ASSU Documentation

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====== Stanford Student Enterprises ======

Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE) is an semi-autonomous division of the ASSU that is overseen by its own Board of Directors. The ASSU Financial Manager is the CEO of Stanford Student Enterprises.

===== Mission =====

The mission of Stanford Student Enterprises is three-fold:
  - Guarantee the long term financial viability of the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU).
  - Provide valuable services to the Stanford community and beyond.
  - Afford a premier entrepreneurial experience on campus.

Beyond this three-fold mission, it is the basic role of Stanford Student Enterprises to manage the business and financial affairs of the ASSU, providing the resources and staff for the ASSU Financial Manager.

===== Oversight =====

As an autonomous division of the ASSU, Stanford Student Enterprises and its employees do not directly report to the ASSU (e.g. the legislative bodies or the President). The Board of Directors of SSE is given broad power to manage the affairs of SSE, and the CEO of SSE derives his/her authority from that Board. The Board and the CEO are jointly responsible for the conduct of SSE, and for seeing that SSE fulfills its mission; except for limited reports, SSE is not typically accountable to the ASSU for their operations.

At the same time, the CEO of SSE is also the Financial Manager of the ASSU, and in that role is more directly accountable to the legislative bodies. For instance, the Financial Manager assists the legislative bodies in setting financial policy, reports to them about their budgets, and assists them in overseeing 

Ultimately, it should be noted that all financial authority in the ASSU (including financial authority over the affairs of SSE) remains vested in the joint legislative bodies of the Association.

===== The split between ASSU / SSE =====

It is difficult in some cases to clearly distinguish "ASSU" from "SSE." For the most part, the entire ASSU/SSE organization can be separated into three pieces.

==== The ASSU Proper ====

When someone thinks about "the ASSU," they primarily picture the elected officials: the joint legislative bodies, the President, and the like. These "political bodies" together form the actual "government" part of our student government organization. Together, these bodies are responsible for:
  * Setting long-term vision for the organization
  * Funding Stanford's 650+ student groups
  * Advocating for the interests of students

The ASSU President serves as the chief executive of the ASSU, though he/she has limited authority (because of the principle of separation of powers). The joint legislative bodies are in charge of all financial policy; but of course, ultimately all students of Stanford University are actually in charge of all financial policy.

==== Stanford Student Enterprises Proper ====

SSE is the business and entrepreneurial arm of the student government, responsible for completing the SSE mission stated above. SSE's business enterprises are designed to generate unrestricted income by making a profit when they sell goods and services. That profit goes back to SSE, which can put it toward anything (and as part of the ASSU, that money can go to the ASSU Endowment!)

The CEO of SSE is in charge of all these business ventures, and they all report to the Board eventually.

==== ASSU Operations ====


The third part of the ASSU is hazier than the first two. "ASSU Operations" encompasses all the backend financial and logistical services (investment, banking, accounting, payroll, office space, being a 501(c)(3)) that the ASSU/SSE organization deals with. This part of the ASSU/SSE organization is called many things in various resources , typically "ASSU Office," "SSE Office," "Accounting Staff," "Association staff," and the like.

ASSU Operations, practically speaking, encompasses:
  * The accounting staff
  * Capital Group (CapGroup)
  * The Chief Investment Officer
  * Office & space management

These services are provided for three groups of customers:
  * The ASSU Proper
  * Stanford Student Enterprises Proper
  * Every Stanford student group (VSO)

The "ASSU Operations" component isn't really cleanly overseen in any administrative structure. Ultimately, it's clear that the Financial Manager oversees everyone, but there's no simple way to categorize the decisions and oversight in terms of the "ASSU/SSE" split; ASSU Operations simply exist to enable the functioning of all the ASSU & SSE. Job titles may refer to some jobs as "SSE" and others as "ASSU;" the difference is negligible, because all the jobs eventually report to the single person who is both the CEO of SSE and the FM of the ASSU.

In 2013, Financial Manager Neveen Mahmoud established the "Financial Manager Advisory Committee" (FMAC) with the purpose of overseeing the ASSU Operations branch. The FMAC reports to the Board of Directors of SSE, in recognition of the fact that the ASSU has delegated most operational financial decisions to the Board.

===== Formation =====

SSE was organized in 1996 by then-Financial Manager John Hall. The Charter of the Board of Directors of Stanford Student Enterprises was approved by the ASSU Senate (the precursor to the joint legislative bodies.) The purpose of SSE was to insulate the long-term financial health of the institution from the yearly

Stanford Student Enterprises is not really discussed in the [[constitution:start|ASSU Constitution]]; it does, however, fall under the Financial Manager's broad duty as the chief financial officer of the Association. There are some sections of the [[jbl:start|Joint Bylaws]] that discuss SSE, and the Charter of the SSE Board of Directors is an appendix to the Joint Bylaws.
ASSU Documentation

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