Appendix II: Funding Policies

1. The Funding Coordinator shall be selected Spring Quarter by the incoming US Chair, subject to approval by the incoming US.
2. The Funding Coordinator shall serve at the pleasure of the US.

1. The Funding Coordinator shall serve as the chief administrator of the Programming and Community Service Fund.
2. The Funding Coordinator shall solicit, monitor, assist, and analyze VSO applications to the Programming and Community Service Fund.
3. The Funding Coordinator shall report to the US the state of the Programming and Community Service Fund.
4. The Funding Coordinator shall inform VSO of their Programming and Community Service Fund allocation and ensure they receive their funding.

1. The Programming and Community Service Fund shall be used for allocation to undergraduate student organizations.
2. Voluntary Student Organizations seeking funds from the Programming and Community Service Fund shall submit a funding request to the Appropriations Committee.
3. Voluntary Student Organizations seeking funds from the Programming and Community Service Fund shall have the right to send a representative to any US or Appropriations Committee meeting at which their funding allocations are discussed.
4. No funds from the Programming and Community Service Fund may be allocated to a group that is not a Voluntary Student Organization registered with the Office of Student Activities.
5. No funds from the Programming and Community Service Fund may be allocated to a student organization that is not an undergraduate student organization.
6. No funds from the Programming and Community Service Fund may be allocated to a group that receives funds from a Special Fee levied, in whole or in part, on the undergraduate population.
7. The US reserves the right to cancel or suspend an allocation if the funds are not being used within the specifications of the allocation.
8. Modifications of the specifications of an allocation, excluding the total amount allocated, may be made at the discretion of the US. Modifications of the total amount may be made by the Usual Method for Approving Allocations.
9. The total amount allocated to each Voluntary Student Organization, and summary of the budget associated with the allocation, shall be published in the next Elections Handbook.

To be reviewed by the Appropriations Committee, funding and Special Fee requests shall contain the following information, in separate sections:

1. For USGF funding requests:
   1. The name of the organization requesting funds.
   2. The name(s), email address(es), and phone number(s) of the member(s) making the request.
   3. The Association account number for the organization.
   4. A certification that the organization will comply with all terms and conditions for use of funds specified in the Constitution, the Association By-Laws and Policies, and the US By-Laws and Policies; and the allocation approved by the US.
2. For Special Fee requests:
   1. The name of the organization requesting the fee.
   2. The name(s), email address(es), and phone number(s) of the member(s) making the request.
   3. The Association account number for the organization.
   4. A signed contract specifying that the group receiving special fee agrees to cover all refunds in excess of their allocated refund buffer (set by the Association FM).
   5. Groups applying for special fees from both Graduate and Undergraduate populations (hereafter referred to as joint groups) shall submit a pre-proposal to each legislative body. The criteria for this pre-proposal shall be developed by each legislative body and passed to groups through the elections commission.
3. A brief description of the group, including a list of previous major activities (if any) and an estimated percentage of its active participants that are members of the undergraduate population.
4. A budget, following the format of the sample provided by the Appropriations Committee. It shall contain:
   1. The time period for which the allocation would be effective.
   2. An itemization of all sources of funding and all expenses.
   3. A breakdown of expenses for each specific activity of the organization.
   4. Line item numbers as defined by the Students' Organizations Fund.
   5. Description of each line item as necessary.
5. Answers to the following questions:
   1. How does the organization pursue the goals of the Programming and Community Service Fund?
   2. How do the activities to be funded pursue the goals of the Programming and Community Service Fund?
   3. From what other sources is the organization obtaining or seeking funds?

To assist organizations in the preparation of applications, the Appropriations Committee shall publish a guide describing the goals of the Programming and Community Service Fund, terms and conditions for use of funds, and all application procedures, and containing a sample application and funding agreement form.

The Committee shall only recommend an allocation of money from a General Fee to a Group if that group fits the statement of purpose for that fee.

Applications shall be kept on file and made available by the US Chair and US Deputy Chair.

The Committee shall prepare a brief recommendation to the US regarding each proposal. At the first US meeting after preparation of the recommendation, the Committee shall summarize the application and present its recommendation.

In evaluating special fee applications the Appropriations Committee should include in their considerations the following criteria before recommending placement on the ballot

1. Evaluation of outside revenue
2. Impact on student body and/or community impact
3. Benefit to undergraduate population, past and future
4. Past performance/budgeting, refund rates
5. Affect on total amount of Association Fee for each undergraduate
6. Established funding polices for each line-item

The Funding Coordinator shall notify an organization when funds become available to it.

The US Chair may, at his/her discretion, grant extensions to the ending date of an allocation to ensure that all transactions are cleared. No extension may be granted beyond the end of the fiscal year to which the allocation applies.

Unless otherwise specified by the US, title to all tangible property purchased, in whole or in part, through the use of funds from the USGF, shall vest with the Association, and possession shall devolve upon the Association in the event of the dissolution of the VSO possessing the property.

A VSO shall be considered to be dissolved upon the receipt of a declaration of dissolution by its membership, failure to register with the Office of Student Activities for 15 months, or after a declaration of dissolution by the US following reasonable efforts to contact the last known officers of the VSO. All allocations to a VSO shall end upon dissolution of that VSO.

Advertisements for events funded by the USGF shall cite the US as a sponsor or cosponsor.

The maximum amount of funds from the USGF that may be allocated to an undergraduate student organization in a single fiscal year is $6,000. An additional $1,000 may be allocated for community service expenses, on top of the base maximum of $6,000.

The Appropriations Committee may seek independent reports on the success of an organization's activities from those who attended one or more of those activities. The Committee may arrange to send volunteers to gather information for such a report.

Equal fractions of all fees shall be collected in the Fall, Winter, and Spring Quarters. No fee shall be collected in the Summer Quarter.

There are two allowed expenditures out of the General Fee Reserve. Both require a 2/3 vote of all voting members of the US to pass.

1. The US may, in considering a Service Project (as defined in Article IX of the Association By-Laws) to be funded through Special Fees, allocate the amount that would have otherwise been in the Special Fee request out of the General Fee Reserve as a one-time expenditure to determine the viability of the project in a given year.
2. The US may allocate funds out of the General Fee Reserve for the purpose of a long-term investment that benefits Stanford students. Such long term investments fall into two major categories: capital expenditures and infrastructure improvements.
   Any such expenditure bill must show:
   1. How the expenditure benefits Stanford students and Stanford student groups
   2. How the expenditure falls into one of the two categories outlined above
   3. The specific amount that will be taken from each reserve account (subject to lower limit restrictions outlined in section B)
   4. How the expenses are in line with the statement of purpose for each general fee reserve account from which funds will be spent
3. The US may, at the request of the Appropriations Committee, allocate more than the General Fee allocation for a given year to student groups through the regular appropriations process, with the idea in mind that this “overallocation” shall reduce but not eliminate the net income accruing to the reserve for that year due to money returned from student group accounts. A more specific policy on this type of expenditure may be set by the Appropriations Committee for a given fiscal year.
   In reviewing either of these types of expenses, the US shall employ a heightened standard of review. These expenses are not meant to be made frivolously or easily, and should require time and deliberation by the US before ultimate passage. In the end, expenditures should only be passed if they can be shown to have a significant impact on the Stanford community, given the amount of money that is spent. All expenditures passed should be shown to be difficult to achieve through any other means of funding, since this policy is meant to authorize expenditures that could not be funded in any other way.

The Financial Manager of the Association, in conjunction with the chair of the US Appropriations Committee Chair, shall agree upon a maximum amount that can be spent out of each General Fee Reserve Account on item (1) above for each fiscal year. This limit shall become effective upon its announcement at a regular meeting of the US. Should the Financial Manager and Appropriations Chair be unable to agree, the US shall set this amount by majority vote at a regular meeting. The US may not pass a bill that spends a given General Fee Reserve account beyond this specified level, unless the US passes, by a 2/3 vote of all voting members, one of the following two justifications for such an expenditure:

1. A “Statement of compelling interest” that shows how much more the project in question would benefit the Stanford community as proposed than if it were consistent with the established spending limit.
2. A “Finding of a State of Emergency.” A “State of Emergency” is here defined as a crisis, primarily of a fiscal nature, in which the Association has outstanding financial obligations that:
   1. Would compromise the health of the Association if not met
   2. Cannot be met through expenditures out of operating funds in the annual budget
   3. Any finding of a state of emergency must contain:
   4. A list of conditions that create a state of emergency, as defined above
   5. The amount and nature of the expenditures necessary
   6. The general fee reserve account or accounts that will be used for these expenditures

In addition, the US may, by a 2/3 vote of all voting members, change the upper spending limit arrived at by the Appropriations Chair and Financial Manager.

Note that item (2) above is not covered by this limitation, specifically because expenditures covered under this item may be much larger and require a great deal of deliberation by the US and input from the Financial Manager before passage. For item (2) expenditures, the ultimate guardian against frivolous spending shall be the US itself.