WHAT ARE PRECEDENTS AND WHAT DO THEY HAVE TO DO WITH ME?
Given the amount of student groups and activities that are funded by the SBC Committee, members of the Committee must do their best to maintain a level of fairness to all groups and students requesting funding. As such, the Committee has developed a set of guidelines by which all proposals are evaluated against to help come to a fair decision in all cases. In order to make student groups more aware of these arcane “precedents” by which proposals are evaluated, some of the most important ones are listed below along with the reasoning behind them. Please be aware however, these precedents are not set in stone and are constantly re-evaluated by each new SBC Committee. As such, even if your proposal runs counter to one of the enumerated precedents, the Committee will still hear it and any extenuating circumstances as to why it should still receive funding.
1.) PRECEDENT: Plane tickets cannot be purchased with SBC funds.
-In order to be able to provide funding equitably for as many student activities on campus as possible, the SBC Committee must take into consideration the cost of each activity and item on a per student basis. Because of the expensive nature of plane tickets, purchasing them for individual students would mean that the Committee would be spending two or three times the amount of one individual’s Student Activity Fee contribution ($336 for the 08-09 year) on another student. As such, the Committee has deemed the purchase of plane tickets to be unfair to the student body as a whole and the SBC mission to provide the most possible from the limited SAF funds. This also means that any activity which has a very high per person cost will be met with scrutiny by the Committee.
2.) PRECEDENT: There is a cap on the amount of funding for group dinners.
-One of the most important events to many groups on campus is a large dinner, often catered, that can be provided for the entire student body. These dinners help promote the message of chartered groups to a larger campus audience and also strengthen group unity as well. In order to be able to provide funding to any chartered group that would like to host such an event, the Committee must limit the total amount that can be given to any individual group. While food is often expensive and the funding cap can limit the amount of people who may attend, it is the best method to ensure that all groups wishing to host dinners receive the same equitable funding. For the past three years, this amount has been set at 500 dollars. For the 2009-2010 school year, the cap has been adjusted for the rising cost of food and been set at 600 dollars.
3.) PRECEDENT: SBC does not fund food for groups while they are at events.
-Many club sports, activist groups, and other chartered clubs attend events such as tournaments and protests that are off campus. As a general rule, the SBC Committee does not fund the cost of food for students while they are at these events. The Committee has no way of ensuring the manner in which such money would be spent, and it is not the mission of the SBC Committee to fund nights out to dinner for groups. Furthermore, funding the food expenses of all groups who travel to off campus events would constitute an enormous expenditure for which the majority of other students on campus would have no way of partaking in the activity. The SBC Committee suggests that most student groups take advantage of Sharples pack-outs, which Dining Services will happily provide if group members are willing to donate their meal numbers.
4.) PRECEDENT: SBC does not retroactively fund.
-This is one of the most important precedents of the SBC Committee and even extends into the handbook given out to group treasurers each year. SBC will not (re)fund any expenditure made by a student or chartered group that was not priorly allocated by the committee. That means, before any event is held or item is purchased, you must have made a proposal and received funding from SBC or any of the focused funding committees (such as FFS and SAC) for the full amount. This is to ensure that funds are spent responsibly and the Committee is not held liable to reimburse any and all expenditures made by student groups.
5.) PRECEDENT: SBC does not fund any costs associated with conferences.
-A long time ago in a land far far away, SBC came to an agreement with the Dean’s office that they would handle the costs of funding for conferences given the large amount of funds that would be required to send any group that would like to attend a conference on a trip. As such, if you would like to request funding for a conference, please send an email to the Dean’s office to get in touch about the amount of funding that can be obtained.