The Undergraduate Finance Board
Undergraduate Finance Board Box 1331 Brown University Providence, RI 02912 Phone: 401-863-3230 Email: ufb@brown.edu Website: http://students.brown.edu/ufb
How to Get Money: Supplemental Funding Requests
So you’re planning an event – a lecture, a dance, a spoken word night; maybe even a noodle-making extravaganza with the Chinese Food Truck guy. Fantastic! You came to the right place. The Student Activities Fee is in place for your group, for your event, and for you. It is allocated by students for students, and it is the mission statement of UFB to support financially to the greatest extent possible given existing resources every eligible group based on its needs to meet its goals. In other words, the members of UFB try as best they can to allocate the funds such that every group at Brown will have enough money to accomplish anything that the group wants to do. Unfortunately, the Student Activities Fee has stifled recently, facing no increase since 2005, rising costs of Media Services, DPS, and Facilities, increasing numbers of Category III student groups, and unavoidable inflation. It is impossible to fund most funding requests in full because of these rising costs coupled with the Student Activities Fee stagnation. The total amount of requests for last year totaled approximately $1.7 million, while the Student Activities Fund totaled approximately $900,000; there is unfortunately a clear discrepency between the amount of funding ability and funding demand. Increases in the Student Acivities Fee is the most direct way of expanding this ability. We appreciate the hard work of the signatories and the impressive feats that our fellow students somehow manage to accomplish, and hence we will try out hardest to make every ounce of this hard work worth it to everyone who comes and requests funding. We will make it our priority to make sure that every event can happen, and recognize that every dollar that is given over what is needed is a dollar that could force another event to not happen. The following steps outline the necessary, mandatory steps a group signatory must take in order to secure funding from the Undergraduate Finance Board. These steps are mandatory in order to make sure that there is a constant flow of communication between the student groups and UFB. It is through these steps that UFB will have ample information in order to make a prudent budget decision and that the student groups will have ample feedback to avoid any unanticipated funding limitations imparted on them. If a group does not follow these steps, there will most likely not be enough information included in the request in order for UFB to make a decision, and the group signatory may be asked to return with
that information. The steps are detailed in the following document, and are listed below: # Step 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Contact Your UFB Representative Fund Raise from External Sources Examine Cheaper Alternatives Prepare Your Budget Request Meet with Your UFB Representative Again Submit Your Request on myGroups Present the Request at a UFB Meeting Tabled Proposals/Appeals Timeline
Four weeks before event Four weeks before event Three weeks before event Three weeks before event Two – three weeks before event Two weeks before event Two weeks before event
If you are a programmer for a cultural week or month, please see the separate document on the View/Apply For a Budget page, entitled “Cultural Weeks/Months” 1) Contact Your UFB Representative
Suggested Timeline: Four weeks before start of event or sooner
Your UFB Rep, found at http://students.brown.edu/ufb/reps.php, is your advocate on UFB. She is the primary liaison between your group and UFB, and will represent all of your interests and relay everything that you tell her that you wish to be shared in the closed-door deliberations. She will also assist you in your budgeting process, in letting you know what kinds of expenses UFB will fund and not fund. She will tell you how to present your budget, give you feedback on your event, and suggest some other sources of funding to look into before asking UFB. Through her time on UFB, your representative will have acquired some ins-and-outs of fund raising and cost-cutting that will help you out in your request. Do this as early as possible – as soon as you have the idea in your head, talk to your UFB Rep. The more that she knows about your group and your event, the better she will be able to represent you on the Board. 2) Fund Raise from External Sources
Suggested Timeline: Four weeks before the start of the event
Using the information from your meeting with your UFB Rep, look for some external sources of funding. Send out the emails, make the calls, have the meetings: the more fund raising you can do, the more flexibility you will have with your funds.
Here are some possible avenues for funding: -Department heads with a relation to your group’s event -Religious instutitions that may have some interest -Maddock Alumni Center for rules on asking for alumni donations -National, larger, parent organizations of your specific group -Office of the President/Vice President -Residential Life, OSL -Athletics for club sports -Late Night Fund for new, non-alcoholic weekend events -Local businesses -Member dues -Co-sponsorship from other groups You would be surprised as to what organizations give you money! Many times departments with a minute relation to your organization will give a small donation of about $25 - $50. Individually these don’t amount to very much, but communally they can make quite an impact. If your event is a for-profit event, you may also want to consider a loan from UFB. Loans need to be paid back by the end of the semester, but otherwise have no interest or other restrictions. However, if your group takes out a loan and does not pay it back in full by the last day of reading period, your account is automatically and immediately frozen until you pay it back. Many groups take out loans to sposor large-scale events, such as BCA for Spring Weekend Concerts and Brown Key Society for the Gala. If your event is a non-profit event, you may want to look into charging for tickets to an amount that would match your expected expenses. UFB does not fund forprofit events except by loans, but we do not penalize for charging admission if it is only to cover the costs of the event. 3) Examine Cheaper Alternatives
Suggested Timeline: Three weeks before the start of the event
Look closely at your event and make sure that you are examining the cheapest alternative every step of the way. Can your lecturer take Amtrak instead of having a full-day car service from Boston? Is it really necessary to have three wires microphones in addition to all of the wired audio set up? Can you bargain down the honorarium to a more reasonable amount? Many speakers will throw out an honorarium that’s exorbitantly high just to see how much the University would pay for the lecture, and then lower it to a quarter of the original value when asked.
Is the venue the cheapest you can find? Would it be possible to have the event in Salomon 101, where Media Services is covered, instead of Alumnae Hall, which also requires external lighting services from ATR Treehouse? Do you really need 100 full color posters for an expected audience of 100 people? Is there any way you can arrange with facilities to set up the chairs yourself instead of paying them to set them up? Can you have a student DJ the event instead of hiring a professional? The more of an effort you take to examine cheaper possibilities and cut costs, the more we will accurately be able to tell how much your group actually needs to run the event. If you find that none of these attempts work out, tell your Rep about the work you’ve been doing any way so that the Board knows that the measures have already been looked into. 4) Prepare Your Budget Request
Suggested Timeline: Two and a half weeks before the start of the event
Once you know examined other sources of funding and spent some time examining cheaper alternatives, you should prepare a document outlining all of the information that you have gained over the past couple weeks. Include an introduction, telling UFB about what the event is about and how it relates to the mission of your group. Then tell UFB what you’re doing – tell us what measures you took to fund raise and cost cut, tell us why you need the money for the event to take place, tell us how many people are coming, and tell us if you plan on selling tickets. Create an outline giving as much detail as possible, and go through and explain each expense for which you are requesting money. After you wrote the document, examine the UFB Line Items found at http://students.brown.edu/ufb/line items.doc, off of the View/Apply for a Group Budget tab. There are eight line items in which funding is organized, including: -Supplies -Printing and Publicity -External Services -University Services -Travel -Dues/Fees -Other -Social Fund
After you have a good idea of what expense fits into which line item, you can go to the Request Template, http://students.brown.edu/ufb/requesttemplate.xls. The Request Template is an Excel spreadsheet that outlines what Line Items your group is requesting for and how much you are requesting. The reason why UFB insists on this template is because it provides a clear summary of what your group is requesting; there have been times when UFB allocated the wrong amounts because of different numbers within the document compared to the final statement. 5) Meet With Your UFB Representative Again
Suggested Timeline: Two weeks before the start of the event
Hopefully, you and your UFB Rep have been in constant contact throughout the process, with him answering any question you might have had and you giving him more insight on the event. After you finish your outline, have a second meeting with your UFB Representative and have him go over your specific request. He will review your proposal and give you some revisions or ammendments, and make some lastminute suggestions. Arrange a time to come in when to a meeting in the next week, and your UFB Rep will make sure that he is at the meeting. 6) Submit Your Budget Request on myGroups
Suggested Timeline: Two weeks before the start of the event
myGroups is a new software purchased after the Fall of 2006. It is a web-based system that was bought for the purpose of making things easier for student group leaders. Try it out! There are many features of myGroups, including easier mass-emailing, announcement, and membership management systems. The web address for myGroups is http://mygroups.brown.edu/. In addition to these other features, myGroups has a financial package that will help you in your fund raising endeavor. With this package, you can review all of your account balances, including your Raised Funds account and your UFB account. No more going to the SAO and inopportune moments to find out how much money is in your Printing and Publicity line item – now you just have to log in from home and check by yourself. In order to make this accessability possible, you need to submit your budget request on myGroups before coming in to UFB and presenting your budget. It’s quite simple – you just go to the finance module of myGroups and enter in your request line item by line item. After you are finished, you will have a series of
“Pending” budget requests that are waiting to be approved by UFB. When UFB approves the request, the money is automatically passed into your account and is immediately ready to be used.
Step 1: Go to the Group Management Tab Step 2: Select Your Organization from the List Step 3: Select Financial Requests
Select “New Funding Request” to open a New Funding Request Form.
Submit one form for every receiving line item. Receiving line item account should be specified under “Account.” For Loan Requests, select “raised funds.”
Subject should be: “Semester Year Supplemental Budget Request,” “Semester Year Loan Request,” “Semester Year Line Item Transfer from [insert line item name, e.g. BFS external svc],” or “Intergroup Transfer from [insert name of group transfer would come from, as well as the line item.]. Remember: submit multiple forms if you have more than one receiving line item; if you have more than one sending line item, specify line items and amounts in the Request Details. Insert details to justify the request in Request Details following any directions regarding originating account for any transfers.
Select a Category: “Transfer” for Line Item Transfer or Intergroup Transfer “Income: Loan” for a Loan “Income: Supplemental” for a new funding request (“Income: Budget” is only used during April budgeting for the following year).
7) Present the Request at a UFB Meeting
Suggested Timeline: Two weeks before the start of the event
The Undergraduate Finance Board meets every Tuesday and Thursday at 8:00 PM in Faunce 201. You may come to any UFB meeting, but as stated it is recommended that you arrange a time with your UFB Representative to make sure that she will be there to promote your cause. Please bring twelve copies of your proposal. It is very helpful for each individual member of the Board to have a separate copy; it makes it easier to see what is being presented. If your group is unable to provide twelve copies, please just bring as many as possible. UFB meetings consist of two parts: open deliberations and closed deliberations. You will come during open deliberations and present your proposal before the Board, and the members of the Board will ask you any questions they may have. You will have the oppurtunity to ask us anything, as well, and make any comments you wish. After all the groups have presented, UFB will discuss the matters in closed deliberations. UFB has closed deliberations in order to make sure that there is as little bias in the funding decisions as possible. Decisions restricting the amount of money a group will get are very, very hard to make. Having a crowd of people in front of the Board would put undue pressure on the Board as a whole, and decisions could not be made as neutrally as in closed deliberations. It is not fair to give the larger, more orchestrated groups an inherent advantage when they have twenty or more people occupying the seats of Faunce 201 putting pressure on each member to vote one way or another. In addition, closed deliberations allow an unhindered freedom of speech that could not be met with open deliberations. The members of the Undergraduate Finance Board are not administrators or souless budgeting machines. They are students, just like you, and would feel uncomfortable talking about the merits of an event in front of the person that spent so much time to prepare it. There will be closed deliberations minutes detailing the exchanges and comments taking place during the deliberations. Both open and closed deliberation minutes are posted every week at http://students.brown.edu/ufb/minutes.php Decisions are made the night of the proposal, and will be mailed to you either that night or early the next morning. Your UFB Representative will also describe for you, in detail, the Undergraduate Finance Board’s reasoning behind the decision. If there is ever a point where you feel as if you did not receive enough feedback
concerning a budget decision, either email your representative or ryan_mott@brown.edu and express your concern. 8) Tabled Proposals/Appeals If the Undergraduate Finance Board finds that they need an additional piece of information in order to make a conclusive decision, your UFB Representative will contact you and tell you that your proposal has been tabled. Your UFB Rep will describe to you the information necessary to make such a decision, and ask you to come to the next meeting. A tabled proposal is neither an allocation nor disallowance; it just means that we didn’t have quite enough information. If the Undergraduate Finance Board decides to not fund your proposal in part or in full, and you feel that the event will not go on unless money has been allocated, you may appeal to UFB and come to the next UFB meeting. Examine the Board’s reasoning and discuss why you believe it is flawed. Most likely, the Board misinterepreted some important piece of information that was presented. If the Board decides to keep the original decision, and you feel the need to appeal yet again, there is a second appeal process outlined in the UFB Constitution, at http://students.brown.edu/ufb/constitution.php. This second appeals process, outlined in Article IX, consists of recruiting a eight-member ad hoc board composed of two members of the Undergraduate Council of Students, two members of the Student Union, three members of the Faunce House Student Activities Board, and the non-voting Director of Student Activities. It should be noted that this particular Article is currently under consideration by UFB for the possibility of amendment. The process may change later on in the year to create a more streamlined, robust way of creating a second level of appeals. However, under no circumstances will the second level of appeals disappear. Good luck on your event! If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, contact your UFB Representative or myself at ryan_mott@brown.edu. Sincerely, Ryan Mott ’09 Chair of the Undergraduate Finance Board ryan_mott@brown.edu (607) 280-2425