ASF meetings end with surplus

The Activity and Service Fee Budget Committee spent Dec. 12 through Dec. 15 budgeting the $18.9 million for the 2012-2013 fiscal year.

The meetings concluded with a $604,265 surplus. The departments and agencies will be notified of the surplus and allowed to make requests for "dream projects" to be considered by the committee.

The committee will review these requests during their next meeting on Jan. 20.

Two days prior, six of the 36 registered student organizations that submitted budget requests will have had to provide additional information that was not included in their budget packets.

The committee's decision to fund those six RSOs is pending, dependent on whether the RSOs send information to the committee regarding the date and location of conferences they requested funds to attend.

The pending status stems from issues the committee encountered during the meetings in regard to the language of budget guideline No. 10.

The guideline states "For travel requests that include conference attendance, the date and location of the conference must be set by the hosting organization prior to request submission."

The committee had interpreted the guideline to mean that RSOs needed to include the date and location of the conference they wanted funds for in the budget packet.

The committee encountered problems with the language of the guideline during the first of the winter break meetings during RSO presentations.

Before reviewing the requests of RSOs on the third day, the committee went into member discussion regarding the guideline.

The committee passed the following motion after some debate: All RSOs will be contacted by ASF Chair Josh Miller. The organizations that are requesting funding to attend a conference will need to respond within 10 business days of being contacted by Miller with information regarding the date and location of their conference and some sort of documentation that verifies the information provided.

"[The guideline] doesn't say you need to write it down, but it says you need to know the exact date and location, so I don't see why you wouldn't write it in [the budget packet]," Miller said.

He said the next committee should consider including a specific spot in the packet to include the conference information.

Despite the time spent debating the guideline, Michael Preston, the director of the Office of Student Involvement, said he was impressed with the committee and their work.

"Coming from a situation where faculty and staff, where I was previously employed, make the majority of the budgetary decisions in terms of student fees, to see the transparency and the openness and then also the faith that we give our students to make these huge financial decisions … is really a testament to UCF students," Preston said. "It was pretty remarkable to see."

If the budget is ultimately approved as is, Preston, who presented OSI's budget request, is looking forward to the implementation of two graduate student directors in Student Outreach Services and a special events coordinator to help with OSI's signature events.

The budget should be finalized toward the end of the spring semester and will go into effect July 1, 2012.