(20 minutes)

Officer Positions. Nominations, vote for each position. For new positions, possibly have transition period?

FOURTH SESSION: General Info Form
(30 minutes)

General Information Form. Get in small groups and review portions of them, flag any the group had issues with. Bring back to full group, approve, have someone send emails.

FIFTH SESSION: COCA
(20 minutes)


 * Decide how to give them money in the Spring


 * report to Council


 * Improving relationship, communication

SIXTH SESSION: Projects
(15 minutes)

General improvements. Ideas?


 * paperwork problem- have lockbox/copies of forms in FPH?


 * improve hampedia- madeleine, frances
 * equipment lockers- luke, ananda
 * semester budget - jackie
 * improve zoho - ananda
 * signer appreciation-deedee
 * signer hoodies- julia, james, dan
 * signer sem - everybody


 * report to Council &amp; community

Minutes
FiCom Retreat, Saturday 01/23/10 Attendance: Ananda, Luke (left early), Jackie, Julia, Madeleine, Daniel, Zilong (left early), DeeDee Minutes Meeting commenced 2:04PM.


 * Review of retreat schedule


 * Tried to put shorter discussions at the beginning
 * Suggestion to move the bylaws discussion until after the discussion about budgeting with COCA
 * Not talking about the relationships with other committees until after the other discussion
 * What about meeting times?
 * Will discuss
 * Signer appreciation?
 * This and related topics will be discussed later


 * Advertising for Spring


 * Can somebody pick up the posters from Mida and poster for the first spring meeting?
 * Do we want to poster right away or near Hampsfest?
 * Wait – if we did anything now, nobody would see them, or remember for any relevant time
 * DeeDee will get the posters


 * Spring meeting times


 * Ananda can't do Wednesday evenings
 * Tuesday/Thursday 7-9 is out
 * People are still determining their class schedules
 * We are meeting Mondays 5-7PM, when else?
 * Possibly 5-6 Wednesdays
 * Also trying to move back towards only two hours/week
 * FiCom will be meeting next semester from 5-7PM on Mondays and 5-6PM on Wednesdays
 * We'll see if we need more or less time


 * Spring budgeting


 * Jackie emails the spreadsheets of last semester's funding to FiCom members


 * Fundraising


 * We want groups to be able to fundraise, but it is near impossible to have oversight
 * Fund-matching?
 * Caps on student group funding?
 * What is the function behind these ideas? Is this supposed to save FiCom money?


 * Initial funding


 * Why is it given out?
 * Groups don't have time to submit a request before their first meeting, also it gives a sense of how much money they spend per meeting before they need to fill out any requests
 * Idea of charging at the door – this bars entry to events
 * The fundraised money goes back into the student group account, so it still falls under SAF guidelines
 * Why? It is incredibly difficult to keep track of fundraised money vs original SAF money
 * Groups can fundraise without touching the SAF, and that money doesn't have to fall under SAF guidelines
 * If SAF money is used to fundraise, the money raised should fall under SAF guidelines
 * Caps on spending – would events fall under this?
 * Have to talk to COCA about this!
 * Putting funding caps on groups might discourage large events
 * What about when small groups of students spend large amounts of money?
 * Perhaps events shouldn't have a cap – they are open to the community
 * So are most group meetings
 * How many groups might be affected by a cap?
 * What about caps on spending per people that go to these events, meetings, etc?
 * People will lie about the numbers
 * Perhaps we shouldn't discuss caps on spending before any sort of fundraising
 * Caps might just make students make more student groups
 * Why put fundraising in place if there are no caps on student group spending? Would people do it?
 * What do we do with the fact that we don't have enough SAF money to support the increasing student activities on campus now?
 * Is it just a few groups spending a lot of money that are causing these problems?
 * Question if running out of money is a problem – the SAF money is there to be spent!
 * How much did FiCom not fund last semester?
 * Some groups didn't apply when they got an email that FiCom was running out of money, so probably more than we realize
 * In the end of Spring 2009, contingency had a lot more money in it than it does now
 * We have been spending into contingency – we are in much worse shape now
 * If we set the cap at the 95th percentile, it would affect four groups, “saving” slightly less than $2,000
 * The cap that would “save” FiCom around $10,000 would be in the 85th percentile, affecting ten groups
 * Two of the top groups are Sports Co-op and HCEMS
 * Discomfort raised with putting a cap on these groups
 * Discomfort raised with giving specific groups exceptions
 * Point that sports teams at other schools fundraise a decent amount
 * The HCEMS scholarships were included in this information
 * If this was taken out, they would be about $600 under the cap FiCom is discussing here. This is not a lot of room, considering that different medical supplies are urgently needed at different times


 * Review of Spreadsheets


 * What is the total amount of money denied over this semester?
 * Unable to calculate right now with the information visible on Zoho
 * Total approved on Zoho not including initial food funding: $79,826
 * 63 groups got funding from FiCom outside of initial food funding
 * 33 groups received food funding from FiCom outside of initial food funding
 * Request that EVERYTHING be put on Zoho (FiCom's food requests, perhaps?)
 * What do we do now?
 * How much money left over in SAF at the end of this semester?
 * We don't know yet because not all the paperwork has cleared
 * We can't spend into the red anymore
 * There is still about $70,000 sitting in student group accounts right now
 * What about putting a limit on how long groups have to spend their money?
 * This creates so much more work for us and the business office


 * When do student group accounts get zeroed out for the semester?


 * The CLA deadline for handing in paperwork is next Tuesday, so sometime after that


 * Using Zoho as an accounting system


 * This is theoretically possible


 * Regarding the end of last semester


 * Did we visibly change how we funded?
 * We froze meeting food, at the very least
 * COCA's not funding events still affected the student body
 * We were stricter with the amount of money given out
 * We want to make sure that no funding gets frozen again if at all possible


 * FiCom sets an example for the other funding bodies


 * We need to change the way we act when we are running low on funds
 * We need to figure out how to not run low on funds


 * What cap on student group would make FiCom funding more flexible?


 * Even if we cap this at $3,000, and implemented fundraising, matching half, we are still only “saving” about $11,000 – we took out $20,000 this past semester, so we would still have that extra money to figure out


 * Also, Council is going to take a while to get up and running to vote on things – they won't have quorum immediately
 * Student group requests fluctuate a lot from semester to semester
 * We want signers to be able to understand our policies


 * Concern about signers cutting things out of their budget
 * How do you justify declining requests not within the cap?
 * If it isn't within SAF guidelines


 * Concerning caps


 * Concern that large groups are going to be disadvantaged


 * Zoho will help us see how much groups are spending and track this
 * Would this cap have to be changed every semester?
 * What about cutting down initial food funding?


 * This isn't the root of the problem; FiCom is giving out more money than they can responsibly


 * Why don't we put a survey out during Signer Seminar to ask signers about caps on student groups?


 * People would probably just vote for “no cap”
 * Some students are concerned about the amount of money individual groups are getting
 * We should also ask the entire student body, as it is everybody's SAF


 * When did we stop giving out food funding?
 * We want to be set in something before the beginning of the semester – we don't want to change our policies in the middle of the semester


 * Are caps too heavy-handed?
 * If FiCom makes decisions with individual groups, this can venture into value judgment territory
 * There needs to be a certain logic behind these decisions


 * FiCom approved about $10,000 in additional food, and stopped approving additional food about mid-November


 * What if we limited food funding?
 * The food money is what is most fairly distributed amongst groups
 * Why do people request food money?
 * So they can feed themselves
 * For a sense of community
 * To get people to meetings
 * This is a larger discussion
 * Feeling that the meeting food is the least essential food funding
 * Others disagree
 * Food funding is what most groups ask for
 * Is this just because we let them?
 * Argument that food is the most influential of these categories
 * FiCom is supposed to make the student body happy
 * The $10,000 FiCom gave out for food this past semester is not including initial food funding
 * Sentiment to reduce initial food funding
 * How much money would this really free up?
 * Can food for the first meeting be paid for by the groups and then reimbursed?
 * Is talking about food funding really addressing the larger issue?
 * There is about $4,000 in student group accounts from initial food funding
 * We need to bring this discussion to a close, but we need to decide on something
 * What about cutting meeting food for the semester and seeing what happens? This would allow us not to worry about caps on student groups
 * A lot of groups only spend money on meeting food


 * FiCom is not going to entirely cut anything!
 * Idea that caps are not a responsible way to save money


 * Suggestion that if we are closer to the ideal than we are currently, but still making exceptions, this is still better than where we are now!
 * If we put a $3,000 cap on student groups, this would actually help FiCom
 * What about events? Suggestion that this should not go through to events
 * Caps would address the problem more completely than anything else we have talked about
 * Issue with caps being that there is currently no way for groups to fundraise
 * We still haven't been able to come up with any ideas for fundraising
 * More issues with caps
 * Creates more work for active signers, who might create more groups and request the same money
 * A cap tries to limit the amount that large groups spend, so other groups can spend that money – do the smaller groups need that money?
 * Fundraising doesn't seem to be able to happen in any real way anytime soon
 * Caps on groups will have FiCom making exceptions to a new rule
 * Would a cap be a productive way of creating a more equitable distribution of funds?


 * Caps discussion tabled until later in the meeting – this needs to be decided for Signer Seminar!
 * Bylaws – small groups to draft language for bylaws: addition of SAF guidelines to the bylaws (Madeleine, Daniel); language for Director of Council Relations (Zilong, Luke); language for Community Liaison (DeeDee, Julia); voting memberships tabled until we hear back from Student Services


 * Addition of SAF guidelines
 * Two changes proposed
 * Article 1
 * Article 6
 * Approved by FiCom.
 * Director of Council Relations
 * Read aloud
 * Still want to keep the Financial Director – put language in that officer description to have them work with the Director of Council Relations (specifically regarding the weekly report); the Financial Director prepares it, the Director of Council Relations submits this to Council
 * Approved by FiCom
 * Community Liaison
 * Read aloud
 * Also suggested to add a clause to Article 1 about interacting with the community and existing to serve the student community
 * FiCom members: think about this for Monday
 * Community Liaison description approved by FiCom


 * Officers – nominations and votes


 * We are missing two voting members
 * Which positions?
 * We should hold votes for all the officer positions, regardless if they are filled right now
 * We will do officer elections this upcoming week


 * Should we put language in the bylaws about officer transition?


 * Think about this for a later meeting
 * Also think about how we are planning on transitioning officers


 * General Information Form – small groups – look at the open/closed designation.
 * Note: FiCom needs to submit forms to themselves online, for transparency and accountability's sake
 * When we have groups come in, ask them how they have been engaging with the community


 * Add this to the food funding form
 * This form also serves as a general check-in form


 * No issues with the groups that have requested to be groups
 * COCA – how are we going to work with them and give them their budget for the spring?


 * COCA projected $82,000
 * Last spring the projected cost was $71,00
 * Last fall (Fall '08) COCA spent around $50,000 separate from Halloween
 * Shall we: fund COCA in increments, setting aside $40,000 for the student groups to use, and have a separate conversation about Spring Jam
 * Why don't we just give them the money?
 * There needs to be communication between the two bodies
 * COCA uses SAF money that FiCom is in charge of making the guidelines for
 * COCA made the decision to not spend the $5,000 that FiCom gave them
 * Is this a budgeting presumption that COCA should not be making? FiCom should be in charge of finding the money, COCA is in charge of spending it for events
 * COCA will be given some money up front, in order to start funding events
 * COCA fears that FiCom will spend into their allocation of money
 * Can we create a 3rd FiCom account (alongside Food and General) to make sure that FiCom has oversight on COCA's funding, and FiCom will not spend into COCA's allocation of the money
 * This should perhaps be less than $40,00, but we could put more into it
 * How much did COCA spend this fall? About $48,000, not including Hampshire Halloween
 * COCA needs the money for Hampshire Halloween and Spring Jam long ahead of time
 * What about creating this account and distributing only $10,000 at a time, when they talk to us, and ensure $40,000 because it is said aside?
 * How will this affect the tension between the two bodies?
 * Whatever policy we decide, it should not be the deciding factor in our relationship with COCA
 * There was so much tension this semester that the automatic response for anything gone wrong relating to these issues from either body was to blame the other body
 * Why don't we break up the money into three sections, and when they need the next section, they need to come in to FiCom (at least the Financial Director needs to meet with FiCom, more welcome)
 * Worry about COCA funding only the closest events to make sure that students get the money – they can always request more money from FiCom, and the new weekly target budgeting system that they are implementing should help this


 * Ideas


 * Create a separate account so the money is not in 601
 * Set aside $40,000 for the minimum
 * At least the Financial Director must come in to talk to FiCom in order to get more money for COCA
 * The first block of money given to COCA will be $15,000
 * After this meeting, we will submit a fund transfer to COCA, and have a meeting with them in person
 * There needs to be an entire change in mindset on both FiCom's and COCA's part in order to ensure a better working relationship
 * Is this okay by FiCom?
 * Approved by FiCom


 * Check-ins for projects


 * CLA says that people do not get paperwork in on time – how about putting copies of the forms and boxes to drop them in FPH? (lockbox) This is right next to the CLA, where there already is a lockbox
 * What about putting copies of the forms outside by the lockbox in the CLA? Sounds good.
 * Ice cream social
 * Make-your-own sundaes = $5.50/person
 * Standard cups of ice cream = $3.30/person
 * Also need to check in about staff
 * What about a Saturday right before midnight?
 * Make-your-own means we have to pay for two staff
 * We can ask Sodexho if we can buy some of our own ice cream
 * They have been using their refusal rights more lately
 * We can combine this with hoodie pickup!
 * We should also give hoodies to signers from last semester if they ask, since we didn't get any
 * Hoodie reportback on Monday with language for advertising


 * Returning to the caps discussion


 * If events were included, the amount FiCom would “save” with the 85th percentile with matching would be about $15,000
 * Regarding events: COCA takes event requests from groups of 3 students, as opposed to just official student groups
 * How are we going to change what we do for the spring?
 * We need more time to think about this – but we need to make a decision
 * What is the largest amount we gave out to one single student group? $10,000


 * Side note: HIP did not fill out the general information form for spring semester
 * Budgeting for groups


 * Have groups submit budgets up front?
 * Groups should know about large fees up front – such as instructors
 * Even if some of the groups which had issues had come in earlier, we wouldn't have had the money, because we would have approved it


 * How are we going to change our funding?


 * Everybody agrees that the cap on group funding is disadvantageous – but is there any better solution?
 * Can we start raising the SAF?
 * We already have a very high fee
 * Our students also have much better access to this money
 * We will start drafting this language this upcoming semester
 * Given how much we have left over at the end of the semester, is it appropriate to raise this fee?
 * A lot of that money is going back into contingency


 * Rolling funding is only very effective when you know you aren't going to run out of money


 * Giving money out up front is not very flexible for groups
 * We can ask for group budgets at the beginning of the semester, and still allow them to submit requests
 * Student groups can already do this
 * They were told to wait until they needed the money to ask for it
 * Guarantee money to those who submit budgets ahead of time – encourage students to submit initial funding (2-3 weeks before the semester)
 * If signers aren't planning ahead of time, there is no guarantee
 * If signers submit a budget in the beginning of the semester: they have to submit it on Zoho. They have to know exactly where all the money is going before they submit their budget. This can at least partially alleviate having tons of money stagnate in student group accounts
 * Rolling funding has huge issues, and so does having students submit budgets in the beginning of the semester
 * How about encouraging groups to submit requests sooner rather than later
 * What would this change?
 * If people submit requests in the beginning of the semester, they might just make up requests
 * Some groups will submit their requests after FiCom does not have enough money
 * Some groups don't know in the beginning of the semester what they're going to do
 * Is this a good thing to encourage planning ahead?
 * Does the problem lie in people thinking that rolling funding means submit requests as late as possible?
 * Ideally, budgets would be preferable – it would be more responsible, also, just because the money is budgeted for, it would not have to be all spent, and people would know sooner if it wasn't going to be
 * How would we get signers to do this?
 * Also the need to let groups know that it's okay not to spend all the money FiCom allocates to you
 * Is there any decent way for groups to give money back to FiCom?
 * Not at this point
 * Asking for budgets early on would also help improve communication between old and new signers
 * Having Zoho didn't address this at all
 * Should there be a rule that there should not be all new signers for a group?
 * This can cause an issue for new student groups
 * Talking about signers is another conversation
 * Is the best way to be fair to groups to ask them to submit their budgets all up front?
 * Student groups don't operate on a semesterly schedule
 * Also encourage signers to submit requests as soon as they know they will have them
 * Sentiment that a lot of requests submitted now are not well thought out
 * What about monthly budgets from signers?
 * A student group should have at least some idea what they are doing in the next month
 * How is any of this addressing the $20,000 that we don't have?
 * Options: limit what groups can spend money on, how much they can spend, get more money, or realizing that we will run out of money
 * Raising the SAF: we don't let events charge at the door because some people can't afford the cost to get in. How will raising the SAF affect everybody?
 * How about putting out a survey? This would need to have a lot of information


 * We need to decide on something before Signer Seminar
 * DeeDee motions that FiCom submits a deadline for student groups to submit up-front budgets, and also allow for a cushion for groups that want to submit rolling funding requests for the rest of the semester; still including the $500 cap for first-semester student groups. Daniel seconds. Jackie blocks, pending further discussion.
 * Does this solve any of the issue of not having the money?


 * This lets student groups know that there is not unlimited money
 * There is a lot of money – there are also a lot of student groups.
 * Suggestion that people have forgotten that being a signer means being responsible
 * Does this disadvantage groups that get started in the middle of the semester?
 * Worry about FiCom running out of money sooner
 * Idea that student groups are not accountable to anybody – this lets them be accountable to themselves
 * This is only going to be in place for a semester, and then reevaluated, as per usual
 * Is there a way to make sure that student groups spend their money on what they have said they are spending it on? Yes
 * Then if groups don't spend money that they requested by when they said they would, we can have a date in the middle of the semester to retract the money
 * Do we want to do this a few times a semester or just once?
 * Just once for now.
 * What about the money left over in the accounts at the end of the semester?
 * Looking at the stagnating money mid-semester could help.
 * Have groups submit initial funding requests by 2/24 at midnight. On a certain date, we will clear the money from general accounts except for events and trips occurring after that date (3/24?). The meeting food account is not going to be touched – this would not go into their initial budget
 * The entire semester, student groups can do rolling funding
 * The idea is to have the group send in initial funding requests ASAP


 * We have to do a really good job of explaining this at Signer Seminar!
 * Jackie rescinds her block. FiCom approves of this decision. We need to sit down before Signer Seminar so that we can write the language for it.
 * We also need to talk to COCA before Signer Seminar
 * Meeting adjourned 6:42PM