Student Assembly Finance Commission
September 14, 2009
5:00 p.m. — 6:00 p.m.
163 Day Hall

I. Call to Order

The Meeting was called to order at 5:00 p.m.

II. Roll Call

Commissioners

Lee Blum, Ming Dang, Charlie Feng, D. Gusz, Rahul Kishore, Brandon Levitan, Jason Marder, Yuliya Neverova, Joseph Nocciolino, Vivien Pillet, Scott Rog, Lauren Rosenblum, Benjamin Schreff, Cameron Scott, Samantha Wiener, Cathy You, Jessica Zhao, Justin Min

Club Sports Representatives

Annie Linker, Katherine Lange

III. Business of the Day

Database system feedback/ Food options/Budget hearing preparations

Y. Neverova asked the commissioners if they heard any feedback about the new online budget system.

B. Levitan said that one group had a problem with the online application requiring an old advisor’s approval.

Y. Neverova said that the groups needed to manually submit the documents because the old advisor s are no longer involved affiliated with the group.

D. Gusz asked about the group checklists for the hearings.

Y. Neverova said that the checklist should be in the budget hearing folders.

D. Ming said that one group encountered limitations in the comment space, and asked if groups need to submit comments by hand if they needed additional room.

C. Feng asked if it would be possible for groups to submit PDFs on the database.

Y. Neverova said that the comment section was limited to 500 characters, and agreed that this needed to be changed.

J. Zhao asked who needed to approve the budgets for the groups, and by when.

Y. Neverova said that the deadline of approval from the office was extended to this Tuesday. After talking about the database system, she said that she thought everyone should be capable of maneuvering the system and reading the budgets.

C. Feng said that all the budgets would be printed out, with the checklist and automated priorities.

Y. Neverova no said that there would be no budget take-in day this semester. The only thing the office will be checking are the advisor approvals and budget hearing signups. She said that only 60 groups signed up for budget hearings so far, meaning that 300 groups would be coming by the office tomorrow. She encouraged the commissioners to come relieve some of the work load at the office tomorrow.

C. Feng talked about the individual rationales and group allocation priorities. He said that the new members would be paired with the older commissioners to get a better idea of how to fill out rationales.

Y. Neverova groups would need to figure from the rationales what was wrong in their budget, and decide if they will or will not appeal. She asked the commissioners to bring their handbooks, their new SAFC t-shirts, and calculators.

B. Schreff said that groups can see rationales, and asked the commissioners to be clear and professional when filling them out.

V. Pillet presented the food options for this weekend, and commissioner discussion ensued.

J. Marder asked if it would be easier if the commissioners brought personal laptops to the hearings.

Y. Neverova responded that it would be helpful, since the laptops that the office provides can sometimes be slow.

S. Rog recalled that the Internet was a problem during past budget hearings.

Y. Neverova agreed , and again briefly went over what was to be expected at the budget hearings.

IV. Meeting was adjourned at 5:40 pm.

Respectfully Submitted,
Valerie Pocus
SAFC Clerk, Office of the Assemblies