Custom new organization process for club sports

The Student Government Association (SGA) is now beginning the process of creating a customized new organization process for club sports. The SGA has been reworking the way funding works for club sports, and that change has also motivated a re-evaluation of the new organization process for them.

Last semester, the SGA redesigned the system by which club sports receive funding. Previously, Director of Campus Recreation John Maurizi would be given money, in the form of a line item (see below), which he would then distribute to club sports. Under the new system, the distribution of funds will be more heavily regulated by the SGA, while club sports will continue to be run through athletics.

Line item funding is a system by which the SGA assigns money out of the Student Activity Fund to a group of organizations based on historical data and prior agreement, as opposed to when organizations get funding by submitting budget requests. For club sports, these funds are used on necessary resources like buses, coaches, and more. The portion of the funds needed by these organizations that was not covered by line item funding was funded by each club through membership fees.

The change in funding from the SGA will make certain financial aspects easier for club sports. This includes being able to submit Additional Funding Requests and manage their own budget with approval from the SGA through DuckLink.

According to the SGA Vice President of Student Interests Hailey Tanner, “[l]ast semester was the first time that club sports had to submit a budget through DuckLink to the SGA. Aside from what they pay in dues, the rest of their budget is now funded by the SGA instead of what used to be funded by club athletics. Every team now has a Ducklink page with updated executive board positions.”

As a result, the change in funding policies could cause issues when forming a new organization. According to SGA Senator E.J. Hannah, who worked on the policy last semester, “The new org process for club sports was not initially going to change, but it was a point of concern brought up by John Maurizi. We realized the best way to approach this would be to have club sports get initially recommended (aka is their addition feasible logistically at Stevens) for creation by the athletics department, then approved by the SGA similar to how a normal RSO is formed.”

The new organization process for Recognized Student Organizations (RSOs) involves an interest period, during which organizations can submit a New Organization Request Form. The second stage involves planning an executive board, determining a rough budget, drafting a constitution, and more.

According to Tanner, “Currently, there is a club sports handbook run out of the club athletics side of things, so the challenge will be altering that to align with our vision for club sports from an SGA perspective. There will also need to be the equivalent of the RSO policies manual for club sports as well, so they know what rules to follow with respect to the SGA. Lastly, the budgeting policies, rules and guidelines will need to be sorted out in order to determine dollar amounts, percentages, etc that can be spent on what items and in order to determine what can be funded by dues and what can be funded by the SGA.”

It is currently unclear how much of the custom new organization process will be similar to that of RSOs, and what the final process will look like.