The SAC will not be hearing proposals on Thursday March 30th. If your group is requesting money for an upcoming event, please keep this in mind.
Also, we will be announcing annual budgets at the April 11th GA. At this GA, we will also be holding liaison elections. I will put up a list of liaison responsibilities on the blog in the near future, for anyone who is interested in running.
If you have any questions or suggestion, email me at sacexec@jhu.edu
Hi all,
First, the conference registration cap is $1000, not $100.
Second, annual budget hearings will take place starting Monday March 7th. If your group is eligible for annual budgeting (class A), I highly recommend that you sign up for a slot, even though the hearings are not mandatory. And remember, the items you need to hand in for annual budgeting (which are due March 21st by 6 PM in the Office of Student Involvement in the Mattin Center) are:
1. The actual budget proposal
2. A ledger for this past year (as organized and thorough as possible)
3. A membership list
4. An inventory list (if you don't have any inventory, include a sheet of paper that says something along the lines of “we have no inventory”)
Also, we have noticed that many funding requests are being handed in at the last minute. This is not a good idea, as liaisons may not check their emails in time to get a copy of the proposal. Furthermore, this is not fair to the liaisons, who are very busy. So, please make a conscious effort to hand in proposals as soon as possible. To be heard at a Monday meeting, proposals need to be in by the previous Thursday evening. To be heard at a Thursday meeting, they need to be in by Monday evening.
As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me at sacexec@jhu.edu. Hope all is well. And remember, spring break is just around the corner!
First, allow me to apologize for the lack of updating. This blog will be better maintained in the future.
The SAC Board voted today to approve these policy changes:
-The registration cap for conferences is increased from $500 to $100
-For cultural food tastings, rather than limiting groups to $450/semester, groups are now allowed $900/year (the $3/person rule is still in effect)
*Note that these policy changes go into effect a week after they are approved
If you have any questions, concerns, suggestions, etc. feel free to email sacexec@jhu.edu
Finally, here are the new policies for applying to be an SAC group:
Student Activities Commission Application Process
(I) Student Activities Commission Application Process General Procedures
A. The Executive Board will entertain abstracts at any point during its term.
B. The abstract and constitution of a group requesting membership of the SAC must be approved by the same SAC Executive Board.
C. Funding eligibility begins one year after approval of the abstract, contingent upon the approval of a constitution by the SAC and the Student Council in accordance with its by-laws, as recorded in the financial journal of Executive Board meeting.
(II) Abstract Submission
A. The approval of a group’s abstract permits the submission of a constitution to the same board.
B. The abstract must include:
ii. A summary of activities and events held, as well as planned activities or ideas for future events.
iii. Membership information, which includes a list of current members and their graduation year from Johns Hopkins University as well as a definition of active membership.
iv. The group’s purpose and its distinction from other groups on campus, as well as the scope of the group’s intended activities.
(III) Constitution Submission
A. With the submission of the constitution, a group should include a list of activities they have held within the semester prior to submission of the constitution, one of which has been attended by the group’s liaison
B. For a constitution to be entertained for approval, it must include the following:
ii. A clause specifying that the group is open to all undergraduates of the Johns Hopkins University.
iii. A definition of active and voting members.
iv. A provision for at least four officers, including 2 financial officers, with defined roles and responsibilities, and the requirement that they all be full-time, undergraduate students who are taking at least 6 credits at the Homewood Campus and are in good standing with the university.
v. Procedures for the election of officers, a definition of the term of office, and a definition of the majority required to make a decision or complete a procedure.
vi. An impeachment clause.
vii. An outlined process for amending the constitution.
C. The constitution of a group must be consistent with constitution of the SAC
Definitions of Activity
I Active
In order to maintain an active status a group must:
A. Attend scheduled General Assemblies.
B. Maintain and update annual registration with the Office of Student Involvement.
C. Attend the mandatory financial training workshops.
II Inactive
A. A group that has not satisfied the requirements to be an active group is defined as inactive.
B. In accordance with Student Activities Commission and Office of Student Involvement policies, a failure to satisfy any of the requirements will result in a freeze on account access:
i. By the SAC in the case of missing a General Assembly.
ii. By the Office of Student Involvement for a failure to have an updated registration or a failure for one financial officer to attend the mandatory financial training workshops.
C. When a group’s account has been frozen for missing a General Assembly, the group must submit a letter to the SAC Executive Board explaining the group’s absence from the General Assembly on behalf of the group, in order to unfreeze its account. The purpose of this is to establish that any necessary information has been received from their liaison and communication has taken place.
III Defunct
A. A group shall be defined as defunct upon failure to register with the Office of Student Involvement for four fiscal years.
B. A group must complete the SAC application process in order to restart a defunct group.
C. A restarted, defunct group shall receive the same account as the old group, and assume any debt incurred from the previous group along with it. The SAC Executive Board will entertain a request to absolve the group’s debt with a transfer from the SAC Contingency account on a case by case basis.
D. The SAC Executive board will recall money from the account of a defunct group with a positive balance.
Below are some suggestions for creating a thorough and sound group constitution. This advice came to the board's attention during discussion of our abstract and constitution approval processes, and the guidelines that result from this discussion will be posted to the blog shortly.
~
Outline for Constitution And Bylaws
Courtesy of the University of Baltimore, (original source unknown)
I. Introduction
Groups often spend far too much time developing these documents. This outline provides group members w/ direction and, if followed, saves time and promotes the development of a sound, workable document.
II. Constitution and Bylaws
The constitution of an organization contains the fundamental principles that govern its operation. The bylaws establish the rules of guidance by which the group is to function. The constitution should be simple but comprehensive with most of the details of the rules established set forth in the bylaws. The bylaws may be more easily amended and altered than the constitution because methods of procedure should be made capable of adaptation to changing conditions.
The constitution and bylaws should be carefully formulated, clearly worded, and kept up-to-date so that they serve the needs of the organization. The constitution and bylaws should be reproduced so that each member may have a copy. The following is a suggested outline for information to be included in a constitution and bylaws in the order suggested by many authorities.
Constitution
Article I. The name of the organization
Article II. Affiliation with other groups (local, state, national,etc.)
Article III. Purpose of the organization
Article IV. Membership limitations
Article V. Officers (names, term of office, how and when elected)
Article VI. Advisor (term of service, how selected)
Article VII. Meetings (frequency, special meetings & who calls them.)
Article VIII. Quorum
Article IX. Referendum and recall
Article X. Amendment (means of proposal, notice required, voting requirements)
The SAC Executive Board decided at the November 11th meeting to entertain funding for spring events. If your group is interested in receiving funding for events occurring in the spring semester, please turn in a proposal to your liaison.
When a group was being restarted after going defunct, it was previously the responsibility of the people restarting the group to raise any funds necessary to 'zero out' the old account if there was a negative balance in it (a.k.a. a debt.) As it takes four years of inactivity for a group to become defunct, this task unfortunately has fallen upon people who were not involved in the organization when the debt was originally accumulated.
At the meeting of November 11th, the SAC Board voted to assist defunct groups who are restarting by entertaining the resolving of their account's debt on a case by case basis.
The following update to the SAC's funding policies was made at the October 28th meeting:
(1.) Heading change of Article VI Section D changed from “Publications” to “Bound Publications”
(2.) Addition of a new section E labeled “Newsprint publications” (current sections E and F will be displaced one letter
(3.) [See below]
VI. Printing
E. Newsprint publications
(1) Publications groups that fall under this category are those which intend to broadcast the point of view of a particular segment of the Johns Hopkins undergraduate community via a newspaper to the general, undergraduate population.
(2) Publications of this type will not be designed merely as advertisement for a particular group on campus.
(3) The SAC will entertain funding of up to $1300 per semester for publications of this type.
(a) The $1300 cap on funding is designed to allow publications to print 1500 copies of an eight page newspaper, on newsprint-style paper, three times a semester.
(b) Publications may deviate from the guidelines under which the cap was set (i.e. printing a longer issue, printing more copies, printing more frequently, etc.) but are expected to finance any additional costs by fundraising.
(4) Publications groups will approach the SAC on at least a semesterly basis to request an allotment not to exceed the previously defined cap and review their plans to spend the allotment based on the usual lowest cost funding guidelines.
(5) Publications of this type will remain class B groups.
Below is an announcement from Jane Rhyner, Director of Mattin Center/Levering Union:
Dear Student Organization Members,
It is time once again to prepare for Intersession 2005. The dates for Intersession activities are January 3-28. Realizing that there are many talented individuals in the varied student organizations, I am encouraging those who feel they have a desire to teach their special talents to take part in Intersession. Not only would this be fun, but it can also be a means of earning money before Spring Semester begins. Possibly teaching an Intersession class could be a source of income for your individual organization. This is entirely up to you.
If you are interested in teaching, please pick up a course description form in the Student Development and Programming Office either in Levering or the Mattin Center, and return it to me by Monday, November 1. If you need some ideas, or would like more information please feel free to contact me at 516-2224 or jrhyner@jhu.edu
Thank you.
Jane Rhyner
Director of Mattin Center/Levering Union
Suite 210 Mattin Center
The Homewood Student Affairs Collaboration Committee accepts funding requests and proposals for multi-group, collaborative, student-run programs, and they are reviewed about monthly.
For more information about submitting an HSA proposal and their deadlines, please visit http://www.jhu.edu/~progcomm/
Van manuals and room scheduling information are available at the Office of Student Involvement in Mattin 210.
'Pink sheets', monthly financial statements listing the activity on your SAC account, are also available for pickup at the same office. As there are no longer monthly GAs to receive these statements at, please note that they will be made available at the office on a monthly basis.