Budget Questions for 2008-09

Budget Questions for 2008-09

QUESTIONS FOR ALL

Would you be willing to have club members volunteer in the community to earn additional funds from the RCC?

If you have a significant increase in your budget – how do you justify this increase? (significant being over 25% more than you were funded last year)

If you requested funds for help with website development – would you be willing to use a shared resource person and have a template developed for the Rec Clubs webpages and then training for maintaining the website?

If you requested funds for a retreat – would you be willing to do a reserve request next year after you have determined your agenda and plans for the retreat?

INDIVIDUAL CLUB QUESTIONS

Aikido

Q Would you be willing to have club members volunteer in the

community to earn additional funds from the RCC?

A I think the concept is fantastic. Some of our club members

would probably be willing to do this.

Q If you have a significant increase in your budget – how do you justify this increase? (significant being over 25% more than you were funded last year)

A see responses to individual club questions

Q If you requested funds for help with website development – would you be willing to use a shared resource person and have a template developed for the Rec Clubs web pages and then training for maintaining the website?

A N/A

Q If you requested funds for a retreat – would you be willing to do a reserve request next year after you have determined your agenda and plans for the retreat?

A N/A

Aikido QUESTIONS

Q How do you justify this increase in budget from last year?

A The primary increase lies in our request for compensation for our instructor, Quin. When I took on role as President of the club last April I had only a few days to compile a budget and was not familiar with the process for requesting coaching salary. Previous presidents had never made the request. Also, when I submitted the budget for 2007-2008 I thought I was submitting it only for Fall Term. I learned in the budget hearing that it was to have included all budget requests for the following school year; by that point it was too late to make any changes.

Q Why do the seminars cost more this year than last year?

A In the 2007-2008 budget I requested $100 each for three seminars, with the estimate that each would cost $50 per person so that a couple of club members could go. After reviewing with Quin and Portland Aikikai, who host the seminars, I have confirmed current rates are approx $65 per person; also, we had more interest in the seminars than we had anticipated, and wanted to make it possible for more members to attend. This is an area we are willing to compromise in, for example if the budget committee is only able to fund 2 of the 3 seminars, or to do so for 3 instead of 5 students.

Q What is the benefit of these seminars?

A Portland Aikikai is a more formal dojo than we have available to us at Portland State. Seminars can include more advanced technique then we cover in club practices, and are an opportunity to learn from instructors from all over the world as well as to meet other practitioners in the Portland area.

Q Please comply with the RCC Budget Request Policies – RCC

In reviewing the RCC Budget Request Policies, I can see that requesting compensation for our instructor under “honorarium” is not necessarily appropriate, since he instructs during each practice; however requesting salary under “coaching” requires that we have been a club in good standing at least 2 years. If our instructor’s compensation must be filed under “coaching,” I would like to appeal the 2-year requirement due to the fact that we were a club in good standing for several years and despite issues with 2006-2007 compliance, we have again maintained good standing during 2007-2008. I have attached our 2008-2009 budget request with compensation for our instructor under “coaching” rather than “honorarium.” We are willing to compromise here, if the budget committee is only able to approve a smaller amount for his salary.

Q Coaches/Instructor Policy (see attachment in email) and submit necessary documentation.

I previously submitted a detailed job description and our instructor’s qualifications. We do not have competitions (Aikido is not a competitive art), however we do work on skill development. I have re-submitted the job description along with the other documents in this email.

Q Can you explain why you need to pay the coach this year if he was willing to volunteer last year?

A Our instructor has volunteered his time in the past because of his connection with club participants (as their instructor in PSU’s Aikido classes). Previous club presidents have not requested budget because they were unaware of the possibility, or procedures for doing so. Rightly, salary for coaching should have been requested long ago. For safety reasons, in order for our club to practice we require trained instruction.

- Most important thing for club is to pay the coach

Badminton

Why are shuttlecocks listed under both competitive budget and event fees? Why do you need so many shuttlecocks?

Have you considered charging dues to your students? Why or why not?

How much are dues for your non-PSU students?

Why are you covering meals for one-day travel?

Breakin

Please comply with the RCC Budget Request Policies – RCC Personal Item Funding & Uniform Policies (see attachment in email) and submit necessary documentation. Please explain how the t-shirts purchased by the club meet these policy requirements.

What qualifications are required of the judges at the competition?

Why do you need to pay so much for an out of state performer?

Why are the wood and paint supply costs different for Juice Jam 2 than the Love Bazzar?

For Juice Jam 2 – you will need to cover the costs of the event before giving money to charity. What are your plans to do this? Do you need a noise permit or anything other than port a poty and rental space?

Crew

Please comply with the RCC Budget Request Policies – RCC Coaches/Instructor Policy & Student Stipend Policy (see attachment in email) and submit necessary documentation.

What has changed that necessitates two paid stipend positions? Why this year and not previous years?

What is the $9,600 Travel Expenses for competition? What does this cover? How is this different from the $6,100 event travel?

What is the mandatory event fees of $4,825? What does this cover? How is this different from the competition entry fees that total $2,125?

Why are you planning for 25 travelers when you only have 15 currently active members?

What are your recruiting plans to meet these participation numbers? How do you plan to retain them? How does this differ from previous years?

WIRA - The club typically does not have students that meet eligibility standards for this event. At most a 4 – how do you justify $1,000 in entry fees + travel expenses for this event?

Can the team work on getting sponsorships for next year? What are your plans for this?

Travel – we do not allow 15 passenger vans does this change travel costs? Why did you put in money for lodging when on the questionnaire and in practice you stay in churches?

Do you plan to earn volunteer money from course setting? What is that amount and why is it not in your budget?

Is the vice-president position a new position?

Are the entry fees for events you have attended in the past or for new events?

Why is revenue from course setting not included in your budget request?

Cycling

Please tell us more about bike polo? What is it, how does it work?

How do you determine who gets to have their entry fees paid? What if there are more riders than money?

Have you had discussions with facilities about the stickers on the bike racks?

What is the outcome of your reserve request to the SFC for trainers and rollers?

Dancers

What are the dance conferences? How does 2 people going benefit the team and PSU?

Please comply with the RCC Budget Request Policies – RCC Coaches/Instructor Policy (see attachment in email) and submit necessary documentation.

What does the performance team coaching mean?

Can you use the rolls of linoleum portable dance floor that we already own vs. needing cardboard?

The Rec Clubs own a boombox that you can check out. Knowing this, do you still need a boombox?

There has been a lot of leadership turnover and transition over the past few years and the focus of club seems to change each year as does commitment to lead club – how does the club plan to stay consistent and continue to recruit and retain both club officers and members?

4/22 – 6:15 p.m. Dragon Boat (PW, SD, JG, HA, BR) – Adam, Djambel

Would you be willing to have club members volunteer in the community to earn additional funds from the RCC?

Yes.

If you have a significant increase in your budget – how do you justify this increase? (significant being over 25% more than you were funded last year)

See explanation below.

Dragon Boat

Crew’s dues are ~ $250/year with similar race and travel needs. Can Dragon Boat’s dues be more in line with crew’s dues? Please explain how you determine dues and why they are set as they are.

Dues have been used more to ensure a commitment from team members. They have been kept low in part to help the club grow and recruit new members. We also have not increased club dues in lieu of charging additional participation fees per race. This year these fees would be in the area of $135 per person. Also, team members currently pay all lodging, transportation and gas costs out of pocket. These come to about $250 for a person who goes to all races. These, plus the club dues come to about $435 per person per year. We would happily increase the club dues to $250 per person to be more in line with Crew, if our budget was also increased to more be more in line with Crew.

This budget is more than 4x the previous budget amount. Please justify the budget increase.

This budget is the amount we have consistently requested over the past three years. As you pointed out in the previous question we have “similar race and travel needs” to the crew team. Going off the last figures I can find, Crew receives over $20,000 per year in university funding to meet those needs. Our total budget request for next year is less than 1/2 this amount.

How many of your members are PCC members versus PSU members. Will the expenses requested go only for PSU students?

All members on our roster and used for budgeting calculations are PSU students, thus all expenses are for PSU students. I can provide you with our system to calculate fees for PCC vs. PSU if you wish.

Why do you need 5 more paddles?

A full boat consists of 20 paddlers. Currently we only have 15 paddles. Races provide paddles but they are usually of poor quality. Paddles available for practice are even worse.

Are Olympia and Salem one day events? If yes, why are you requesting food? If no, why are you not requesting lodging?

They are both 1 day events. Including travel time these events take 14-15 hours, thus requiring team members to eat at least one, and more likely two meals on the road.

How did you determine your travel costs?

Most calculations are in the budget sheet. Travel costs for most races only include gas reimbursement as we use only carpool arrangements. As the budget states this is assumes that we will require 3 vehicles to transport 12 team members, that each vehicle gets 25 mpg, and that gas costs $3/gallon. We then get cost=(miles traveled x 3 vehicles x $3/gallon)/25mpg. For Victoria we added $30 per person for ferry tickets

· Victoria is 4 days – so food is more

· If fund nothing else – would prefer $ for race entry fees!

· May want to buy a boat in the future (perhaps an SFC reserve request)

· How about hosting own race? Yes and no – don't own boats so lots of coordination; not a lot of college teams

2/22 5 p.m. Fencing (PW, JG, BR) – Jenny Grant

Did you get any of this equipment on the budget already this year?

- No, will get some of it this weekend at Olympic Trials in Portland this weekend.

What items might be donated and then can they be removed from your budget request.

- Will get discounted and donated equipment this year like an electronic scorebox. Can also use electric reels from coach. So can remove $390 scoring machine. But floor reels not donated. Prices in budget are retail – possible to get 20% discount through fencing center.

Can you reuse the recruitment poster and change the dates to save money?

- Yes, we could do this – make this changeable.

A lot of our stuff is onetime stuff – if we get it, might not need to submit a budget again.

4/22 – 6:00 p.m. Hockey (BR, SD, JG, PW, HA) Hunter, Stephen

Would you be willing to have club members volunteer in the community to earn additional funds from the RCC?

The hockey team would love to volunteer in the community to earn additional funds.

If you have a significant increase in your budget – how do you justify this increase? (significant being over 25% more than you were funded last year)