Meeting Start Time: 3:28 PM

 

Attendance:

Committee:  Lachance, Taylor, Feeney, Colicci

Excused Absence:  Vutech, Cimbal

Unexcused Absence:  None

Non-Committee:  Wood, Gall, Wilding

 

Committee Discussion:

 

1. Topic 1: Uhuru Sasa Contingency Grant Request
2. Submitted a grant request on november sixth for over two thousand dollars, for their annual kwanzaa ball, held on the eighth of December. There was confusion as to a meeting time, and they showed up on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving (when the committee didn’t have a meeting).
3. They were never told that committee did not have a meeting that day.
4. They signed up for at least three different meetings, but none of them ended up happening.

• Committee has quorum.

1. They figured out how much money they needed for food, and this was well over a thousand dollars itself. Their event is sold out. They wanted a DJ and decorations, but committee doesn’t have enough time now to get this on the floor in the Senate to permit them more than one thousand dollars.
2. They do not have a treasurer signature on the grant request form.
3. We can approve this beforehand, so long as we get the signature on the request before we hand it into the accounting office.
4. They are requesting $800 for food and $200 for decorations.

• Group is charging admission, meaning that the committee has to switch this from General to Programming. Organization will need to pay back this amount with any of the proceeds that they collect from the event.
• Taylor motions to vote on this request.

                                                        1.   4-0-0

2. Topic 2: Cigar Stipends
3. Cigar was budgeted with nine months of stipends. For the past several years, the plan was that they would receive eight months of stipends. Accounting is asking committee to consider this today, as paperwork must be submitted tomorrow
   1. The cigar only prints one paper in the first week of December, and one paper during the full month of January.
   2. This means that people are doing two weeks of work, for four weeks of stipends.
   3. Account office thinks that it is ethically problematic for the Finance Committee to give them the stipends during these two months.
4. The thought process here is that the money that is being allocated for their stipends for that month could be put somewhere that it is better.
5. If the committee votes yes on this, they will be paid for 25% of the two months that is January and December. Meaning, 2 out of 8 weeks will be stipended
   1. Feeney says that the Bylaws state that the months of break don’t count and should be stipended.
   2. Taylor says that the accounting office wanted it known that the Senate itself doesn’t get January stipends. SCC is neither stipended on a monthly or semester basis, but on a quarterly basis. We can reconsider budgeting practices if it is made a priority next week, but there are differences in how people are being paid.

• Feeney doesn’t think that he can vote to change stipends because the Cigar is not here to consult with. However, Taylor says that he did speak with them about this, and they are understanding of it.

1. Vote on this to change the stipends for the Cigar, limiting it to 25% of the eight weeks of January and December.

                                     i.      3-1-0

 

 

Meeting Adjournment Time: 4:05 PM