[386] in UA Exec
Re: Student Faculty Dinners
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David Chang)
Wed Apr 28 16:48:12 2010
Cc: Vrajesh Modi and Sammi Wyman <wedothings@mit.edu>,
Alexander W Dehnert <adehnert@mit.edu>,
scep chairs <ua-scep-chairs@mit.edu>, ua-treasurer@mit.edu,
Quentin Smith <quentin@mit.edu>, ua-exec@mit.edu
From: David Chang <dchang@MIT.EDU>
To: Everson Auguste <evedizzy@mit.edu>, Grant A Robinson <grantrob@mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <F02D11AD-5E87-467F-BFA9-44CC6590608A@mit.edu>
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:48:07 -0400
Bennie suggests that those who have emailed us up till now, we give
$20 per person. If we need to pull from senate or exec discretionary,
so be it. Also, sao accounts are allowed to go negative, so we'll be
okay.
Estimated cost: ~$1000 5 people, 10 groups
Grant and Everson. You can email out to those who have emailed us now.
I'm comfortable moving forward with this. I suppose we will have to
create the confirmation emails by hand. just ask them who, usernames
etc and make up the email form.
dc
On Apr 28, 2010, at 12:06 AM, David Chang wrote:
> Grant and Everson,
>
> Now that we have Alex onboard, as soon as Vrajesh or Sammi say okay,
> let the 5-10 groups that have emailed us personally to let them know
> that we thank them for their interest, let them know that we have
> allocated all the funds. However, since they have already set up a
> dinner with their professor, we will happily subsidize the cost of
> their professor's meal, up to $25, in hopes that we can still makes
> these hard worked plans continue.
>
> Expected cost: <500 seems pretty conservative. Thats an additional
> 20 groups, which I very much doubt. No real harm done to next year's
> budget.
>
> On Apr 27, 2010, at 11:52 PM, Alexander W Dehnert wrote:
>
>> On Tue, 27 Apr 2010, David Chang wrote:
>>> I'd like to move forward with the following, if possible:
>>>
>> [...]
>>
>>> -Offer to subsidize their professors meal. ie $25 per group.
>> [...]
>>>
>>> I do recognize that we do need to follow our allotted budget and
>>> plan to be fiscally responsible by taking from next years budget.
>>> Once this term has finished, I'd also be looking to update Senate
>>> on how we handled this year as well as better predictions and
>>> budget requests if our predictions warrant.
>>
>> Honestly, the way I'd love to handle this is "build up a decent
>> sized reserve (or get permission to borrow against next year)", set
>> some vaguely reasonable overallocation amount, and be okay with
>> screwing up by ~$2K a year as long as we average $0 over the long
>> haul.
>>
>>>
>>> On the other hand, Student Faculty Dinners is a very positive
>>> program in the eyes of both professors and students and I'l like
>>> to encourage student participation by not leaving a bad taste in
>>> their mouths.
>>>
>>> It gives them a palatable alternative, since many have already
>>> asked their professors and backing out would be most
>>> unprofessional. Offering to pay for the professors meal allows
>>> students to continue with their plans without having it be a big
>>> financial drain as $20-25 per person isn't an unreasonable normal
>>> outing for students.
>>>
>>> While unscientific, we can also figure out if students want a free
>>> meal or to actually go talk with professors.
>>>
>>> I'm curious about the technical feasibility and budgetary issues
>>> of such a plan
>>> - In terms of reimbursement, how much manual labor is involved?
>>> How much manpower would SCEP need to provide to make this
>>> reasonable?
>>
>> This should be fine. When people email, send them some email to
>> print out and attach to their receipt. I can deal from there.
>>
>>> - In terms of budget, since we get next years funding in the
>>> summer, is there an issue?
>>
>> *shrug* I think going over budget a bit is fine. I bet the people
>> who gave us the money won't notice if we went into debt (though
>> ping Jed Wartman or somebody else in SAO (normally I'd say Kerri,
>> but I think she's away this week) and seeing if we can borrow a
>> little against the program's future would be a good plan).
>>
>> ~~Alex
>>>
>>> David Chang
>
