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The relevant Association legislative bodies may not establish any Funding or Financial Policies which unduly restrict public access to the financial records concerning expenditure of ASSU-allocated money, whether that be by an ASSU organization, a Voluntary Student Organization receiving ASSU funding, or an individual exercising ASSU spending authority.
The fiscal year of the Association shall begin on July 1 and end on June 30.
Once the Operating Budget has been approved, the Financial Manager shall be authorized to approve specific expenditures of funds in accordance with it, subject to the provisions of the Constitution, these By-Laws, the US By-Laws, the GSC By-Laws, and to the following requirements:
The relevant Association legislative bodies shall adopt an appropriate Financial Policy specifying the degree to which income from various sources shall be considered expendable. This policy shall provide for such reinvestment of income as is required for the long-term financial soundness of the Association.
The Association shall make a charge against the funds of each Business and Service project or affiliate, and against the Fee system, to recover the indirect costs which they impose upon the Operating Budget of the Association. The relevant Association legislative bodies shall adopt an appropriate Financial Policy providing for the calculation of such charges. No expenses in the part of the Operating Budget which are funded by the Operating Budget Allowance provided by the University shall be included in the calculation of such charge.
The relevant Association legislative bodies shall adopt an appropriate Financial Policy providing for the smoothing of expected income from Association Business Projects and other sources of income, and for such contributions to reserves as are required to insulate the basic operating expenditures of the Association from short-term fluctuations in income.
All capital expenditures of the Association and its agencies (including the Business Projects) shall be contained in the Capital Budget, along with the sources of funds required to finance those expenditures, unless they are either (1) contained in the Operating Budget of the Association, or (2) contained in the budget of a Business Project and fully financed by the current operating revenues of that Project, or (3) a capital expenditure by the GSC to further graduate programming, in which case it may be derived from the Graduate Student General Fee. The Capital Budget shall be approved by the relevant Association legislative bodies during Spring Quarter for the following fiscal year. If no Capital Budget is approved by the relevant Association legislative bodies by the beginning of the fiscal year, the Capital Budget for that year shall be zero; however, this shall not prevent the relevant Association legislative bodies from approving a subsequent modification to it. The requirements for doing so shall be listed in the respective By-Laws of the Association legislative bodies.
The relevant Association legislative bodies shall adopt, upon the advice of the Financial Manager, an appropriate Financial Policy specifying the range of financial assets in which the Association’s funds, and the funds of student organizations on deposit with the Students’ Organizations Fund, may be invested, and the distribution of funds across such assets. Within the limitations of this policy, the Financial Manager shall be responsible for the investment of all such funds, provided that:
Within the limitations of these By-Laws and the appropriate Financial Policies, the Financial Manager shall have the authority to establish and close deposit accounts, to withdraw funds from such accounts, and to purchase and sell financial instruments, in the name of the Association. The Financial Manager may delegate this authority, but shall continue to be responsible to the relevant Association legislative bodies for its exercise. The Financial Manager shall report to the relevant Association legislative bodies (or their designee(s)) each year during the Autumn Quarter on all such delegations in effect, and shall report any changes in such delegations on a timely basis.
The Financial Manager shall report to the Association legislative bodies (or their designee(s)) on the investments of the Association on a quarterly basis.
All borrowing by the Association must be approved in advance by the relevant Association legislative bodies, except for normal short-term trade credit extended by vendors.
The Financial Manager shall be authorized to approve contracts and agreements, provided that the contract or agreement will cease to be in force no later than the end of the current fiscal year, or, for a contract or agreement made after June 15 of a fiscal year, no later than the end of the following fiscal year. The Financial Manager shall report to the Association legislative bodies (or their designee(s)) on any contract or agreement approved under the authority of this section at the first meeting after the contract or agreement was approved. All other contracts and agreements shall require the approval of the relevant Association legislative bodies before becoming effective.
Approval of borrowing, and approval of contracts and agreements requiring action by the relevant Association legislative bodies, shall normally be considered by their designee(s) before being submitted to the relevant Association legislative bodies.
The rules and regulations governing the SOF shall be those published in the Treasurer’s Handbook or otherwise established and promulgated by the Financial Manager, provided that they are consistent with the Constitution, these By-Laws, the US By- Laws, the GSC By-Laws, and any Financial Policies approved by the relevant Association legislative bodies.
The relevant Association legislative bodies shall adopt, upon the advice of the Financial Manager, an appropriate Financial Policy specifying the types of accounts available to 2009-04-14-JointBylaws.doc 34 student organizations through the SOF, as well as the terms and the rate of interest for each type of account.
The relevant Association legislative bodies shall adopt an appropriate Funding Policy specifying the terms and conditions under which, and the process by which, a student organization receiving funds from a General or Special Fee may receive an exemption from the Constitutional requirement that it deposit all of its fund with the SOF. The relevant Association legislative bodies shall adopt an appropriate Financial Policy specifying the terms and conditions under which, and the process by which, a student organization not receiving funds from a General or Special Fee may receive Association endorsement for an exemption from the University requirement that it deposit all of its fund with the SOF.
VSO that shall assume fiscal responsibility for the entire group, which shall be known as the principal organization.
members.
annual funding cycle.
the principal agrees to forfeit its right to place a Special Fee on the ballot for the funding cycle for which the certification is valid.
the Umbrella group is not at that time receiving any allocation from a Special or General Fee. Disbanding shall make all pending allocations null and void.
2009-04-14-JointBylaws.doc 38 C. The procedures by which each Association legislative body considers and approves Special Fee requests for placement on the ballot shall be specified in the By-Laws of each Association legislative body.
1. General Fees should maximize the benefits to the entire population served in terms of educational value, cultural exposure, and/or services provided to their respective population. 2. Each Association legislative body shall take measures to see that all members of the Association are as equally as possible served by any General Fee. No subset of the population should suffer or benefit more than others due to their skill in navigating any system put in place. 3. VSOs and General Fees a. General Fee allocations to VSOs should be made in a manner that as fairly as possible disburses funds throughout the population taxed. This applies both with respect to a VSO’s participatory size relative to the population, and to that VSO’s role and purpose within the set of all VSOs. b. VSOs that serve a similar role or serve nearly the same subset of the population should be encouraged to combine or form Umbrella groups for the greater benefit of all members. At the discretion of the relevant Association legislative body, a set of VSOs may be treated as an Umbrella group for General Fee allocations regardless of formal Umbrella group status. c. Formation of VSOs strictly for the purpose of obtaining additional funding, misappropriation of funds, or misrepresentations of any kind during the funding process shall be considered violations of the Fundamental Standard. 4. Additional procedures by which each Association legislative body considers and approves General Fee allocations, as well as the procedures by which each Association legislative body places measures to create, change the base amount of, change the statement of purpose of, or modify General Fees on the ballot, shall be specified in the By-Laws of each Association legislative body.
1. The Fee Refund Coordinator shall ensure that Fee refunds are made available in a timely and efficient manner to eligible members requesting them and that all such persons are informed of the procedure to obtain refunds. These procedures shall specifically include the following: a. All eligible students who file a Fee refund request between 8:00AM of the first day of a quarter and 5:00 P.M. on the third Friday of any quarter shall receive the requested refund on their University Bill or as a mailed check for that quarter. Credits or checks shall be issued by the seventh week of the quarter. The ASSU Financial Manager may open the fee refund window earlier, but not later, at his or her discretion. 2009-04-14-JointBylaws.doc 39 b. Due to the differing schedule of the Law School Academic Calendar, Law Students shall have their refund requests automatically rollover to all future academic terms during that same Fiscal Year. Refunds will be distributed according to the schedule detailed above. c. When students request refunds, they shall be presented with a set of anonymous, confidential survey options for each group explain why they are receiving a refund. These questions, and the entire refund site design, will be proposed by the Refund Coordinator and approved by each of the relevant legislative bodies prior to the beginning of the Fiscal Year. Aggregate survey data may be provided to groups. d. Exceptions to this policy will be allowed if and only if authorized by a 2/3 vote of the relevant Association legislative bodies, provided that previous notice has been given. e. The Financial Manager shall make available to any student group receiving a Special Fee a list of the student identification numbers of all students who requested Fee refunds from that group. This list shall be made available no later than noon on the Monday following the Fee refund deadline. f. The refund amount for a group shall be defined as the total amount of quarterly refunds for the group. If this amount exceeds the Refund Cost Surcharge collected for that group for that quarter for that population, the group shall be financially responsible for covering that excess. 1. Joint groups shall have two independent refund amounts. The Graduate refund amount shall be defined as the total amount of quarterly refunds obtained by Graduate students for the group. The Undergraduate refund amount shall be defined as the total amount of quarterly refunds obtained by Undergraduate students for the group. 2. In the event of an excess refund amount, the Financial Manager is authorized to collect that amount from the group’s accounts in the following order: i. Fee Reserves ii. Operating Budgets iii. All other assets as specified in the contract signed prior to being placed on the ballot 2. The Financial Manager shall advertise deadlines as appropriate to ensure students are aware of these procedures. 3. Additional refund policies, specific to either the graduate or undergraduate population, shall be included in the By-Laws of the relevant Association legislative body. In the event that the specific refund policies conflict with these general refund 2009-04-14-JointBylaws.doc 40 policies on a matter affecting members of either the graduate or undergraduate population only, the specific refund policies shall take precedence.
The Financial Manager is hereby instructed and empowered to ensure that all requirements pertaining to funds derived from General and Special Fees contained in the Constitution, these By-Laws, the US By-Laws, the GSC By-Laws, and Funding Policies enacted by the relevant Association legislative bodies are strictly enforced.
A. The Financial Manager will present a revised Three-Year plan to the Association legislative bodies no later than the last regularly scheduled meeting of the year. B. The Three-Year plan will outline goals and timelines for the financial operation of the Association. The areas included shall be: staff, Business Projects, the banking service, Fee refunds, the Operating Budget, and other services the Financial Manager deems important to operation of the Association.