Senate advisor Alli Bautista presented to the senate floor during this week’s meeting, explaining the process of funding a “signature event.” The senators had expressed a need to rehash the concept in the prior meetings, to ensure that everyone understood the details of the complicated procedure.

First, Bautista reminded, an event qualifies as a signature event if it falls within the following parameters: it must have an anticipated attendance of over 150 people, it must have a budget over $2,000 and the event must have already occurred on our campus in some capacity at least once.

This final stipulation allows ASSP to know that estimations for attendance and ticket sales are accurate, because there are previous years to refer to.

Next, Bautista walked slowly through the process of funding a signature event and how senate is to choose the amount they will allocate from the club fund to help.

There are three facets of the funding process, she reminded the floor: fundraising, ticket sales, and club fund allocation.

The first, fundraising, is part of the agreement clubs must make when they put on a signature event. Clubs commit to raising 20% of the total cost of the event themselves, through fundraising, donations, sponsors, etc.

The second, ticket sales, is decided by the club as well: they set ticket prices based on how many they expect to sell and how much money they need to raise.

As ticket sales often come in slowly, and clubs need to pay vendors and event expenses during that pre-event preparation time, they can take out a “ticket loan” from ASSP. This allows them to use the money they expect to make from sales early and then pay ASSP back as tickets sell.

“We can’t expect college students to be paying hundreds of dollars of event expenses out of pocket, which is why the ticket loan exists,” Bautista said.

The final facet, ASSP Club Fund allocation, is decided with these other factors in mind. The cap for funding from ASSP is set at $4,000, though that can be amended on the senate floor via vote if needed.

The senators practiced using a fake event budget, and did the math to calculate how much they could allocate the “club” to fill in the rest of their event budget without overextending the club fund or overfunding.

The new signature event policy was enacted last year, “in the hope that we have more equity in the way we distribute money to clubs,” Bautista said.

In other news:
Sen. Natalie Anderson from the School of Psychology has stepped down from her position.
ASSP Core and ASSP senator application forms are open now and close Feb. 1