[82] in UA Senate
Re: UA budgeting principles
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Alex Dehnert (UA Treasurer))
Wed Oct 14 00:53:51 2009
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:52:44 -0400
From: "Alex Dehnert (UA Treasurer)" <ua-treasurer@MIT.EDU>
To: "Alex Dehnert (UA Treasurer)" <ua-treasurer@mit.edu>
CC: ua-senate@mit.edu, ua-discuss@mit.edu
In-Reply-To: <4AD5432D.5070502@mit.edu>
A few of you have emailed me off-list. While that's great, I'm much more
likely to take action if a consensus seems to be emerging on the list or
a bill/resolution gets passed. When all I get are private emails, I
can't as easily tell the difference between people being mostly one way
because the other side is apathetic (and doesn't realize that their side
is "losing"), or because Senate genuinely prefers that way.
Thanks,
Alex
Alex Dehnert (UA Treasurer) wrote:
> As several people have pointed out, the UA spends quite a bit of money
> on events (about a third of last semester's budget) and focused projects
> (like PLUS --- about a tenth of last semester's UA budget). As Andrew
> Lukmann pointed out last week, committees are spending almost twice as
> much in Fall 2009's budget as in Spring 2007's budget.
>
> Unfortunately, it is now a little bit late to make major changes to the
> Fall 2009 budget. Last week's meeting was intended to allow that, and we
> spent a great deal of time on it then. I also solicited feedback late
> Friday night (or really Saturday morning), and didn't receive any. Of
> course, you are well within your rights to amend the budget at this
> point. (Though Athletics Weekend has already happened, so I'd rather you
> didn't amend that...)
>
> However, the Spring 2010 budget has not begun being compiled. In
> preparing the the Fall 2009 budget, I (and I believe committee chairs
> and the Special Budgetary Committee) generally followed precedent as to
> events and amounts.
>
> In some sense, there are (at least) two options for guiding principles
> to take in producing the budget:
> (1) Many of the UA-run events are more useful than the events and
> programming (Finboard-funded) student groups would spend the money on
> (2) Alternatively, that events and programs such as Athletics Weekend or
> PLUS aren't worth taking the money away from those student groups
>
> We've recently been defaulting to the former guiding principle. However,
> I would encourage the Senate to seriously consider which is preferable
> and pass appropriate legislation indicating a preference.
>
> I would be *thrilled* to have such guidance, and would happily
> incorporate it into next semester's budget. (I warn you, however, that
> committee chairs will probably be asked to begin budgeting in about two
> weeks.)
>
> Thanks,
> Alex Dehnert
> UA Treasurer
