EGSA Treasurer Position Description and Responsibilities
1. Overview
The Treasurer is a member of the Education Graduate Student Association’s Executive
Team. This member is responsible for recording all the associations’ expenses, creating
an annual budget, processing the Professional and Community Development Grant
applications, and working in collaboration with the GSS Office Administrator. In addition,
this member collaborates with other members of the team to ensure accountability,
transparency and accuracy.
1.1 Important to Terms to Note
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Academic year: refers to September 1 – August 31
Caucus account: is where our money is deposited at the start of each academic
year. It is the temporary account that serves us each academic year.
Trust account: is where any remaining money at the end of the academic year
is transferred to. It is the main account.
Petty Cash: is accessible cash-on-hand that does not exceed $100.
FoE: Faculty of Education
EGSA General Meeting: these generally occur during the first week of each
month (see EGSA Constitution for specifics
http://www.sfu.ca/egsa/?page_id=784).
EGSA Annual General Meeting (AGM): this annual meeting occurs in October
of each academic year (see EGSA Constitution for specifics
http://www.sfu.ca/egsa/?page_id=784).
2. Responsibility Overview
This is a list of what this role entails.
 Processing all Professional Development Grants (PDGs)
 Processing all Community Development Grants (CDGs)
 Keeping track of all selected Grant recipients
 Handling and processing all cheque requisitions for the GSS
 Keeping track using an excel spreadsheet of all expenditures in our 4 accounts
o Caucus Account
o Trust Account
o Petty Cash
o VanCity Account
 Making sure the Caucus and Trust Accounts match the GSSs records
 Creating and presenting an Annual Budget at our October Annual General
Meeting (AGM)
 Preparing a Treasurer’s Report for each monthly general EGSA meeting
 Attending our monthly general EGSA meeting (required) and any GSS meeting
that pertains to the EGSA funding (recommended)
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3. Professional Development Grants (PDGs)
Professional Development Grants are available to education graduate students as a
source of funding to help support learning activities that enrich a student’s focus of
study. Such learning activities include attending conferences, engaging in field
research, or attending events that traditionally do not fall under the category of
conferences or field research but are nonetheless of value to a student’s professional
development.
Education graduate students are eligible for up to $400 per academic year (September
1 to August 31), pending available funds. Professional Development Grants will be
allocated by lottery. Generally, at the start of each academic year the EGSA will allocate
funds for the PDGs and the Community Development Grants (CDGs, see below). A
suggestion is to divide GSS Caucus Funding in a 60/40 split: 60% for the PDG and 40%
for the CDG.
3.1 Applications
The Terms of Reference for the PDGs can be found on the EGSA website
(http://www.sfu.ca/egsa/?page_id=765). Members submit applications in the semesters
that they attend the PD activity. Therefore, as the Treasurer, it is your duty to collect all
applications during that period, making sure the applications are signed, a letter of
confirmation of enrollment is attached and an outline of the PD description and
relevance is provided in order to be considered. Most importantly, they need to be
applying on the 2014 application form. If the applications do not have all three elements
satisfied, you can inform the applicant via email, reminding them of the deadline.
You are able to accept hard copies that might be slipped under the EGSA office door or
inserted in the EGSA mailbox in Education Central or you can accept applications via
the treasurer’s email. Those sent via email will then need to be printed and filed under
New PDG applications along with the hard copies. Once received, you should send the
applicant a confirmation of receipt via email.
See Appendix one for a copy of the PDG application form.
3.2 Bringing Applicant Names Forward
At the first meeting of each new semester (January, May, September), all the names of
the applicants are brought forward and attached to the minutes, clearly outlining how
much they have applied for, and how many $200 applications we have in total.
Example using pseudo names:
John Smith
Ann Doe
Frank Lee
Jiang Kim
Fay Ray
$400
$400
$200
$400
$400
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Doug Turner $400
Total
$2200
In this example we have 6 applicants and 11 - $200 applications. Generally $2000 is put
aside each semester for PDGs, so in this case it would be for the members to vote on
accepting all 11 or holding a lottery as a way of staying within the allocated amount.
Each semester is case specific. In other words, depending on funding and number of
applications, the applicants can all be approved or a lottery called (as per the terms of
reference on the EGSA website).
3.3 Successful Applicants
Once the names have been approved, you will then send each applicant a
congratulatory email, telling them they have 30 days to produce receipts that put them
at their event. These will include such thing as boarding passes, accommodation
receipts, registration fees, etc. However, it does not include preliminary itinerary or
estimates made months before the event. Receipts must also reflect the amounts
outlined in the application Projected Budget table. If they do not provide you with the
necessary receipts within the time frame their applications are nullified. See terms of
reference regarding B lists when lotteries occur.
Correspondingly, when sending out the email, ask them if they want to pick up their
cheque themselves or have it delivered to their home address. With the former, they
would then receive an email directly from the GSS informing them that their cheque is
ready for pick up and it would be for them to pick it up at the GSS office. For those who
prefer to have it sent to their home, have to provide you with their mailing address. This
process generally takes longer for them to receive their money due to where they live,
but saves them from having to pick it up, particularly those who live out of town. If the
student does not inform you, select pick up because in the email from the GSS, they will
then have the opportunity to make further arrangements with the GSS directly.
Once you have alerted them and you are about prepare the cheque requisitions for the
GSS, you need to sign the bottom of the application form, confirming they have been
selected.
3.4 Preparing the Cheque Requisitions for the GSS
When everything is collected you need to prepare a cheque requisition (c/r) form that
you can find on the GSS website (http://sfugradsociety.ca/). Cheque requisitions
require:
• the original application form
• the minutes that list the approved applicants name and amount (as above)
• and all the necessary receipts.
All other documentation that was included with the application gets attached to the hard
copy. As Treasurer, you sign all c/r forms except those payable to yourself. Those need
to be signed by either one of the Co-Chairs. Also, prior to submitting the c/r to the GSS,
you need to create a hard copy that gets filed away in the Grant Approval folder for that
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year. You only copy the original application form, the c/r, and the receipts and staple
any other documentation as mentioned above.
See Appendix two for a copy of the GSS c/r form
3.5 Submitting the Cheque Requisition to the GSS
Get in the habit of creating a good rapport with those on the GSS Office team, letting
them know who you are, that you are the person to contact regarding any financial
matters, and that it will be yourself who will deliver all of the c/r. I found it made it much
easier to keep track of things. One the c/r are submitted, it is nice to send the recipients
an email letting them know that you have done so and that they should expect their
money in and around 3 week and if they have not heard anything by then, they then
should contact you so you can do a follow up with the GSS.
4. Community Development Grants (CDGs)
Similar to the PDGs, the EGSA provides the same kind of funding for students who
would like to propose a larger event/activity where many EGSA members will have the
opportunity to participate and benefit from the event. In other words, the purpose of the
CDGs is to build community within the SFU Faculty of Education (FoE).
Applications
Instead of submitting an application form, the applicant must first send a written
proposal to the EGSA executive and ask it to be included in the next EGSA General
Meeting, and then attend the EGSA General Meeting to present the project. Standard
CDG funding is $200, however, amounts greater than $200 must be weighed in terms of
the event’s value to the EGSA community. The terms of Reference for the CDGs can be
found on the EGSA website (http://www.sfu.ca/egsa/?page_id=878).
Successful Applicants
After the event the successful applicant would have to report back to provide a postevent summary.
Preparing and Submitting Cheque Requisitions to the GSS
While an application may be approved, reimbursement is based on submitted receipts
and may take up to 60 days for reimbursements to occur. There are exceptions when
money must be allocated ahead of receipts, but the minutes must reflect that. Cheque
requisition is the same as the PDGs except the hard copies get filed under the Cheque
Requisition folder and not the Grant application folder.
5. Keeping Track of Professional Development Grant Recipients
In order to keep track of who has successfully been approved for a PDG, at the start of
each academic year, create a table that lists:
• who was selected
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date of the event/activity
the name of the event/activity
and amount provided.
This is useful to determine if a student has exhausted the $400 yearly allotment, either
in the form of one or two $200 submissions. At the end of the year, print off the list and
attach it to the Grant Approval folder for that year.
See Appendix three for an example.
6. Other Cheque Requisitions (c/r) for the GSS
Occasionally, c/r need to be submitted that do not fall under the grant applications. For
instance, when the EGSA hosts an event, when office supplies are purchased that are
worth more than $50, or the EGSA donates to a cause, c/r are submitted to the GSS
using the GSS c/r form (http://sfugradsociety.ca/), receipts and the minutes. Hard copies
are made (save for the minutes) and are filed together with the CDG applications in the
c/r folder for that year.
At the end of the Academic Year
At the end of the year, you will attach a hard copy of all the expenditures for the year in
this folder from the spreadsheet you create for each EGSA account.
See Appendix four for an example.
7. Keeping Track of Expenditures
The best way to keep track of the EGSA expenditures of all our accounts is by creating
an excel spreadsheet or equivalent. Each sheet represents each of the EGSA accounts:
Caucus, Trust, Petty Cash and VanCity. This not only keeps all the information in one
place, it also allows you easy access when creating the year end budget for the Annual
General Meeting.
Caucus Account
At the start of the academic year, the GSS allocates a certain amount of money for the
year to the EGSA. You can keep track of this by going to the GSS website
(http://sfugradsociety.ca/) and click on Caucus Funding Spreadsheet. Here you will see
how the money is distributed throughout the year. Also, this is a good place to revisit
occasionally to determine if the EGSA numbers match up with those of the GSS.
Do not assume that the EGSAs are wrong, the best practice is to go back to the hard
copies to see exactly what the numbers are in order to determine the discrepancy.
When the numbers do not add up, send a message to the GSS requesting clarification
for either the Caucus or Trust account. From there you can determine what needs to be
done, as each situation varies.
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The Caucus account is a temporary account we have during the year. It is temporary in
that by August 31 of each month, whatever is remaining in this account gets transferred
into the Trust account. Here are the regulations regarding transferring remaining
Causus funding to the Trust accounts, sent by Christina Batstone, the Advocacy and
Policy Advisor on August 11, 2014.
The new Trust Account Regulation has two significant changes:
Firstly, year-end transfers from Caucus' Core Accounts to their Trust Accounts is
now automatic. You do NOT need to submit any forms or make any motions at
your meetings for this transfer to occur.
Secondly, a transfer limit has been implemented: Caucuses may only transfer up
to 50% of their annual Core Funding allotment. For example, if your caucus
receives $3000 every year, your unused funds, up to $1500, will be transferred to
your Trust Account at the end of August. If you only spend $1000, $1500 will be
transferred into your Trust Account, and $500 will be transferred back into the
GSS's general operating budget to be spent on other services. However, if you
spend $2000, all of the remaining money will be transferred into your Trust
Account.
The Regulation also added a mechanism for Governance Committee to consider
requests for exceptions to this transfer limit. Please email the AIRO at
airo@sfugradsociety.ca to request an exception along with your reasons for the
request; no exceptions will be granted past the start of the annual audit (midNovember).
Trust Account
The Trust Account is more of a permanent account where everything reverts to (i.e.
Caucus account money at the end of the academic year). Whenever we return money
into our accounts, they are deposited in the Trust account and not the Caucus account.
At any time you can request a print out of all our activities in order to keep up with and
verify the EGSA records.
Petty Cash
Petty Cash was set up so that we would have $100 cash-on-hand for any small items
that needed to be purchased. The stipulation was that the items purchased could not
exceed $50 (those would have to be motioned and approved at the meetings), when the
money becomes close to being depleted, a c/r can be submitted providing all the items
purchased are listed in the minutes and receipts provided. Petty cash has provided
money towards down deposits for booking the GSS Grad Lounge, snacks for the
meetings, loading the copy card, purchasing small office supplies, etc.
Here is an example of how the Petty Cash c/r motions should appear in the minutes:
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Here you will notice that each line has a particular colour attached to it. This was my
way of grouping the various expenditures into categories for when it came time to
provide the yearly budget at the AGM, it was easier for me to group things and to
calculate them faster.
VanCity Account
The EGSA has a VanCity account at the North Road Community Branch, 3977 North
Road, Burnaby, BC, V3J 1S2. Our account number is 475822, branch 16. There needs
to always be three signers for the account. Currently the three signers are: m. d.
caroline lefebvre, Cassandra Tymochenko, and Marco Espinoza. It is important that the
Treasurer remain in contact with the other signing members in order to know when they
plan on finishing their studies and new signers can be selected. VanCity requests that
changes need to be documented in the Minutes when making appointments to come in
and modify the account. If at all possible, it would be beneficial for the Treasurer to be
one of the signers.
Because we have no monthly fees, it is important that the account is used and does not
sit idle. If nothing is done to the account during the year, the account is frozen and a
$20 reactivation fee is incurred.
The money in this account is separate from the GSS money. It was a donation given to
the EGSA to be spent on something that would benefit all education graduate students.
Because we have not determined what that might be, the EGSA decided to remove the
money from our GSS accounts as a way preventing it from being subsumed within the
larger GSS accounts.
8. Synchronizing the EGSA Caucus and Trust Accounts to those of the
GSS
As the Treasurer, it is important to document all expenditures and to compare them to
the GSS Caucus Funding Spreadsheet which can be accessed on the GSS website
(http://sfugradsociety.ca/). Errors have been made on both sides so it is important
request clarification and to share information between the GSS and the EGSA. Equally,
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towards the end of the semester when balancing the books and preparing the budget
for the Annual General Meeting, you want to present comparable data to the
membership.
9. Annual General Meeting (AGM)
In October of each academic year, the EGSA has its AGM. This meeting presents what
has transpired in the past year and what can be expected in the current year. Therefore,
as the Treasurer it is great to be able to speak to how the money was spent throughout
the past year. Students are generally interested in knowing how much money was
available for the PDGs, CDGs and social events so they can get a sense of what to
expect in the year to come.
For the AGM, it is important to prepare some sort of presentation to demonstrate how
the money was spent. For instance, you might want to have a breakdown of how much
funding the EGSA received at the start of the year, where most of the money went, what
the EGSA did throughout the year, how much money was transferred to the Trust
account at the end of the year, and so forth. This information can then be compiled in a
powerpoint presentation, where you would go through the important points, making
suggestions for the year, and encouraging students to bring proposals forward. At the
meeting it is impossible to go through everything, so you can be open yourself to
answering questions, and speaking to people one-on-one.
What you compile at the end of the year, is then forwarded to the GSS via the
Communications Officer. This document demonstrates what the EGSA did with the
money throughout the year and makes the executive accountable for spending the
money wisely and fairly.
See Appendix Five for an example of an AGM Year-end Report.
10. Monthly Treasurer’s Report
During the first week of each month, the EGSA holds its monthly general meeting, and it
is important that the Treasurer prepare a report as to how much money is left in each
account. In the report, you are also responsible for speaking about deadlines for the
PDGs, keeping track of outstanding money that might not be reflected in the amounts
provided, and bring up any issues/concerns you might have in regards to the finances
and anything else you would like to contribute. For instance, as an executive and
student, you can also bring forward ideas/proposals you feel will benefit the
membership. If you see that the Petty Cash is being used up too quickly, perhaps you
can propose the amount be increased, and take that initiative on.
There are a couple things of importance to highlight here. Firstly, it is imperative that the
EGSA have their first General Meeting of the year in the first week of September
because this meeting is necessary for the allocation of Caucus Funding from the GSS.
Secondly, when providing the number in the monthly Treasurer’s Report, it is important
that the VanCity amounts do not get included in the Minutes, but that they are shared at
each meeting.
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See Appendix Six for an example of a Treasurer’s Report.
11. Meetings
As an executive member, it is important that you attend each monthly General Meeting
that you attend the Annual General Meeting and if at all possible, attend GSS meetings
that pertain to potential loss or impacts affecting EGSA Caucus Funding. Sometimes
there are emergency and executive meetings that are called that you are also expected
to attend, especially when motions are being put forward.
It is expected that the Treasurer’s Report is submitted regardless if you are unable to
attend a meeting and that someone could speak on your behalf. Therefore, when
considering this position, it is important to ask yourself if you will be able to commit to
attending the regular meetings.
12. Other
It would be beneficial to know the Faculty of Education statistics (i.e. student
enrollment), how much Education Graduate Students pay into the GSS, how much of all
GSS money comes from Education Graduate Students etc.
Take the time to explore the filing system in the office as you will see hard copies of the
Appendixes below.
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13. Appendixes
Appendix one—PDG Application Form
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Appendix Two—GSS Cheque Requisition Form
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Appendix Three— Professional Development Grant Recipients Template
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Appendix Four—Keeping Track of Expenditures
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Appendix Five—AGM Year-end Report
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Appendix Six—Treasurer’s Report
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