What do the Monroe Society and the Capoeira Club have in common?
Well, although one group focuses on the power of persuasion and the other on hand-to-hand combat, both skills will be useful this semester when the two contend for a portion of the approximately $600,000 in Student Activity Fund dollars available to student groups.
The Monroe Society prides itself in "shaping the future class of the University." The group connects interested high school students with first-year undergraduates for overnight stays on Grounds. Representing this prestigious, well-established club in the far corner of the ring: President Elizabeth Ammann and Treasurer Jaclyn Smith.
And in the opposite corner: Monique Miles of the Capoeira Club, an Afro-Brazilian martial arts group relatively new to the University.
In the middle, Student Council appropriations committee referee the battle for limited funds. By March 30, Council must decide how much each Contracted Independent Organization will win.
Because the Monroe Society has held CIO status for many years, the time- consuming and detail-oriented budgeting process was not overwhelming for its new officers, Ammann and Smith. In preparing this year's request, the Monroe Society simply based its figures on those in previous years' budgets.
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Ammann said Monroe Society members have had the advantage of "knowing exactly what funds they need and what they can expect." Typically Council awards them $1,200-$1,300 to cover necessary long distance telephone calls, office supplies, copies, mailings and appreciation functions for volunteer members.
This major league student group breezed through its 15-minute appropriations hearing with a concise yet thorough budget.
But how do rookie CIOs, such as the Capoeira Club, handle the stresses of the appropriations process?
Miles, a third-year College student and an instructor for the University's Capoeira Club, began the process with a simple goal: secure $555 funding from Council toward the purchase of necessary musical instruments such as berimbaus (bow instruments), atabaques (large drums), agogos (tin bells) and pandeiros (tambourines).
Because newcomers have to convince Council they need SAF dollars in the first place, Miles found herself spending the majority of her 15-minute hearing explaining the purpose of the Capoeira Club.
The purpose of the club is to practice and appreciate Capoeira martial arts, which began when traders first brought Angolan slaves to Brazil. The sport remains deeply rooted in slave history and Brazilian culture, and the required instruments are the most important element of the art. The instruments create an atmosphere for expression through cartwheels, handstands, spinning kicks and other acrobatic moves, Miles said. "It's definitely fun if you wanna learn to kick some butt!"
Hence, while a 15-minute appropriations hearing was more than enough for the Monroe Society, beginners felt a time crunch.
"The hearing seemed like a prove-your-CIOs-worthiness-in-15-minutes-or-less kind of experience," Ammann said.
This brevity allows Council to move through hearings quickly. Council needed only to schedule two weekends of 15-minute hearings- which ended yesterday- to accomodate all 170 CIOs applying for SAF dollars.
"The fifteen minute constraint on hearings, which is mandated by the Student Council bylaws, doesn't seem to be a problem for any group," said Kelly Harris, vice president for organizations. The hearings have been running very smoothly. Instead of using the allotted 15 minutes, the Committee is usually done in 10 minutes."
Rather than wasting time getting their questions answered during the hearings, CIOs find guidance through one budgetary review meeting with a Council representative. CIOs can find more help in Council's massive budgeting user manuals, such as the Treasurer's Manual and CIO Resource Guide. The monstrous documents assign precise values to many items that will appear in the average budget. The cataloguing is meticulous - the office supplies section for example, allots $0.90 per 10 pens, $1.00 per 100 envelopes and $0.60 per bag of rubber bands.
But this strict formality fumbles on the real playing field. Contenders use past budgets when available, but many items are based on pure speculation. Manuals and meetings serve as great benchmarks, but receipts do not back the actual numbers. For example, Council did not ask the Monroe Society to prove its actual expenses from previous years.
The Appropriations Committee can examine a budget "in the first two to three minutes of a hearing and be able to identify any expenses which aren't consistent with Student Council Budgeting Guidelines and Board of Visitors Guidelines," Harris said.
In the end, CIOs walk away with a stipend of some amount. The biggest winners are those that receive all they ask for.
While some fellow students party until the wee hours of the morning on March 30, Council will be busily deliberating over how SAF funds for the semester will be allocated.
With only a 15-minute interview on which to base their decisions, the SAF appropriations game is undoubtedly easier for well-established players. Although the rules are the same for CIOs, experience plays a major role in completing the process with ease.
SAF dollars are crucial for the Monroe Society, the Capoeira Club and hundreds of other CIOs each semester. On March 30, we will find out who the real winners were this time around.
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