“I came to [the big budget meeting], and I thought it was so cool. Like no lie. They were literally going cutthroat on [an organization]. I just enjoyed it.” Elena Malova, SGA Vice President of Finance, was thrown into the position of Treasurer of the American Chemical Society a week before the Spring 2018 budget was due.
This was Malova’s initial interactions with the SGA. Later, she learned about the senator position and was encouraged to run — and subsequently was elected. Even when not required, she went to the weekly budget meetings for fun. As a Treasurer, she wanted to know the backend of clubs and wanted to help improve them by offering her own budgeting tips and tricks.
Malova was then motivated by others to pursue the Vice President of Finance position — and subsequently, she was recommended for the position. “I was in shock. I screamed at the top of my lungs, I was so excited,” she stated. “Even then, I had so many things planned. I really wanted to make everything more, a little more efficient.”
One of Malova’s goals for the year is creating a unified budgeting policy between the Student Government Association and the Office of Student Life. “[I want] students [to be able to] go to one area to look for it instead of multiple places,” said Malova. She also adds that the Office of Student Life has a checklist for hosting events and wants to make it more accessible for student organizations. “It’s good for them to check off and see what they submitted,” she stated.
Internally, to help clubs submit better budgets, she recommends itemized budgets. “In the budget policy, it does state that itemization is looked [upon] as a bigger priority,” said Malova. She specifically cited the Biomedical Engineering Society as having a well-formatted budget: “It was to perfection.”
She also stated itemized budgets as a solution for overbudgeting. “They’ll feel like they’ll actually think about the quantity they’ll actually need from the semesterly [budgeting meeting],” said Malova. “Most clubs will put just like $250 dollars for food, that’s so arbitrary.”
However, Malova recognizes that it’s sometimes difficult to itemize budgets: “It’s just when it comes to big events it’s hard for orgs to itemize everything. [It’s] very tedious.”
Malova offered advice for hosting events in three words: student body engagement. She cites the Chinese Student Association’s (CSA) Lunar New Year as a great event which she enjoyed. At Lunar New Year, CSA would have various snacks and would cite the culture behind it. “This was something that really I connected to because I would go into Chinatown with my parents and they would buy similar things,” said Malova. According to her, the event was not just giving out free food, but had meaningful content. Malova later emphasized co-hosting events.
From a budget standpoint, Malova emphasized the cost of food. “I definitely think we should push for the price for food per person,” she stated, “I think we should really push for a nice general number.” She hopes to make a cap a few dollars higher than that and use the amounts as a budgeting guideline. “Like if it comes down to make cuts [at the big budget meeting], we’re probably going to shoot for the average.”
She later stated that the big budget meeting can be intimidating for some. “If you don’t really know your budget, if it’s too general, it’s difficult to back it up,” said Malova. She recommended that organizations have an itemized budget that they are knowledgeable about. Additionally, she recommended having information about your organization on hand. “My encouragement [is to] make sure you always have past attendance written on a sheet paper like a little notecard as you start there and present your budget,” said Malova, “Do your calculations for price for food per person.”
Recently, the SGA also passed a resolution that formally established the Audit Committee. According to Malova, a policy already stated, “if you don’t follow regulation[s] … there may be periodic audits.” She doesn’t want students to be intimidated by the Audit Committee; instead, she hopes for the Audit Committee to be an aid for student organizations. “It’s just going to be a nice little check.” She noted that some clubs only have the Treasurer look at the budget and stated that the Audit Committee could help them improve. Malova wants to help clubs operate to their fullest extent and make efficient use of the Student Activity Fee.
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