Talk:Ficom SAF Guidelines (historical, out of date, DO NOT REFERENCE FOR FUNDING PURPOSES)

= Wording "Primary vs. Ultimate" =

Rob, please come in and discuss the SAF Guidelines with FiCom before editing them. They are our primary decision-making document, as noted in our bylaws. Editing them directly is not a constructive way to engage in discussions about the language. I see why you made the edit, but that change requires a vote within FiCom. Agv07 08:06, 3 March 2010 (UTC)


 * My edits did not pertain to the way you conduct business, they pertain to facts you are ignoring. (Rob 21:18, 3 March 2010 (UTC))
 * Can we compromise and remove the statement I altered? The statement as it exists now demonstrates a disregard on FiCom's part for the representative voice of Hampshire students - the SAF is their money, and it is to be overseen by their elected representatives. While we all appreciate the work that FiCom officers put into distributing the SAF to student groups, it is ultimately the collective students of Hampshire College who are in charge of the allocation of that money, and the means by which they insure that to happen is via the oversight of their representatives. Not everyone on campus can take the time to contribute their input in the way you or I can, and my job is to insure that they have someone who can do that for them. (Rob 21:28, 3 March 2010 (UTC))


 * Let me begin by noting that you and I share the same values and goals: to serve the student community and to improve the quality of student life on campus. To draw a rough comparison, you are the senator and I am the high-level government employee, underpaid but devoted to the mission of the institution. I instill these public values in my unpaid "employees," a hard-working group who truly care about empowering student groups to engage in a diverse range of activities. We wouldn't serve on FiCom otherwise. Sit in a room for three hours a week, be despised by the campus, and get paid little or nothing at all? Just because we are not elected does not mean that we do not care deeply about the student community. We do not have a "disregard for the representative voice of the Hampshire community." Community Council holds us responsible to the community, and rightly so, doling out punishment if we become corrupt or inept, but we do in fact have the role of managing the SAF. Rightly so, Council has delegated that role to us, and we work hard to ensure that we are accountable to the student population. At present, we are the most transparent office on campus, by several degrees of magnitude. An example of our devotion to the student community was our insistence on resubmitting all of the COCA-related complaints- there is no rule forcing us to collect comments and complaints from the community, nor is there a rule forcing us to act on them. We do so because we care deeply about serving students and improving the quality of student life.


 * Having said that, as your "government employee," your statements are highly demoralizing. Your and our bylaws reflect the power relationship between our bodies. We do our best to respect that and engage in constructive dialogue. But incorrectly inserting a statement into one of our guiding documents without engaging the whole of FiCom in a conversation is demeaning. We manage the SAF. Council punishes us if we screw that up. Council has much more important matters to address (say, next year's unsustainably large incoming class) than whether a group should receive $2 or $5 for advertising. Agv07 04:02, 4 March 2010 (UTC)


 * First of all - my edit pertained to the single term "ultimate" and that term further pertains to FiCom's authority over the Student Activity Fund. This is not true. FiCom does not have ultimate control over the management of the SAF - it is, as my edit reflected the "primary" body to distribute SAF funding. You are misconstruing what my edit encompassed. So far, the guidelines say that FiCom is "the ultimate body responsible for the management of the Student Activities Fee (SAF)." This is just not correct. FiCom is not the ultimate body responsible for management of the SAF. That statement is what demonstrates a disregard for council's duties, not necessarily FiCom as a body.


 * Further, you are missing my point that you and the FiCom body are not elected representatives, you are active members of the community, but there exists other members of Hampshire's community who do not have the time to devote to the job of managing the Student Activity Fund, and as much as you may care about the students you work for, you are still not chosen to represent their interests by them. Some people simply cannot make it into FiCom to speak up for themselves.


 * Personally, I am very glad FiCom took the initiative to poll the student community on their thoughts of FiCom and COCA when Council was unable to due to dropout representatives.


 * You are not my employee, you are the Student Body's employee via approval from Council. More importantly however, you keep bringing up my edit as though it changes the way FiCom operates. My edit was a clarification of a misrepresentation - FiCom is not the ultimate manager of the SAF - it is the primary, but not the ultimate. My edit had nothing to do with how FiCom runs internally at all. Have you even read it? I had thought that the wording was just inadvertently hijacking a function of Community Council, but if you feel it is not, and completely intentional, then I will certainly add to our agenda in council that it be changed immediately - because as it stands, it is both a false statement and one undermining to the sustenance of the main representative body of Hampshire students. This is not a disagreement with a way you conduct business, this is disagreement with FiCom's (mis)representation of its responsibilities.(Rob 05:02, 4 March 2010 (UTC))


 * (The edit:) FiCom is accountable, as the primary body responsible for the distribution of the Student Activities Fee (SAF) to determine, in cooperation with Community Council, a set of guidelines that allow a responsible, transparent, fair, and effective use of the Student Activities Fee.


 * We are not "ignoring facts." We are well aware of the decision-making structures, and respect Council's role in overseeing the subcommittees. But it is our role to manage the SAF. It is not Council's role to manage the SAF. Council only steps in if we screw up. It's a simple delegation of responsibilities. Check out the Agreement of Best Practices. Council can only overturn decisions; they cannot fund directly out of 601, for very good reasons. If you want to continue this discussion, feel free to come to a FiCom meeting. Agv07 01:22, 9 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Community Council Bylaws, Article I, Section B.4: [The purpose of Community Council shall be:] "To collect, maintain, and distribute the Student Activities Fee."


 * This sounds like management to me. Yes the management is delegated to FiCom, but no, FiCom is not the "ultimate body responsible for the management of the Student Activities Fee". And where is the "Agreement of Best Practices"? I can't find it.(Rob 17:52, 26 March 2010 (UTC))