How do I get money allocated to my organization?

There are four major hurdles separating your organization from a pile of student body cash. These are the Signator's Meeting, Activities Fair, Funding Poll, and Funding Circus.

Activities Fair

On Tuesday, January 28th, the Activities Fair will be held in the SU during lunch from 11:00a - 2p. This is your chance to:

• Promote your organization to both new and returning students.
• Sign up members.
• Meet new and exciting people.
• Get new ideas for programs and activities.

The Activities Fair is a valuable promotional resource. There will be table space for each organization. In planning for the fair, remember that an empty table doesn't invite very many questions. Make your table exciting with displays, handouts, food, crafts, movies, etc. Act lively. The magic is inside you: and you need to share it with the people who will be voting to fund your organization.

Funding Poll

The Funding Poll is a chance for the student body to vote for the organizations that they feel deserve funding for the semester. The description of your organization that you submit online will constitute your entry in the funding poll - so it should offer an intelligent summary of why you want money, and what you're going to do with it.

The Funding Poll is held in Commons, the Mailroom, and the Library Lobby during lunch hours and in the evening for three days, beginning the same day as the Activities Fair. Don't forget to vote - and encourage all you pals as well. You also might want to make signs advertising your organization while the Funding Poll is taking place.

The poll is filled out on a Scantron sheet. Each organization is assigned a number and voted on using this scoring system:

• Top six +4
• Approve +1
• No Opinion 0 (You uncaring louts!)
• Disapprove -1/2
• Deep six -2

The scores are added and the results are posted by Friday night in Commons and in the Library Lobby.

The Funding Poll results determine the order in which Senate sees signators during Funding Circus. This has an indirect impact on how much money you get because the earlier Senate sees you, the more exciting your request will seem. Only the top 40 ranked organizations will be seen during Funding Circus. Remaining groups will be automatically zero funded at the beginning of the semester, but this does not mean that your organization will not receive any funds for activities during the semester. You are strongly encouraged to request funds for your organization through Finance Committee.

Finance Committee Meetings will be held in a location to be announced in the Student Union on Mondays at 6:00 p.m.

How to Get on the Funding Poll

Submit a brief, snazzy description of your organization to the Treasurer by midnight on Sunday, January 26th. Please submit all poll entries on the form provided on the web at http://web.reed.edu/community/sb/Senate/signators.

Funding Circus

Now that your organization has participated in the Funding Poll, the next step is to tell Senate how much money you want, and what you want the money for. This happens at Funding Circus. Each signator has a few minutes to present their budget to Senate. Keep in mind that Senate has to listen to these presentations all day, so the more interesting yours is, the better. Again, this is why you want to do well in the funding poll.

Funding Circus Timeline

Before you can participate in Funding Circus, you need to:

1. Fill out the on-line budget request form. You will submit your budget on the web before Funding Circus. This will save time and money which makes everyone happy. Please go the same web page used for submitting funding poll descriptions: http://web.reed.edu/community/sb/Senate/signators. On-line budgets must be submitted to the student body by 9pm on Friday, January 31st.

2. Make an easy-to-read itemized budget with a line by line explanation of what you want to spend the money on. It is important that you organize your budget both according to Senate's categorical guidelines (see below), as well as in a manner that prioritizes your requests. This might mean grouping items that are related to one another, ranking major items or groups of items, etc. You also want to have as precise information as possible - regarding prices, stores, times, dates, places, etc. See our helpful example in the appendix for inspiration.

The day of Funding circus you need to:

3. Show up to Circus at the time Senate has scheduled to see you. If you are unable to attend, please send a proxy.

4. Sign the signator's contract.

5. Present your budget. Be prepared to answer many questions.

• How extensive is your organization? i.e. do people show up to your meetings?
• What takes priority in your budget?
• Why should the student body give you money?

6. Leave and enjoy the rest of your day.

Budget Request Form

A handy explanation:

1. WAGES: Total salary for you and all of your underlings.

• Wages are rarely given to signators.
• Wages can only be paid to currently enrolled Reed Students. If you are budgeting for a band, speaker, or other outside contractor, this money should be listed under Entertainment and should be a lump sum, not an hourly amount.
• Don't forget to budget wages for SU cleaners if you plan to have an event in the SU. Talk to Andrew Rumbach or Jimmy Robson for details. [SU cleaning is typically $80 for an evening event, but can vary with size, messiness, etc.]
• If you plan to use Kaul Auditorium, contact Maryanne Dehner in CEP for staffing fees.
• If you plan to serve alcohol at your event, you will need to budget for appropriate staffing as well, along with money to pay for either bon Appetite or OLCC trained servers. (See Guidelines for Events with Alcohol.)
• Don't forget to budget wages for Sound Kollektiv - contact Harold Gabel for details. [SK workers are paid $10 and hour. The number of workers, and the amount of set-up and take-down time, varying depending on what equipment you require]

2. ADMINISTRATION: This covers the basic operating expenses for the organization, including photocopying, postage, office supplies, fees, subscriptions- basically things that are used for organizing or producing an event, creating a project, etc.

• Organizations will usually only be given $5 for photocopying.
• We expect organizations to use the office supplies available in the Studies Activities, and Student Action offices. Every organization doesn't get their own package of crayons or box of paper.
• Senate does not pay for transportation to buy things (so don't ask for gas money).
• Senate does not post bail.

3. REFRESHMENTS: Any food or drink, either to be served to the public, or at a special event.

• Everyone likes to eat. Don't expect to get money in this category unless it's vital.
• Senate doesn't buy food for meetings. Your draw should be your organization, not nourishment.
• Bon Appetite has a contract with the college that says that they get the first bid on any catering job on campus. This means that if you want to use student body funds for catered food, you have to ask them first. If they determine that they cannot fill your order, you may use an outside caterer.

4. ENTERTAINMENT: Bands, guest speakers, and movies. No Strippers.

• All activities must be cleared with Corey Landstrom, Director of Student Activities. Go to the Student Activities Office (GCC 104) to fill out an Event Reservation Form (ERF) and to receive contracts for bands or speakers.
• If you plan on showing ANY sort of movie or film, you must have official permission from the copyright holder. You can't just go to Block-Buster or buy a copy at Freddies. Talk to Jamie Ford from Movie Board for details.

5. CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS: Anything that your organization will keep and use for more than a semester. An example of this would be an inflatable Ronald MacDonald, not condoms.

• Include in your budget where the items will be kept. If the student body does not have easy access to the stuff, you probably won't be allocated money to buy it. Also considered the relative secureness of the proposed space.
• It is also good to have information about warranties, plans for maintenance, etc., depending on the type of equipment. Things that are not allowed: Cars, trucks, guns, non-OSHA approved equipment, or any item that poses a legal liability to the college.

6. MISCELLANEOUS: Expenditures that do not fit into any to he above categories. The most common example is T-shirts.

7. REVENUE: This is your estimate of how much money your organization will take in during the semester, through admission prices, fund-raisers, or whatever. This is money you are pledging to give to Senate.

• If you budget revenue, you owe the student body that much money. If your organization ends in the red, you, the signator, will have to pay back the money. We'll charge your business office account. Consider this carefully when creating a budget.

8. FROZEN: These funds are reserved for your organization, but must be okayed (or unfrozen) for use. Frozen funds are usually employed for speakers, performers and other high-priced items that may not be definite by the time of funding circus. To unfreeze funds, go to a Finance Committee meeting with details of your event.

TOTAL: 1+2+3+4+5+6+8 - 7= Total.

Itemized Budget

An itemized budget is a list of how you plan to use the money that you want allocated to your organization. The items will be organized under the headings listed above. These descriptions should provide details about the specific thing you wish to purchase, with a specific price listed. These prices should add up to the amount you listed in the non-itemized section. This lets Senate know exactly where the money will go.

• Prioritize your items. Senate is going to cut your budget. Wouldn't you rather tell them what is least important to you than have them guess?
• Price each item
• Briefly explain why you need each item: if its complicated, save an extensive review for Funding Circus: that's what its there for.
• Don't pad your budget. Senate will be annoyed, and probably end-up cutting more than it normally would to ensure effective spending on your part. (ie: no $10 rolls of Duct-Tape)

Signator's Contract

Sign your life away. We will have them for you at Funding Circus.

• You have to sign one to be a signator.
• It binds you to having read this document, and the Senate Bylaws (see appendix)
• Only one person per organization can sign the contract.
• The person that signs the contract is the only member of the group allowed to sign all official forms for the group, i.e., disbursement request form, loan request form, time slip, etc.

Funding Hell

The next day, Senate takes as much time as is necessary (all day usually) to balance the requests with the actual amount of Student Body Funds available.

Once the budget is balanced, and Senate has decided how much each organization gets, they go home. The allocations are not final, though, until they are ratified at the next Senate meeting. Signator's are taking a risk if they spend money before ratification. After ratification, the amounts are posted around campus and sent to each signator's box with an explanation from Senate as to why parts of their budget were cut. You can only spend money on the specific things you were given funding for.