SGA Bylaws

Article V - Finance & Budgetary Committee

Section I. The Student Senate, receiving funds through student fees from Concord University, will appropriate funds to recognized organizations among the Concord University student population as approved by the Student Senate. Organizations shall not be judged on the basis of membership requirements or the race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, or religion of the members of their organization during the budgetary process.

Section II. The Business Manager shall oversee all appropriations of funds. The Business Manager has the right to freeze or temporarily stop all funding and allocations to preserve the total balance for the SGA if the account falls below $3,000 due to purchase order delays, overspending, or rollover.

Section III. Student Senate Funding Policy:

A. Application Procedure:

i. All recognized organizations will provide a allocation request each semester whether they are requesting money from the SGA or not. Recognized organizations that are not requesting funding for a particular semester will receive priority consideration for funding the following semester.
ii. Allocation requests should be presented by the end of the 3rd meeting or no later than the beginning of the 4th meeting of each semester. The request must be on the form supplied by the SGA Business Manager for the specific budgetary season. The allocation request must include, but is not limited to, the following:

a. An itemized list of the activities and costs for which funding is being requested.
b. All fundraising attempts and profits or losses by the organization and any planned fundraisers and estimated profits for the rest of the requesting semester.
c. The total number of organizational members currently enrolled as students.
d. The signature of the requesting organizations faculty sponsor.
e. A statement of how the items or activities for which funding is requested would impact the Concord student body.
f. A statement of any funding received from departmental or other resources in specific amounts.
g. Any additional information that the organization deems necessary for proper consideration.

iii. All allocation requests must be received by the Business Manager or the President in their absence, before the beginning of the fourth regular Student Senate meeting.

B. Guidelines for Receiving Funding:

i. If the information required on the allocation request form is missing or incorrect or not on the proper form, the allocation request will be denied all funding.
ii. Only those organizations that have submitted their updated membership and advisor form to the Student Center on time (by the 2nd meeting of each semester) will be eligible for receiving funding.
iii. Organizations must have up-to-date bylaws and constitution on file in the SGA Office and Student Center Office.
iv. Organizations should not become dependant on SGA as their primary source of funding. The Student Senate may deny funding if it believes such a dependency is developing.
v. Organizations must show an attempt to acquire funds through fundraisers, departments, etc.
vi. Organizations that receive funding through SGA shall not spend any portion on Homecoming.
vii. There shall be no funds allocated for shipping and handling, banquets, food costs, awards, and dances except for in the Homecoming and Spring Event budgets.
viii. There shall be no item listed as miscellaneous on allocation request forms. Allocation requests shall be as specific as possible avoiding general terms (i.e. hardware, building materials).
ix. Organizations may only submit one allocation request per academic semester except in the case of a critical exception.
x. The benefit and importance of the event to Concord University, SGA, and the requesting organization shall be evaluated.

C. Amount of Funding:

i. No organization may receive more than $1,500 per semester.

a. Open campus publications are included in this clause minus their publication costs.
b. Homecoming, the Spring Event, and any other activity organized by SGA shall be excluded.

ii. Organizations may request funds to cover specific costs as follows:

a. The Student Senate may allocate no more than $400 for lodging.
b. The Student Senate may allocate no more than $300 for conference registration.
c. The Student Senate may allocate no more than $400 for University provided travel or $800 for other travel expenses.
d. The Student Senate may allocate $0.32 per mile for gas.
e. The Student Senate may fund for other expenses not enumerated above, but not allocate more than $75 per student traveling to a conference with an organization.

Section IV. The Budgetary Committee shall:

A. Consist of the Business Manager, the SGA President, and five Student Senate members, nominated and elected by the Student Senate by means of a plurality, and two representatives or senators from organizations not requesting funds.
B. Be chaired by the Business Manager who will not vote on allocation except in the event of a tie.
C. Be empowered with the right to recommend fully funding, not funding, or partially funding any allocation request within the rules of these Bylaws.
D. Hold publicly scheduled hearings on all allocation requests and allow submitting organizations to share additional information about its request.
E. Allow at least one student member or faculty sponsor to attend the portion of a budgetary meeting where their organization’s allocation request is being presented, to present the request to the Budgetary Committee and supply additional information.
F. Serve from creation until the end of the semester in which they were created.
G. By unanimous vote, deem an organization to be in appropriately dependent on the SGA and require additional funding sources within one academic year. An organizations failure to comply will result in termination of funding.

Section V. The Budgetary Session:

A. The hearing shall be held during the 5th regular SGA meeting.
B. The Business Manager shall report on all allocation requests reviewed. If the committee is recommending allocation of funds, that report should include a motion to allocate those funds. If the committee is recommending zero allocation, no motion should be presented. However, an explanation for a zero recommendation shall be given.
C. Generally, senators will abstain during the vote to consider allocation to an organization of which they are members. Senators making a motion, debating, or voting for allocation of funds to an organization of which they belong, must make that membership known to the Student Senate.
D. In the absence of a recommendation made by the Budgetary Committee, a member of the Student Senate may make a motion during the new business portion of the meeting to allocate funding. However, a member of the organization in question cannot make the motion.
E. To overturn or revise a recommendation made by the Budgetary Committee, whether it be for full, partial, or no funding, will require a 2/3 vote of the Student Senate.
F. Organizations may appeal any allocation, including zero allocation.

i. Only organizations that submitted an allocation request on time will be considered for appeal.
ii. Appeals of allocations must be made the week after the Budgetary Session and must be submitted in writing to the Business Manager.
iii. No appeals will be accepted more than a week after the hearing procedure.
iv. The organization appealing may address the Budgetary Committee, at a time scheduled by the committee to be no later than the 6th regular SGA meeting, to supply additional information to the committee.
v. The Budgetary Committee will present a recommendation the week following the appeal, or no later than the 7th regular meeting of the semester.

G. The Budgetary Process, including the Budget Meeting, Budget Process, recommendations, allocations, and appeals, must be completed by the end of the 7th meeting of each semester.

Section VI. Funding for organizations not represented in the Student Senate:

A. Any Concord University organization, beneficial to students and involving them in the decision making process of the organization, may request funding from the SGA. However, this organization may not be under discipline by the administration of Concord University at the time of the request.
B. To qualify for funding, an organization must submit an allocation request as any other organization under the sections of the SGA Constitution and Bylaws pertaining to organization funding. The exceptions to this rule are:

i. Such organizations cannot submit an allocation request as legislation.
ii. Such organizations will not be restricted by the $1,500 cap.

C. A majority of senators currently holding office must sign a petition showing their support for the allocation request. One senator must also agree to act as the organization’s representative during the budgetary process.
D. The allocation request shall be considered by the Budgetary Committee as part of the regular budgetary process. Outside of the regular budgetary process, an allocation request will be submitted and considered within one week by a meeting scheduled by the Budgetary Committee, and the recommendation on the request presented by the next regular meeting. An organization representative may present the allocation request to the Budgetary Committee at a time, to be determined, during the intervening week and announced at least 24 hours in advance by the Business Manager.
E. An organization which is deemed dependent by the Student Senate shall require a 2/3rds majority vote by the body to retain its right to petition for an allocation request after a year of dependency as defined within this Article.
F. Any organization requesting money under this section cannot request recognition as a student organization from the SGA for a period of two years following the last time that they received funding under this section. This means that an organization funded this way may not have or utilize voting rights for the duration they are not recognized. The same will hold true for organizations that are recognized as student organizations and then change their status.

Section VII. Critical Contingencies:

A. Organizations endangered by imminent extinction or an organization faced with unexpected financial needs beyond their control or campus-wide problems which require immediate solutions with absolutely no other means of repair may apply for consideration as a critical exception.
B. For an allocation request to be considered as a critical exception the Student Senate must first vote by a � majority to consider it critical. Then, the Budgetary Committee shall review and recommend an allocation to be made. The recommended allotment must pass a Student Senate vote by a 2/3 majority to be allocated.
C. If the Student Senate votes to consider an allocation request a critical exception, a ten minute recess shall occur for the Budgetary Committee to review the application and return a recommendation.
D. No organization will be considered a critical exception if they were late with the original allocation request.
E. When considering a critical exception for an emergency needed for the campus, it is only appropriate that a committee of the SGA request the funds, not an organization.
F. The $1,500 cap for critical contingencies can only be exceeded by a unanimous vote by the Student Senate and a unanimous vote to allocate funds.

Section VIII. Follow-Up Procedures:

A. Documentation, such as receipts, bills, contracts, invoices, and a typed follow-up report including attendance at activities and value of activity to organization and those in attendance must be submitted to the Business Manager to account for the money allocated by the Student Senate and justify future funding of similar events. These documents must be submitted before the last month of each semester (November 30th in the fall and April 30th in the spring). Failure to comply will result in the organization’s loss of budgetary privileges for two semesters.

i. The Student Senate reserves the right to investigate the use of all funds allocated.
ii. The Student Senate may recover any unaccounted expenditure by an organization, or the organization will be held liable. If the money is not accounted for within one week after the request to do so, the organization shall lose its recognition in the Student Senate, and all organizational operations with the SGA shall cease for at least two semesters.
iii. The Student Senate reserves the right to cancel any amount up to the total allocation within two regular meetings after the allocation is made. This cancellation shall occur upon a 2/3 majority vote.
iv. All campus programs funded by SGA must recognize the funding by the SGA on all forms of promotion including flyers, t-shirts, and other materials. Failure to comply with this policy will result in removal of funding privileges for two semesters.