2018-11-28
Present: AB (treasurer), AK (president), JH (Fi comm member), LM (Fi comm member), JZ (Fi comm member), RM (Fi comm member), PA (Fi comm member), SOJ (Fi comm member)
Apologies: SM (Fi comm member), EM (Vice president)
Scene: AK arrives late,
Recap of last meeting: AB recaps last meeting
SJ: when do we chase up the societies we’re covering
AB: if they haven’t put anything in in a week, they’re slow to start up this term, for now send an email, should be on drive. 7 days, then ask to keep up to date
BUDGETS:
- Squash
- Volleyball
- Vague Bodcon budget
- AB: I am squash president, so need to withdraw from this argument
AK: who wants to chair?
*silence*
AK: Shall I? Okay cool
AK: does anyone have any issues?
50/50 rule – AB explains this
AB: proposes taking money out of reserves as all long term investments
JZ: why take all money out of reserves from JCR?
AB: so that subs aren’t whacked up massively this year for
PA: do people need more rackets?
AB: a lot of people have own rackets, this is for people starting out who aren’t sure if they should continue
AK: general census of the room, are people okay with this?
*Everyone puts hand up*
AK: okay cool
- AB: original budget had similar expenditure, included another volleyball, now don’t need it, now working with other colleges, training run by DU players/coaches, get lots of colleges together, isn’t huge demand for people playing, now have £50 expense for this term which they didn’t think they’d have, don’t need volleyball any more so now expenditure imialr, subs changed because fewer players, so subs gone up to match. Nothing long term in there, all for training, matches, tournaments this year, we aim to match perfectly. They need an extra 16p per person, giving an extra pound.
JH: what’s a sub?
AB: if u a member of a sport/society, it’s like a levy for sports and societies. Could make JCR levy a lot higher, then cheaper for S&S but then unfair for people who don’t take part in them. E.g boat club have huge budget so would be unfair if you didn’t take part in rowing.
Anyone have anything they want to flag?
AK: can we say that the squash people can’t lose their stuff pls
AB: any problems with the volleyball one?
*silence*
Show of hands for who wants the budget to pass?
*everyone raises hands*
AB: *narrating* Yep. Unanimous.
- JH: what is Bodcon?
AK: Body conditioning
AB: I imagine it like yoga
AK: no, it’s like
JH: so like aerobics?
AB: this year, Bodcon meant to use hall to do their sessions
JH: why did he say no?
AK: explains – expand later
AB: so now have to pay hall hire, works out to £500ish, £25 a session, they’d already collected subs at the lower value, £3 a year, extra £1 per class. Had no expenditure, were just trying to work out of negative reserves from when people bought yoga mats a few years ago
AK: which people lost
AB: weren’t expecting it, they’ve taken in subs, huge cost so subs would go up quite a bit. Solutions that were proposed: give them money and take out of reserves, give money but because wasn’t either side, do they make them raise their subs, give them all the money, or what combination?
SJ: I say we just give them the money
RM: how much of our budget would that be?
AB: ringfence is £2000, overall surplus on overall budget and a few budget headings won’t
RM: so we can afford it? But can they just do it?
PA: is this for one year? Or will it be continuous?
AK: will carry on
The reason this is a problem is because they found out at the start of this term
AK:the college officers are in charge of everything
JH: what about big EA?
AK: her and JW try not to get involved with budgets as CF (Bursar) is on a level with them and EA isn’t trained on finance. CF gets what he wants almost all of the time.
SOO: What’s overall budget?
AK: Trunover is about 200k
LM: Won’t be benefitting next year if they have negative reserves to pay off
JZ: how much are they charging members right now?
AB: £3 each
JZ: I don’t see why we can’t raise that. And how many members do they have? If raising subs can’t
SOO: why Caledonian
Everyone: bodcon not Caledonian, repeats situation
AB: idk exactly how many members they have, their income aim is £95
AK: I think the issue with raising subs from £3 is even tho small they’ve already paid it, and if people turn round and say you actually need to pay more it’s not really fair, *gives metaphor about levy*
LM: are we anticipating any other large costs from money we’ve ringfenced?
JH; what’s ringfence?
AB: we have mooney set aside for things like this and other budgets. My concern: there have been budget increases, e.g swimming and football were substantial, weren’t included int his years budget as they hadn’t submitted one, football around 1.8/1.9k, swimming over 1k, have eaten into ringfence and surplus quite a bit
AK: with respect to LM’s question we aren’t anticipating more for the year, s and s from last year aren’t going to give any more, no more s and s waiting to pounce
AB: I don’t think there are any. I have this somewhere
*searches his laptop like a hacker while talking to self.*
Sorry I talk to myself quite a lotl.
There are a couple that don’t have budgets, like golf and rounders
AK: I was treasurer last year, (weird flex but ok), and told golf that if they don’t submit a budget in last year they won’t get a budget. Still advocate giving them a budget, but should dock as being lazy,
Rounders very minimal budget, about £50, was for “unforeseen costs” by CW
LM: did they get the £50?
AK: yes, I was against it though.
AB: looks for more – big band
AK: have they not submitted?
AB: finds it – oh yeah. Darts?
AK: *is annoying and starts asking about darts invoice – all will be revealed later in the minutes as added to agenda for later*
AB: also golf, finds golf – oh no wait, what am I smoking? Found it.
JZ: looks in last years finance comm group and tells budget
AB: long winded, but to answer your question, (@LM), no.
Pause
Anyone else have any thoughts on bodcon situation?
LM: it just couldn’t happen again, that’s all.
Is everyone happy with that?
All: yes (quiet because some people nodded instead)
AB: can’t let go of SRO, ‘can we pass on a general aye’
AB: that £500, does it need ot go through JCR meeting
AK: need to check standing orders but yes?
AB: don’t think anything in standing orders about finance
AK: rule I abided by last year
AB: can sort in next couple of days, is just technicality point and not something that matters for this meeting
AB: taks about darts situation
AK: should fine be passed on to members?
LM: donation can’t come from us, can it? Charity donating to charity?
AK: LM U SMASHED IT
AB: okay this is confusing now
PI: Also, If wasn’t all of society,
RM: I feel like darts society should sort out for selves. If we’re giving some money,
PA: their problem not ours, just don’t be a dick
RM: idk how it works, but if weve given money for budget, do we have a say? Can they not just pay out of that at their own discretion
AB: theyre having to amend anyway as bar put in more cabinets and other darts, budget has to change for that anyway, haven’t given that to me
RM: if it isn’t in their budget do they have to pay themselves?
AB: I am of opinion that we still pay it. Think its unfair to ask them to find a way of paying for selves. Not saying JCR should contribute, but in terms of actual process, say they pay all, and JCR aren’t gonna contribuye, say they’ve got 250 for stuff for actual darts, we would match their 125, then for 100 pounds fine they now have t pay 225 subs, as opposed to them raising 175 and us giving 175
RM; so we wouldn’t be giving money for ifne
AB: regardless of method, should come through us, because seems unfair to organise if money comes to us then we pay the fine.
PA: so they shouldn’t figure out a way to collect the money again?
AB: they shoulnt have to raise from subs, we should rsaise
AK: why are the people there not jst paying for it themselves between them
AB: if decision is that we don’t think we should cont, I say that
If JCR doesn’t
AB: I think that regardless of whether the JCR wants to contribute any money or not, that the money should come through the JCR account, as in means it can be added on as a small extra cost to subs, to help them collect it
AK: I don’t think money should come from subs, should come from the members that were there
AB: difficult, people drift down.
AK: theres CCTV
RM: I’m unsure what theyre expected to be doing
LM: I don’t think logistics should be a problem for us, should be a problem for darts
JH: not really our issue.
AB: OK
AK: makes AB sit and type bc she doesn’t know how, brings biscuits while he does
JZ: *tucking into biscuit* now this feels like a proper finance comm meeting
AK: chairs because AB was there
AK: two issues: should money come from members who were there, or from subs, and if from subs, how much is paid for by the JCR? Tackle first issue first
RM: What have college said?
AK: college have given invoice to the JCR.
RM: didn’t understand why they hadn’t paid if college had given them the invoice, but this makes sense
LM: Darts can deal with how they handle it. We just figure out a way to do it
AK: give them a period of time to pay the money then if they ahven’t paid it by a certain time then we tell college to reban them from the bar
RM: how to actually prove we have made the payment
AK: they would need to transfer it to us and then we could get away with donating the £50 as a fundraiser so it should be fine.
JH: think it’s harsh on them if it’s just for cleaning, £100 is quite a lot
AK: should we get them to sort it out and figure out who needs to pay, or add it on to the subs
LM: make it dart’s problem
RM: yeh I agree
AB: needs to say something, cant think of it. Two things I was going to say. 1) in terms of making it their problem, something that happened over a month ago – you said CCTV, will you be able to get it? If they cant get hold of it, hard to pin down. If you say who was there for match, we got a fine?
AK: one thing
RM: part of the point of not passing it onto the darts club is letting them figure out who’s going to pay the fine.
LM: We can give them all the options we’ve thought of but ultimately up to them how to do it
JH: Did Butler definitely cause some of the damage?
AK: Butler already apologised so will definitely help pay part of it
RM: in this situation where we have and invoice, do we pay it out of subs?
AK: we do it where we pass some of it on to their subs. It looks like we pas some of it onto other colleges, only one I’ve heard of is Butler, sent apology. Send £50 pounds to Butler, and £50 for the darts club:
AB: Can add some of the bill to Mary’s, as they were definitely there, so £33 x 3
AK: should be £50 for Cuth’s and £25 for other ones as we had two cuth’s teams
PA: will trying to get them to pay some of it not draw out the matter
LM: not as significant for us
PA: should have a back up plan in case they say no
JH: ask Mary’s if they want to contribute if not then get JoBo to pay £50
RM:If we’ve got invoice what can we actually do?
AK: very likely they will pay. Happened with John Snow and the projector in frep social. JCR presidents are friends and we communicate, and we try to help each other out with stuff *tries to explain some metaphor about noses and faces and cutting*
JH: to avoid rudeness?
AK: yeh to make things better alter in the year, think they will pay
PA: What are we doing?
AK: darts team gonna sort out what they’re gonna do with the fines, and then pay us
PA: are we gonna put a timeframe on?
AK: end of term is a good idea
Sabb treasurer:
AB: at mo, lots of discussion with me AK, EM, student and external trustees, about what our future plans are for the charity, recently had sicussion whether we should become a dso, explains what dsos are, 11 dsos, fin support, uni deals with their legal stuff etc, we are independent charity. Probably won’t happen now, involved chair of trustees stepping down
AK: although for personal reasons
AB: out of that discussion, lots of discussions about moving forwd, issues, e.g charity com complaint, year end finances been late every year since becoming a charity in 2011. Is an issue. We need a solution to that, number of proposals, including having an assistant treasurer, who would be put as signatory on bank acocount like me and ay so they can make payments, help with my workload, sit on fi comm, method 1 position. Discussiona bout outsourcing the bookkeeping, I keep accounts, so was a proposal to put that onto an accounting company, estimated between SOME MONEY, or final proposal, mainly AK’s proposal, which I am also keen on, is adding a second sabb as treasurer. My role would be taken on by grad, full time job, would do it for a year, which would solve quite a lot of problems. Problem for bookkeeping obvs not a problem, could take on additional workload, wouldn’t just be treasurer. E.g grey have close comparable operating model, johns and chads colleges are independent, so different structure to us, Ustinov…
AK: ustinvo
AB: grey have a v close charity structure to us, so they have a sabb treasurer, and an ass treasurer, and a fin comm. Their year end results have been in on time except for once since 2011. Their treasurer is actually FACSO – finacnce anc comm serv office, he does other things as well, that we could pick up in a sabb treas role, e.g checking jcr opt in, I cant do that rn, being more involved with events budgeting, legal side, GDPR compliance
AK: rn we are nt properly GDPR compliant, working on it
JH: what is GDPR
AB: explains what GDPR is, put in place this year, I don’t know all the rules
SOO: we can be fined if we aren’t
AB: regulations and rules on it, no documents in place that do it all, we need more procedural docs for the charity. They need to be enforced and regulated. Another thing that can be picked up by FACSO. In an ideal world, great. One significant downside – employees are expensive.
AK: I cost the charity 9K changing it sothat pres works for 12 months not 13, as you don’t need a ful month handover as excessive, so that;s a grand less cost, but 18k is still huge for sab treasurer. Still writing proposal and am still keen on it, commission compliance is vital, can be fined or shut down, trustees are criminally liable if not compliant, imo is most sustainable and only way to do it and keep to guidelines every year, other than outsourcing the bookkeeping, which is cheaper, but benefits to having sab officer that isn’t just on finances and that, but other things as well. AK is going to pull out min
LM: fro next year?
AB: yes, big trustee meeting on 8th, decision will be made then, standing orders would need to be updated, then sabb treasurer run in 2nd meeting.
PA: what is this to do with dso?
AB: so we are a functioning charity, dso was a solution to that, rather than becoming an operating charity. Huge amount of problems with being a dso – 2 biggest ones, uni has direct debit to bank account, las year aidans had tennis courts, renovated them, then decided jcr should pay. Uni just took money. 4k was mildert for bar improvements, same situation, trevs mimscharged for formals, took 2 years to get money back. On fin side, shitshow.
AK: one of big advantages the trustees stated of being a DSO is that we’d have legal and financial support from uni, and wouldn’t be treasurer going solo. Spekaing to other pres’s they get minimal support, mildert and aidans wanting to leave DSO framework anyway, mildert rpes sent doc to AK about wanting to leave. Don’t get any support from uni. Got 10 pages on issues with DSO. Had a day speaking to 4 different presidents and have loads of anecdotal evidence. Kind of blown over now.
JH: what are we missing from compliance?
AK: got document from uni that was an audit of the charity, including points that need to be changed e.g. GDPR and accounts needing to be in on time. Also small points, but main is finance, then GDPR and not enough policies
JH: would we not need a sab for this
AK a lot have to be checked over by AK as only paid employee. Things like GDPR compliance needs to be checked by someone paid as don’t want liability on a student. If they mess up and charity get’s fined that’s a studen’=t’s fault and not fair
JZ: we are basically volunteer
AK all work comes from volunteers and pres just oversees and makes sure everything works. Charity relies heavily on volunteers. Stuff that can get us in trouble e.g. compliance, giving it to students is unfair, they have degrees etc. No guarantee it will happen year on year, and these are things that are fundamental to the charity
JZ: Most positions were uncontested, if no-one runs.
RM: need someone that is good
AB: Already a problem with the current sab officer, will always be a problem
LM: should be better with someone completely devoted to it
JZ: good that they are committed as they are getting paid
AK: in terms of no one running, can think of people that would run for it this year, also there are finance students now and you learn fundamentals of accounting so will be super appealing to them.
JH: will there be a problem with experience etc
AB: Full handover happens for treasurer
AK: *explains assistant treasurer and continuity* hopefully AT’s will want to apply for treasurer as a graduate
AK: haven’t been minuting this, so sorry, was explaining budget
AB: MOA outdated, uni still haven’t updated, hopefully will include GDPR regulations, should be able to use peoples emails, could send targeted emails, could enhance strategy
AOB: cakes – EM will do next cakes
AOB: