Minutes for BC Meeting 3/6

In Attendance:

Abigail Xu (Treasurer)

Katarina Cruz

Karen Blake

David Zhang (absent)

Hao Liu

Marie Lambert

Richard Park

RJ Kermes

Tiffany Wong

Vivian Yee (minutetaker)

1. Purple Pride (represented by Mercedes)

Spirit program for Amherst College and question social norms, break the divide
2 teams – spirit squad (less commitment) and cheer team (fullout)
Cheer at meets, clinics, club sports, performances, etc
Pay for uniforms, kept by the school
Pay for a coach
Registered as student org thru Dean Fatemi
RJ – a good idea, have they talked w a coach? Yes.
RJ - Have they talked w Abigail or Dean Fatemi? Need to talk w HR and sort out paperwork
Tiffany – how many ppl? Its open to everyone, but would request a starting # of uniforms. Will the uniforms be gender specific? Shirts and pants for guys, shirts shell tops and skirts for girls
RJ – what is the general time line? Start having practices this semester and have open practices so people can see (need commitment)
Tiffany – possible to have practices before uniforms come? Diff practicing in shorts and shirts v normal clothing. Having uniforms will send a message
Kat – why are the uniforms so expensive? From a catalog, is standard
Already have publicity and food for an intro meeting (haven’t had yet) – conditional on what happens tonight
Tiffany – how has this been publicized? Has been posted to entire campus and hosted an informal meeting
RJ – what kind of potential costs diff if more people join? Examples from Smith and Wellesley – a huge commitment, usually #s don’t change very much, so # now should be pretty accurate
Kat – mats and Velcro – potential student activities funding? Was told when she was getting the #s
RJ – what type of coordination w the athletic department? Spoke w McBride, said it sounds great and should pitch it to AAS
Marie – a blank for insurance? Will be covered thru athletics
RJ – athletics or student activities funding? Athletics was hoping for BC funds  have to have conversation w athletics about this to see if there’s any flexibility. Also need to check out Title IX recs, so itll be easier to pass w senate
Motion to table 5,0,0

2. ACSU (represented byDac)

Requesting for 5000 honorarium cosponsoring w BSU and ISU, each requesting for 5000 also
Kat – over 10,000 total so need to go to school for referendum
Hao – want to reduce amount to less than 10,000, so suggests reducing it or getting cosponsorship (nonAmherst related group)
Marie – when and what is the event? Part of wave your flag, one of the activities on apr 5
Suggests that they fund theirs and fund another group less of 10,000?
Kat – can they just ½ it for all of them (7500 total)
Tiffany – a policy to ½ the honorarium
Kat – hotel reimbursement – an issue w the AAS card (declined for the last room bctheres a maximum) and spoke w Abigail and had a student front the amount and would be reimbursed
Hao – is this for 1 room? 1 room for 2 nights
Hao – explain the event for the honorarium? A Caribbean performer in 2nd annual weekend event. There will also be a final party culmination
Hao – does he need hotel and accommodation? 15000 combines everything
They suggest that they break down the amount
Last week came for a tarp fund, but haven’t gotten back yet to them (request original amount again - $800)
A question about rental cars for honorarium – need someone to speak to
Motion to table honorarium and fund the rest: 5,0,0

3. Women’s Frisbee

Request for hotel money at Saratoga Spring for a tournament on weekend of Mar 29-30, for 24 girls, $900 dollars (8am arrival, 2 hr drive), same as the fall but w more players
Motion to fund: 5,0,0

4. ACPHC

Request $75 for week of the 10th for national health week. Plan to talk about personal hygiene and want to have soap making w it
Motion to fund: 5,0,0

5. AMMO (represented by Adrian)

Funding for Amherst students to train at a gym for NE Submission fighting (4/5 semester working w them) - $1500 for a student per semester (funded this last semester)
Run Holyoke Roadrace (yearly) $140 for registration fees
Hao – how many people (35 per person, so ¾)
Hao – when is deadline for registration? Not yet, can postpone
Abigail – have they publicized this? Not extensively
Tiffany – will they publicize? FB event
Motion to fund: 5,0,0

6. TWLOHA (represented by Sarah)

Hosting a spring benefit in the spring – music, a band, etc – apr 6
Want $2500 honorarium for band
Already have cosponsorship for other things, this is one of the last
Abigail – is there sufficient cosposorship to fund in full?
Motion to fund in full 5,0,0

7. Pride Alliance

Event on apr 1 in conjunction w athletic event (leads event, opened to rest of community)
Want to bring in an athlete to talk about being ally to queer community
Athletics has provided ½ of the honorarium, so need the rest
5 college queer conference this weekend and Amherst is sponsoring the 2 keynote speakers, already requested funds for 1 night but apparently need to request for 2 nights min at lord jeff on unpopular weekends?
Abigail – is this booked w the AAS? Yes
RJ – have they run into this problem before? Yes, but not often
Will fund but speak w Lord Jeff to clarify later
Need to emergency fund this and will speak w senate about this
Motion to fund: 5,0,0

8. WAHM (represented by Lindon)

Continuation of last week – already got honorarium and sound funds, but now need hotel room, air fare, transportation, publicity, student security, rider items
Hao – where are they coming from? Miami and somewhere else
Abigail – there was also funding from Dean Fatemi? Yes, but theres other events, 2 separate ideas, but doing the events together at the same venue – this is for an event together w Pete’s band
Can only fund up to $50 for rider items
Abigail – didn’t they already get sound before? Yes last week but for another event but also got 750
Abigail – are other sources receptive to funding them? Always get funding from student activities
Hao – what is Dean Fatemi funding? Sound (in part) and rest of rider items
Motion to fund: 5,0,0

9. La Causa

Last week had tabled catering for Latino Alumni Weekend – got outside funding ($200) and want to request the rest ($200)
Goes to $200 food rule
Motion to fund: 5,0,0

10. Rugby

Request $200 for entry fee for a tournament and additional CIPP fee (each player must be registered in this in order to be able to play and have new players who joined late)
Abigail – is there anyway to factor in new members in the spring budget? In fall they do league play and spring its just w other schools, so usually not an issue but this is a unique situation (will do in future if necessary)
RJ – will this registration roll over? This is a yearly thing, so it will go 365 days (wont need in fall)
Motion to fund: 5,0,0

11. ACF

Spring break service trip in New Orleans – bringing 17 people cost 595 per person
Funded a similar trip going to Springfield last year – it’s also a trip open to all students
Will need to go to school referendum since itll be over 10,000 (cant just drop a couple 100…)
Marie – has been publicized to entire school? Yes
RJ – has spoken w Caroline about this before, limited ability to fund this, hoping to get funding from other sources, also this is technically not open to other ppl is publicized bc there is no flexible cap (similar to the food trip)  offers a good opportunity to examine the precedence
This was not something that started w a cap – did publicity throughout the first semester and the cap was based on the previous publicity pull
Abigail – can he break down the 595 – just conference fee or also transportation, etc? funded a similar conference for $9000 over interterm
Tiffany – happening during spring break, and usually don’t fund things over break (have funded Frisbee, another event called urban plange, and another event for $8000)
Tiffany – how many events of this nature do they have per year? 1 – this is the main event in terms of event and money
Kat – does this include transportation? Includes transportation, room and board ($420), worksite costs ($125), bus($50) per person
Kat – uncomfortable of spending this amount per person and using this much of the budget towards this
Hao – don’t usually fund transportation and room and board, especially since this is during spring break – don’t think that senate will pass this
Abigail – how many people went to the BSU event? Around 40 – one of the conferences they normally fund, $100 per person – thinking of placing a cap on conference fees
Tiffany – theres a case to be made that this is their main event (Abigail – but they have other events and ACF is much bigger than this)
Is there anything to be said about the type of event – moving off campus to serve
Abigail – the CCE should be funding this but theyre underfunded…
RJ – the hard cap on the # of ppl can go is a problem amongst the student pop
Abigail – don’t think that’s an issue here, would be less of a problem if this were a much smaller number and esp for room and board and transportation
There are 17 people signed up right now ready to go, but what if they don’t get the funds…? Should look into that – think that they may have a penalty (wont fund ex post facto)
Richard – very contentious, best move is to table this, but the timeline is to go to senate on Monday and not enough time to get school referendum
Jessie – take out transportation fee to bring down the cost? (but already went to Biddys and CCE and said to go to BC)
RJ – this is dangerous in terms of precedence and may not be able to fund for this year, but work for next year
Abigail – the largest issue is that this is above $10,000 (can they just fundraise for amounts over)
Richard – even if this were the best case, there would be too many roadblocks for this to happen in time
Tiffany – can you can the money from presidents office to bring cost down and come back on Monday? Is not then will zero it – up to their opinion
They have a good enough relationship that the funding can come in later if set – will try to get money from another source and get down to $9000
Motion to table: 6,0,0

12. Amnesty International (represented by Rosie)

Requesting conference fee – Amherst National Conference (apr 4-6)
Motion to fund: 6,0,0

13. MEAD (represented by Rosie)

From before, can’t fund ex post facto
Have a new intern, and didn’t know about the ex post facto and didn’t have a student treasurer
Richard – this has happened before (confusion within the clubs), this is a very strict rule and cant fund unless it’s a senate mistake or an emergency

14. BSU (represented by Jessie)

Was going to request w La Causa but will hold off
Annual event called Caribbean fest that hasn’t happened since 2011
A week long event 6-13
A 5 college bbq (culturally related) $1200 for 150 ppl
$250 for facilities and $250 for equipment rental
keynote speaker joseph $4000
Taste of the Caribbean and a dinner of catering on Amherst campus (not 5 college) - $1000
Richard – this is 5 college event? Should ask the other colleges to chip in money as well for bbq since theyre coming? It’s a 5 college bbq but not for the other events
Steel pan performance on fri $750
Hao – Do we have cap for cultural food? Are we going to set a cap? Seems like a very large amount and the amount seems to be creeping up
Abigail – thinks this is a good point but food is a huge attraction and tends to invite more people – should support a big event like this
Dean Fatemi has a carib fest festival
Richard – we should set a cap? Should ask for 5 college funding as well
Abigail – this would be extremely unfair, should have a cap set at the end of the semester if we do
Kat – what kind of cultural bbq? Not sure, but will be Caribbean bbq
Motion to fund facilities, rental fees, ½ of keynote, taste of the Caribbean, steel pan, fund 500 for honorarium (rule): 6,0,0
Table the 5 college bbq

15. Mountain Biking Team (represented by Eric)

Past couple of years the club hasn’t had real leadership, so bikes have fallen into disrepair (after ~5 years)
Need masterlink puller tool (when you replace a chain on the bike and need this tool to replace it), saddle bag, shoes (that clip in) and womens bike since all other bikes are for men, gloves, helmets, inner tubes, etc
RJ – shoes and womens bike would run into title 9 issues
Abigail thinks that this would be ok, (asking for funding for bikes for women since they don’t have this, she shouldn’t have a problem w this)
Hao – can fund the bike first and then tell her later
10-15% discount from the laughing dog (bike shop in town)
Abigail – where are the bikes stored? Stored in the basement of James
Hao – is there a specific size for the shoes? Will try to get 3 pairs of womens but are size specific
Motion to fund: 6,0,0

16. Amherst Gluten Free Union (represented by Mia)

An un registered student group
Need to diversify gluten free options at val
Want to get funding to have a food fair (go to a market that would be gluten free and feasible to be served in and at val) – is an at large member of the dining committee
Mainly consist of cereals and frozen food - $300
Hao – is this a 1 time event? Yes, will gather gluten free students and get opinions
Hao – should go talk w Val about this first
RJ – should speak w Charlie, Debbie, etc to get more framework to this – need more definition to this before requesting this
Abigail – how much would we be able to fund if this goes through?
Kat – should be 200 food rule since this would be sparking conversation
RJ – would this be a cultural thing?
Motion to zero: 5,0,0

17. Men’s Soccer (represented by Griff)

Abigail – title 9 issues?
Kat – ex post facto? Have the uniforms been purchased?
Have approved the purchase of this – but the shipment and bill had not come bc of the mistake of the company and couldn’t cancel the order since it was en route and now have the bill
Theres a 2nd order of jerseys that has not been ordered yet but need it soon
Understand that there are title 9 concerns – womens are for this season, not for the entire year (mens is for the spring) so they are different and doesn’t show that theres a preference for mens or womens uniform and theres also a difference in numbers
RJ – can fund this or create a situation where these is dollar for dollar equality – purposefully increase amount allotted to the women to make it equal to the mens
Abigail – there doesn’t seem to be a problem here, so should just be funded
Kat – can this be published and be brought up in senate? Should just go speak w James about title 9 and have him go w him to senate
Also need league and referee fees for the spring (for outdoor league, not indoor) – will deal w next time
Will move

18. Men’s Varsity Soccer (represented by Jackson)

A 5k friend of Jaclyn benefit event to support children w cancer, will have a benefit lunch and race
Hao – how much did they raise last year? 8k
Kat – how many ppl will they expect? Not sure
Raised money through a varsity fundraising race
Abigail – how is this publicized to the rest of the student body? Will add publicity
Abigail – is this a 5-college event? no
Will request funding from CAB as well
Food - $1000 – benefit food
Should table this for food bccosponsorship and not sure about the #
Motion to table the food and fund the rest: 5,0,0

19. Women of Color Conference

There was this event last year w 35-40 students and 9 alum at Lord Jeff last year
This event was initially not going to happen, but have agreed to host it gain this april – a luncheon w alum (marianacruz is sponsoring this, and working w many other sources as well)
Hao – are they buying or renting the speakers, etc? renting from lord jeff
Hao – the event happened last year? Who funded this? Several different sources, BC also funded in part
Abigail – this seems like this would be a very popular event, how will they accommodate? Ballroom can only fit so many ppl, so they will have a waiting list (first come first serve)
Kat – food is much higher than they are comfortable to fund
RJ – a high # for the # of people they have – will he be able to combine contributions to lower the amount requested for food? Yes she can, but can bc name an amount they would be confortable funding?
Have given estimates – MRC: 200, Women and Gender: 100, Dean Boykin: 500, Dean Fatemi: ?, Suzanne C: ?
Will ask for 200 right now (200 food rule) and she will go ask others
Tiffany – how will this be publicized? FB, posters
Motion to fund: 5,0,0

20. Transfer Student Association (represented by Romina)