Guide to Budget Template 08-09
Budgets for 08-09 are up ONLINE: (called 'Budget spreadsheet,' under Finance forms): http://www.imperialcollegeunion.org/clubs-and-societies/forms,109,ICUAP.html The deadline for submitting your club budget is 5pm, Mon 28th Jan. This is the ABSOLUTE deadline; if your submission is late, you will get NO GRANT. It will be that simple. When you've done it, please email it as an attachment to scc.chair@imperial.ac.uk and scc.treasurer@imperial.ac.uk. Please save it as: clubcode_budget0809 (e.g. the SCC Exec one would be: 200_budget0809).
Why you should fill it in:
EVERY club should fill one of these in (you'll find a point saying that you will in your constitutions.) If you charge £2 or more, you need to complete this budget and submit it in order to ask for a grant from the Union for the running of your club for next year. If you charge less than £2 (or nothing), you should also fill in a budget for your anticipated club activities for next academic year so the Union knows what sorts of things you're planning, and so we know you've thought about it and actually have plans for next year. It doesn't take that long, and isn't that hard. I'll keep nagging you till you do. You will cause infinite problems and issues for your club and next yr's committee if you don't.
Notes about filling it in:
First thing: Only try to type in the BLUE BOXES. They're the only ones that will let you. If you do anything that isn't allowed, the spreadsheet won't let you, will have an annoying pop-up box pop-up and tell you why. So fix whatever it is you did wrong. Page 1 - Introduction: tells you briefly what to do. Page 2 - Overview: This is the page for your club details and membership fee you're wanting to charge for next year. o IMPORTANT: 'Membership target' - think about this CAREFULLY! This means the number of members you're confidant of achieving for next year. If you get allocated a grant, this is also the number of members that you MUST achieve in order for the full amount of your grant to be released to you. So if you hope to get 40 members, but are only confidant in getting 30 - write 30. o This page helps you in deciding what to put down as your membership target and fee as it states what membership you managed to achieve in the past two years and what you charged for students. I wouldn’t expect anything to differ dramatically in either of these categories, unless you’ve massively expanded your club activities this year. o Membership must cost £2 or more and target membership must be 20 or more for you to be eligible for a grant. o In the boxes for Aims and Objectives and Planned Activities – put something that will make your case for why you should be given a grant. Be informative, truthful and unpretentious. If it is grammatically correct and witty, that helps too. This is also where you can highlight things such as increased membership/activities, etc. Page 3 - Budget Submission o The FUN bit! Where you put in what things you think your club will spend money on, and how much subsidy you want for it.
Page Two helpfully gives you what you got allocated for this year: ‘Subsidy allocated in 2007-08’, so use that as a bit of a guide. o ‘Category’ – e.g. Consumables, Affiliations, Copyright Materials – there is a drop-down box, so you can’t really go wrong. o ‘Description’ – what it ACTUALLY IS that you’re asking for. E.g. if you put ‘Consumables’ under category, this read say, ‘Pencils for weekly drwaing classes’ or ‘Paper for taking notes on at weekly seminars.’ Or if you put ‘Affiliations’ under Category, then this could read: ‘Affiliation to National Wombat Appreciation Organisation (National Governing Body)’ Try and make this as detailed as possible. o ‘Rank’ – What order of importance you think that item is for getting a grant. This is very useful, because I'll know what you'd rather wasn't cut when the time comes to it. Otherwise, your items will have to be cut arbitarily which will be annoying for everyone involved. o ‘Total cost’ – what the item(s) will cost in all o ‘Subsidy Requested’ – what amount of the total cost you would like to get in Grant from the Union. This can be all of it, or nothing, or anything in between. Page 4 – Summary: Summarises your Budget. o This has a little blue box on the bottom of it – here, please EXPLAIN why you’ve put down what you have, and WHAT you’re going to use it for. E.g. If you put down that you wanted £200 subsidy (out of £300 total cost) for ‘Affiliation to National Wombat Appreciation Organisation (National Governing Body),’ you could put: ‘We are want to join NWAO as it gives our members lots of support in their wombat appreciation, through free publicity and printed materials, they help organise national meetings, and group Wombat excursions. We would like to SCC to subsidise the cost by £200 as we’ve made over 100 members and have carried out many events this year such as blahblahblah. o
Handy Hints: EXPLAIN EVERYTHING – the SCC ALWAYS asks for more than we are eventually given, so some things will be cut. Clubs that don’t explain what they’ve put down are more likely to be cut than others. SPEND YOUR GRANT! If you don’t, I am not going to think you need grant for next year. Get UNFROZEN You CANNOT request Grant for FOOD or DRINK. It’s a rule I’m afraid. Just don’t bother. Include absolutely everything - this looks good for your club. Be REASONABLE - I won't take kindly massive increases in subsidy requested, unless there is a very good excuse. Get it done ASAP - it'll be one thing out of the way. Please email me if you've any problems. I'd rather sort them out early than have to deal with mistakes later. Lily Topham Social Clubs Committee Chair