DRAC Minutes 1/27/15
Present: Bidisha Biswas, John Harris, Kenny Torre, Steve Woods, Quy Ton, Christopher Bianco, Keira Alkema, Molly Hartshorn, Giselle Alcantar Soto, Steve Vanderstaay, Mark Broyles, Erin Emry, Ted Sealey, Robin Sizemore, Jim DeWilde, Alethea Macomber, Carly Roberts, Anna Wulfekuhle.
Absent: Sam Panek, Beth Leonard, Heather Dalberg,
Motion 1: Moved by ? Seconded by ?
Approve minutes of DRAC meeting January 13, 2015.
Action: Passed unanimous.
Discussion of elections in Spring quarter for following academic year:
Sealey: Is it feasible for DRAC to have the officers and representatives in place at the end of Spring quarter for the following Fall quarter?
Woods: DRAC has had our reps in place in time.
Sealey: DRAC has a need to hold elections early Fall Quarter so it has been mentioned as one that has caused the delay.
Alkema: Believes it is possible to have reps by the end of Spring quarter. It would give them more time to learn the process.
Sealey: Students that serve for more than one year helps a lot.
Alcanter-Soto: For At-Large student reps it would be difficult to find students that far in advance.
Woods: We should not be sending “At-Large” students to represent DRAC to the S&A Fee Committee meetings, the student reps should come from one of the DRAC related departments.
Sealey: We may be getting a new budget template from S&A and I will share it with you as soon as I get it.
Discussion of a DRAC reserve policy:
Sealey: 3 options, 1) a central reserve funded at about $150,000, 2) Each area maintains their own separate reserve fund, 3) a smaller centralized reserve for DRAC with a limited year end fund balance at the department level to serve as reserves for each department.
Emry: I’m concerned that Quy’s suggested reserve policy which had support is not represented on the sheet Ted passed around.
Roberts: Central reserve needs to be more transparent. Last year at S&A it was hard to work with DRAC budgets. Student reps could not answer questions well.
Requesting money to go into reserves is odd because the money should be spent in the year they are collected.
Sealey: A DRAC central reserve can be funded in a single year or over the course of several years depending upon what the budget request are.
Alkema: Thanks for the clarification, reserves can be built over several years if necessary. Vanderstaay: The goal is to be able to have more predictable annual requests.
Sealey: I am hoping that any new forms will be consistent will all S&A members.
Ton: Proposed minimum central reserve. Minimum reserve kept then if we meeti the maximum reserve distribute anything beyond the maximum.
Sealey: The reserve distribution should be made Spring quarter. Requests can be made throughout the year but everyone should have an equal opportunity to tap into the reserves so the requests should be considered at one time by the committee late in the year when more of the budget is known.
Roberts: I like Quys ideas to use reserves for emergencies and it is a responsible way to manage reserve funds.
Sealey: Club budgets at A.S. do not have their own separate reserves, right? So the process is different.
Woods: Students who pay S&A money in a given year should have the benefit of the money spent in the year that they paid the fees. The reserve would need to be distributed back to the constituents unless we have a policy that says otherwise.
Harris: Quys idea to have a minimum and maximum seems like a good idea.
Woods: We need a policy if we keep our own reserves or we have a central reserve or a combination of both.
Roberts: I would like to see Quys proposal written out.
Sealey: Please bring any reserve policy ideas in writing.
Bianco: Any time I see the term “sweep” it concerns me.
Emry: “Sweeping” leads to non-strategic spending.
Meeting ended 9:50 AM