Dear fellow students,
We publish this column in order to keep UTLaw students up to date with SLS money-spending and decision-making. Below is a breakdown of the SLS 2011-2012 budget, as well as an explanation of various costs that were incurred throughout the academic year.
(A) Club Funding
The SLS’s club funding policies as of January 2012 are as follows:
- A maximum of $200 was allocated per lunch/meal, with an annual maximum of $400 for lunch/meal events per club. Lunch/meals were not provided for purely student-run events (events without outside speakers).
- A maximum of $100 was allocated per non-meal catered event, with an annual maximum of $200 for non-meal catered events per club.
- A maximum of $20 was provided per speaker gift. The SLS does not subsidize gifts that are alcoholic in nature.
- A maximum of $5 per movie rental, and $15 for movie snacks, was provided.
- Clubs were entitled to up to $10 for their Clubs Fair tabling costs.
- Up to $5 per event was provided for printing costs.
- The SLS does not provide funding for: food at internal meetings, paid student positions, year-end parties, student travel costs, or for professional coaches/paid speakers. In addition, alcohol is never subsidized by the SLS.
As stated in our November budget article, we apply these policies to club funding to ensure that the finite funds available are fairly distributed.
We made some changes to the club funding process this year. We reserved the normal amount for second semester funding requests (approximately $5000), but also added a requirement that all clubs submit a mid year report to us at the beginning of the second semester. Every year, a large surplus accumulates in large part due to the fact that clubs are allocated more money than they eventually use. This is often unavoidable, as a club’s planned events will never turn out exactly as projected at the beginning of the year. By requiring mid year reports, we were able to see what funds clubs had been allocated for first semester events which had not been used (nor was intended to be used in second semester) and we were able to recycle those funds back into second semester club funding. This amounted to approximately $1800. Because of this, we felt we were able to safely increase maximum amounts for lunch-event and non-lunch food event funding, allowing all clubs more flexibility in their event planning.
Club funding is a tricky process: we cannot allow the maximum amounts permitted for each event to get too high initially, or there will not be enough money leftover for second semester club funding requests. There will always be money unused in first semester club events, but that amount can vary greatly, so accounting for it in the amount saved for second semester funding (by reserving less money) is not advisable. In addition, there are always fewer requests for second semester funding (as most clubs request all-year funding in the first semester) but the total amount is unpredictable. Because of these variables, the amount leftover after all club funding allocations have been made is also unpredictable.
This year, there was approximately $2700 leftover from this expanded second semester club-funding pool. We allocated this amount to Law Ball (please see section (E) for further explanation).
We have also required of all clubs that they submit financial reports to us by the end of year. At this point, we will be able to tell how much of the overall club funding pool was used this year and will adjust next year’s funding policies accordingly. We will also recommend to next year’s executive members that they publish an article very early in the 2012-2013 academic year that fully explains the club funding process so that clubs applying for funding have a deeper understanding of the process and what they are entitled to.
(B) Halloween Party
In October 2011, the SLS threw its annual Halloween Party in Flavelle. Because of poor continuation of information from the prior year regarding this event, we were unsure of all the costs that would be involved in the current event. As such, we made a conservative estimate and set cover at $10 per person, while lowering the price of drinks.
We ended up with approximately $2,700 in revenue from this event. We had voted before this event that any profit would be put toward Law Ball costs.
We have recommended to next year’s executive to reduce the price of attendance from $10 a person to $5. We have also made a very detailed memo regarding this event for next year’s executive so that the 2012 event can be the best Halloween party yet!
(C) UofT-Osgoode Men’s Basketball Game Fund
In September, we allocated $500 to a UofT-Osgoode sporting event. We knew the interest and attendance on the part of U of T had been sporadic and we, therefore, should have started planning immediately. Instead, we focused on SLS’s many other activities and made the mistake of pushing back planning of the tournament until January. In January, when we were asked to fund the men’s intramural basketball team’s participation in an existing Osgoode Hall tournament we granted this funding, as per our club funding policy of $20/team member/tournament. We discussed that it was not ideal that that only men would be playing and that this should be different next year. However, we decided that even a partial event was preferable to no event at all. As such, we allocated only $150 of the original $500 to advertising and promoting this game as a spirit event.
We knew that interest and attendance on the part of U of T in the event had been sporadic. Therefore we should have begun planning immediately; instead we focused on SLS’s many other activities and didn’t talk a lot about the tournament until January. This shouldn’t happen again. It’s not conducive to planning a co-ed, signature sporting competition between UTLaw and Osgoode. It contributed to our rushed and insufficiently consultative decisionmaking in January.
We should not have made this decision before approaching the girls’ basketball team for their opinion. Again, we would like to apologize to female athletes who would have liked to play in a co-ed basketball game this year. We will recommend to next year’s executive that participation of both genders and organization of this event in the first semester are absolutely necessary to ensure a successful UofT-Osgoode sporting event.
With the remaining $350 of this sporting event fund, we allocated $200 to providing food for the three SLS Focus Group Meetings to Back-End Debt Relief program, which were Friday morning meetings, attended by randomly selected participants. We allocated a further $100 to coffee houses, and the remaining $50 to Law Ball.
(D) Coffee Houses
After our first coffee house in November, we found that more money was required to feed the increasing number people that were attending these events. Approximately $170 was spent per event to provide snacks and drinks to the many students who attended to see their peers display their talents.
(E) Law Ball
This year, we lost a major sponsor for Law Ball, and were unable to seek further sponsorship. Because of this, we were required to use more of SLS money to fund the event. We had initially allocated $4000 to the event (as per the recommendation of last year’s exec), plus the revenue from the Halloween Party. In addition, we allocated the money that remained from the second semester club funding pool. Part of the reason that we chose to do this is that we felt that at this point in the year (late January) there was very little we could have put this money towards to the benefit of the students of this academic year.
In total, the SLS put approximately $9,400 toward this event. The cost per guest was over $90, with tickets priced at $65: we chose this pricing in order to make the event accessible to as many students as possible, as well as to stay in line with students’ expectations given the pricing of previous years’ events. However, each ticket was not, in effect, subsidized by $35: we used revenue from the bar to help cover costs for the event. We were able to host approximately 450 law students and their guests, and we are very happy with how the event turned out.
(F) Unexpected Survey Cost
At the beginning of the year, we had allocated $200 to Survey Monkey for SLS’s survey needs throughout the year; these surveys are used to ensure that the SLS is fully aware of the opinions and thoughts of the UTLaw student body on a variety of issues.
However, there were unexpected complications: we discovered that students using Utorwin wi-fi could not access Survey Monkey. This would have seriously reduced the rate of survey completion. As such, we looked for an alternative provider. We subscribed with FluidSurveys for two months at the cost of $155. As Survey Monkey has been paid this yearly fee in advance, cancellation of this cost was not feasible in the circumstances. We will contact Survey Monkey regarding the technical glitch to see if any of this money is recoverable.
In order to make room for this cost, we have allocated the remaining $60 from the coffee house fund; we were also notified by the organizers of the SPINlaw conference that $60 that they were allocated was unused; there was also approximately $50 that was unused from the Osgoode-UTLaw basketball game.
If you have any questions or comments, please contact Vice-President Student Affairs Rhea Karvanis at [email protected]. Comments will be incorporated into our suggestions for next year, and used to inform next year’s executive about any changes that the student body feels ought to be made for the 2012-2013 academic year.
Sincerely,
The Students’ Law Society
