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University of North Florida
Student Government
2015-2016 Activity & Service Fee Budget Deliberations
January 30, 2015
Call to order
 Meeting is called to order at 9:53AM
Roll Call
 Quorum is established with 5 voting members.
Budget Deliberations
 Treasurer Wolf: I want you to know that I have done my absolute best to get
this budget. I have been meeting with all of the different indexes since
October. I am confident that this is the best model. It is a lot of money and I
want you to ask as many questions as possible. I am going to go through each
index and questions after. We have a decrease in enrollment of 6,000 which
is a decrease in revenue of $61,380. There was also an increase in minimum
wage and salaries. So there had to be a decrease of $145,809. There were
three things I had to keep in mind. The first thing was the students, what they
want and what they are benefitting from. Number two, I cut OPS wages line.
There is always money left over in here. I also rounded lump sum OPS wages.
Third, our tight financial position this year. So, this is not the year for an
expansion to be made.
a. Arena
 This one is pretty straight forward.
b. Student union
 They asked for an increase for their operations. I am proposing we keep the
same amount they had for the current year. Operating expenses, they asked
for an increase for radios, but they already bought them so I am proposing
this stays the same. Repairs and maintenance, I am proposing we do $35,000
which gives them enough to spend and should something extraordinarily
happens they have auxiliary funds or they can come here to request money.
For shirts, they asked for an increase in staff, since I am keeping the staff the
same. I think 1500 is sufficient to cover their shirts.
o Senator Akers: you said they use $40,000 for maintenance repairs,
and you cut that? - They had a $5,000 cushion, and I decreased it by
5,000.
c. Lend-A-Wing
 Operating expenses, this funds the coordinator at 20, he asked for 30. As I
said I don’t think this a year for expansions, so perhaps in the future we can
expand this. The only thing I changed for promotional items, he said $600
would be enough. I am proposing $1,500 is sufficient for promotional.
d. Osprey Productions
 For OPS, no changes other than rounding that. The only thing I changed was
for arena concerts, I am proposing we keep this the same as last year because
OP brings in ticket revenue. Operating expenses, programming events I cut
this. Advertising, this is becoming a lot more on social media, so I think a cut
can be made here. I think $10,000 is enough for this. Rentals I am proposing
we keep it the same at $9,000. Director Chwalisz said this would be enough.
For lighting sound and stage productions, I am proposing we keep that the
same. For movie nights, I am proposing $18,000. I am proposing we do
$3,000 for travel.
o Senator Bottom: You mentioned you are relying on ticket revenue, do
you know that number? - They made $43,000 last year.
o Senator Akers: You pulled $1,000 off of their food request, do you
think that is that enough for them? - I do, I shaved food off throughout
the entire budget.
e. Homecoming
 This has taken a large decrease. I say they cut the comedian out of
homecoming. This is hard to budget for; they don’t have plans in place for the
next year. The ball park is over $50,000 for the comedian, if we kept this in
here, they would come in for a special request anyway. If they do decide to
bring a comedian to campus, they can come before the committee to request.
Crowd management was cut since we are cutting the comedian. Operating
expenses, awards $150 is enough to cover. Line 8 is a large decrease since we
aren’t funding the comedian, it’ll be going towards lip sync.
o Chairman Kennedy: How confident are you that they are not doing a
comedian? - They don’t have a committee for that.
o Senator Ascanio: Why was there an increase for lip-sync lighting? - So
they can draw a crowd.
f. Student conference travel
 $30,000 for travel, I am requesting we keep this the same.
g. Recreation and intermural sports
 Before I start with this one I want to go back to town hall results we had. This
showed that a large percentage that a lot of students are using this. Other
than rounding a few of the OPS wages. I am proposing we don’t fund the
skate park attendant, in the survey the skate park was the least used. I
followed up with the director; at most there have been 95 students since July.
Operating expenses, they asked for an increase in athletic supplies, but I am
proposing we keep it the same. I don’t foresee them making any large
purchases. The new rec gym that is opening, they asked for an increase for
printing and reproduction I gave them 300 which is enough.
h. Student wellness complex
 This is one of the most utilized things that we fund on this campus. I tried my
best to keep them at the level they are right now. They have requested for a
new position, and I think this is very important. They requested that SG funds
75% of this position; I propose we fund 70%. Operating expenses, I want to
keep them at their current funding.
i. Club Alliance
 I am not proposing a decrease in OPS wages. For food, I am proposing we
allocate $900. Club alliance programming, $500 is sufficient. Club fest and
spring bash is their biggest events; I am requesting club fest is for $7,000. For
spring bash, I think $6,000 is enough, since it is smaller than club fest.
Marketing and advertising I am proposing we fund them for $500.
j. Club Funding
 We are switching the way we do club funding now. Club funding I am
proposing $50,000 this will fund requests we get for clubs. Clubs are allowed
to request $300 to be allocated to their club. I proposed that they have to
submit a request to get that $300. They can request additional funds if they
need. I have worked with the directors of club alliance and the advisors, and I
am confident that this will be the best option. They will go through a similar
process that we go through here. The proviso transfer is coming out of the
budget authority that we have. I am proposing we take $20,000 of that
transfer to go in this budget. This is the most fiscally responsible way to do
this.
o Senator Akers: You are proposing a separate bucket in the funding?-I
got that $20,000 from Special Request budget.
o Senator Akers: Will this affect the scholarship interest?-No.
o Senator Rader: How much did we use the club funding last year? - In
2014 $30,000.
o Senator Akers: Why $70,000? - They didn’t request in the past, it has
been first come first serve. They will know exactly how much money
they have.
o Senator Ascanio: If they had have more in the past why increase it? - It
is complicated with the transfer, so they have $50,000. If they don’t
need more, they don’t need the transfer of $20,000. Student
Government wants to expand clubs on campus, we are trying to
increase the amount of funding they have. I propose you keep it at
$50,000.
o Senator Akers: For the $20,000, you mentioned budgetary
amendments? - If they requested more than the $300, this would be
them coming for an increase. In those budgets they can request travel
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money, which is a faster process than coming before the B&A
committee.
Executive Branch
OPS wages, I am proposing a decrease from 125 to 110 hours. I believe that
this is sufficient enough. Currently we are running off of 110 hours. I cut OPS
wages across the board. Operating expenses, Turner mentioned he hasn’t
done much travel, I propose we keep it at $5,000. Executive Programming,
this is also a decrease to $25,000. Office supplies, I propose $2,000, our
supplies closet is full right now.
Legislative Branch
OPS wages, I only made changes to B&A chair and Senate Secretary. I had
discussions with both, 20 is sufficient for each to do their jobs. Operating
expenses, advertising this was used for spinnaker ads however no money has
been spent, I zeroed out that line. If they would like to do advertising it can
be funded out of programming, which I decreased to $3,000.
Business and Accounting
OPS wages, the student office assistants so I propose we keep that the same, I
did a lump sum funding with the direction of director McGuire. Operating
expenses, I decreased printing and reproduction line to $3,500. I propose we
allocated $3,000 for office supplies, the closets are full currently. Staff
development, they aren’t doing as much travel, I propose $6,000 for this line.
Judicial Branch
OPS wages, I propose we do not fund the senior associate justice line. They
came last year for a special request for the remainder of year. I am proposing
we don’t fund this request. They requested this for continuity. I believe that
there is enough continuity with the deputy chief justice. The branch also has
a number of volunteers. I propose we zero out the reserves funding.
Operating expenses, they have a very tiny budget, so I am proposing no
changes to this.
o Senator Akers: He hasn’t appointed a senior associate justice? - Yes
there has been an appointment, this position will go on until June and
this will be effective in July.
Elections
OPS wages, this is a position where the election time periods they will be
working more but not as much during other times. So I am proposing the
keep the same and giving them a lump sum. Operating expenses, I didn’t
make any changes to the request.
Special Request
I proposed $180,000 with the $20,000 going into club funding.
Business Overhead
 I haven’t made any changes, this is mandated by the university
r. Salary Reserves
 This is also given to the B&A office. This ensures if there is an increase being
made we have the money. If there is a salary increase, this is made in
October. I propose we fund it for 3/4ths of the year. Minimum wage I
decreased by $4,000. There are always leftovers in this.
s. Spinnaker Media
 This is the one I make sure we spend a lot of time on, since a lot of changes
have been made. I have gone into a lot of depth. I had multiple conversations
with spinnaker leaders. I am very confident in the way we are funding them
in this model. They are currently funded in 4 indexes. They asked for one
lump sum funding. I say that all indexes get combined into 1 index. Still doing
it in a line item budget. This still allows me to see line item by line item. This
gives them flexibility. I believe it is a good way to still keep accountability.
OPS wages, TV station manager they requested an increase I think 8.05 is
sufficient for the manager to make. I condensed the TV and radio staff into
this. I asked how many hours we are funding them right now. 65 hours for 6
positons and they are allocated for 80. So I decreased this and I propose for
60 hours a week for student staff. 99% of their operation is for the movies
that play. Radio student staff we currently fund them at 85, I propose a
decrease of 5 hours. Operating expenses, I only made changes in 2 different
areas. I increased their food allocation, for $1,000. Annual spinnaker
subscription. We fund this currently at 9 issues per year, 12,000 copies per
issue times 43 and a half cents. In the budget hearings B&A chairman asked
them how many they throw away, they throw away 5,000-6,000. That
showed a red flag for me. They said it is difficult for them to make 9 issues
per year. The manager proposed 6 issues per year. I asked for data of costs,
and they didn’t get that to me. I have done my best with my calculations; I am
proposing 6 issues per year based off of 8,000 copies. We currently fund
them at 43 and half cents per unit and I am proposing 65 cents. They have an
auxiliary account to cover additional funds they need.
o Senator Akers: Why couldn’t they provide the cost? - I went over
invoices. I think 65 cents is generous. I want to bring us all to the same
page. Should they come to me before it gets approved, I would be able
to negotiate if they give me fixed data.
o Chairman Kennedy: Do we have the results from this past osprey
voice? - shows results on screen.
o Chairman Kennedy: Do you have an exact number of the decrease
from last year? – Last year the lump sum came out to $253,359. This
year it comes out to $240,032.
o Senator Ascanio: How do we know what they are spending, item by
item? - They are decentralized, they report to the business manager.
They will have to come to Business Manager Knipe to request transfer
funds. They are required to do to usage reports and surveys to the
students.
*Questions/Motions on proposed budget*
o Senator Akers: Can we see the survey from the spinnaker? - *shows
on screen*. 12% said they were watching spinnaker, they surveyed
117 students.
 Senator Akers: Motion for open discussion. Second. All in favor.
Moved.
o Senator Akers: Only red flags I have are for spinnaker media. This is
almost a quarter million dollars. This is a service hardly used by the
students. I question the expensive aspect.
o Chairman Kennedy: That used to be 4 indexes, so that is why the
number is so high. Don’t get caught up in the amount of money
o Treasurer Wolf: looking at the production, 99% of the time they play
movies. Based on their data of 75% students are watching movies.
o Senator Akers: I agree we don’t want to zero fund them. Many of those
the things they do aren’t being utilized. I propose to take a closer look
at that funding.
o Chairman Kennedy: the survey was a little over 500 students, this is a
great survey, but it is a small portion of our student population. If
those numbers were larger, then I think it would be a better basis to
make a decision on.
o Senator McCulskey: I know that it is a large amount. But we have
made cuts on it. Spinnaker does do great services for our university.
Even though it looks book, I think it has been allocated out well
o Senator Ascanio: we need to analyze more in depth to wear the money
is going. They do provide a good service. I still think we are giving
them way too much money.
o Treasurer Wolf: If you would like to make adjustments to this index, I
can show you the breakdown of each index.
o Senator Akers: We are allocating 8,000 copies, what would it be if we
dropped that to 7,000?-*shows on screen*. We aren’t restricting them
to a certain amount.
o Senator Ascanio: How much per unit? - I allocated them .65 per unit.
o Senator McCulskey: If we allocated them the .43 and a half again? That cost per unit will increase, if they are making fewer issues that
will allow them to make a larger magazine.
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o Senator McCulskey: I don’t feel comfortable until they give me those
numbers.
o Senator Ascanio: I think it is really important to get that data.
o Treasurer Wolf: I changed wording in provisionary language to up to a
certain amount of copies.
o Senator Akers: What about outside funding? - In past years there have
been conversations about being less dependent on SG. We can’t
control content. They combined all of their outlets into one. They have
an auxiliary fund; they create revenue off of the magazines. Radio can
take sponsorships. TV can do the same thing. Next year they are
projecting $85,000 in revenue.
o Senator Akers: Are you taking auxiliary funding into account when
making the budget? - Yes, I have kept most of their line items the
same. I know we don’t fund their magazine fully right now.
o Senator Bottom: How much would it cost to make the funding student
wellness complex position for 75% instead of 70%? - $32,040.
o Director McGuire: For spinnaker auxiliary last fiscal year, they had
$66,185. Current year projection is $117,665.
Break-11:40
Reconvene-12:10
Senator Akers: Motion to suspend Roberts Rules. Second. All in favor. moved
o Senator Ascanio: Why is there an increase in subscription?- That isn’t
something we can control
o Senator Akers: I have concerns about the spinnaker index. I think
there are places where we can pull from and re-allocate. One thing I
have in mind is for the intermural sports.
o Senator Akers: How much of the marketing are they currently using? That is a combined line item of all the indexes.
o Senator Ascanio: What if fund up to 5,000 magazines. Since only 24%
read the magazine according to the Osprey Voice.
o Senator Bottom: I think that is too much of a big decision to base off of
500 students.
o Senator Ascanio: But this could be reallocated to something that we
know the data of.
o Senator Akers: Even if we get more students that use Spinnaker, we
are still at a small percentage of the student body. I think you won’t
get any more of 30% usage. Consider the other things we could put
this money into. It is not unusual for a magazine to be sold out, so I
don’t think it is a bad thing to fund them what under the demand is.
That will help build more demand.
o Chairman Kennedy: I understand that we are basing our thoughts off
of usage. We need to look at Spinnaker as an index in the Student
Government budget. I don’t think it is fair for us to allocate to other
indexes and give spinnaker less funding. We would be doing our
students and indexes a dis-service.
o Senator Ascanio: I think there are areas more beneficial for the
students.
o Chairman Kennedy: I don’t think that number should change to 5,000.
o Senator Ascanio: How do we know that the magazines are actually
being read?
o Director McGuire: You have to take into account that the budget
directors come in here to present they are being truthful.
o Senator Akers: What if we changed it to 6,500? Based on Treasurer
Wolf’s discussion with them, I think that is about the average of
spinnakers given out. This helps minimizes waste.
o Senator Akers: I want that quarter million dollars to go to projects and
indexes actually used.
o Senator Bottom: I think we could change it to 7,000 instead of 6,500.
o Director McGuire: In provisionary language, you could say for how
much magazines you pay for. That would give them more flexibility.
o Senator Akers: I think this creates oversight for their process. My
argument against giving them x number of prints, what if they don’t
distribute all of them. I think 7,000 seem reasonable.
o Director McGuire: it is a matter of how much you want to fund,
because they can print as many as they want.
o Senator Genao: I think we should give them wiggle room, and I am
comfortable with 7,000.
o Senator Bottom: I think the student wellness complex positon would
be a good place to reallocate that money to.
o Senator Akers: We could distribute into intermurals. I would argue
that they could use more equipment.
o Chairman Kennedy: We can’t control what exactly they use that
money for, which is up to the budget director. We can’t give them
money and tell them to spend it on intermurals only, and I would
definitely suggest not doing that.
o Business Manager Knipe: Whatever money you put in there, Director
Purser would be willing to hear what you think.
 Senator Akers: Motion to reinstate Roberts Rules. Second. All in
favor. Moved.
Senator Akers: Motion to change index 402400 from 8,000
issues to 7,000 and in index 402031 increase item 4 to 75%
and increase index 402030 operating expenses line item 19
$1,740 to equipment. Second. Discussion. Roll call vote: Motion
passes 4-0-0.
 Senator Ascanio: Motion to approve the budget. Second.
Discussion. Roll call vote: motion passes 4-0-0.
Provisionary Language
Treasurer Wolf: As I stated before, a lot of provisionary language is general. I am
just going to highlight changes. I just changed the amount of $20,000 in special
requests clause. Recreations asked an increase of $8.50 vs. the $8.25 they have
now. For the Spinnaker, you’ll see in the current language I condensed it all for
the media outlets. I added .65cents and 8,000 issues, there needs to be a motion
to change that to 7,000. It states that there should be a survey each semester
reported back to the advisor, I changed that to report to the station managers. In
current language it states $10,000 cold be transferred to club funding, I changes
that to $20,000. In OP ticket sale revenues, I included homecoming ticket
revenue to create transparency.
o Senator Akers: In regards to the spinnaker survey, could we add a limit
for amount of students surveyed. Is it reasonable to try and mandate
that? - I don’t think we should get into mandate things like that. I would
hope they do them right. They have resources on campus that they can
use. Mandating it would put you on a slippery slope.
o Senator Akers: Could we just add the words of a statistically
proportionate number? - It is in their best interest to do it for themselves
as well.
 Senator Ascanio: Motion to approve the provisionary language.
Second. Discussion (we haven’t changed the spinnaker issue
numbers). R motion doesn’t pass 1-0-4.
 Senator Akers: motion to change the numbers in spinnaker media
from 8,000 to 7,000 units. Second. No discussion. Roll call vote.
Motion passes 5-0-0.
 Senator Ascanio: Motion to approve the provisionary language.
Second. No discussion. Roll call vote. Motion passes 5-0-0.
 Senator Akers: Motion to approve the proposed budget with
provisionary language for 2015-2016. Second. No discussion.
Motion passes. 5-0-0.
Announcements
Open forum next Tuesday.
Final Roll Call
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 Quorum is reestablished with 5 voting members.
VII.
Adjournment
 Meeting is adjourned at 1:33PM.
Minutes taken by: Leah Tolisano, Senate Secretary.