Attendance: Victoria, Yehyun, Thea, Oliver, Grant, Kabir, Emma
Agenda: StuCo Exec Board Agenda 24/25
- Call to order (1:00-1:02)
- Roll Call (1:02-1:05)
- Adoption of Agenda (1:05-1:06)
- Approval of Minutes (1:06-1:07)
- Community Comments (1:07-1:17)
- Old Business (1:17-1:27)
- New Business 1 (1:27-1:42): Meeting the Clubs
- New Business 2 (1:42-1:57): Haverfest Budget
- Adjournment (1:57-2:00)
Call to Order
Yehyun: I call this meeting to order at 1:09pm.
Emma: More than half of Exec board is in attendance. Quorum has been met.
Yehyun: I move to adopt the agenda. I also move to approve the minutes. Any concerns? The agenda is adopted and the minutes are approved.
Community Comment
Ford Form: Why does the Haverford Registrar’s Office take so long to run course lotteries after pre-registration? Bryn Mawr manages to do it in around 2 weeks, if that. If Haverford’s goal is to reduce student stress during final exams, then that’s not working for me and everyone else who I’ve talked to about this. In fact, we are more stressed because we can’t meaningfully plan for the spring semester. Also, pre-registration ends weeks before finals. It seems conceivable to run lotteries before finals start. And the lottery gap places an inequitable burden on student workers, especially those with off-campus jobs, because we can’t tell our bosses what our spring schedule will look like. I hope StuCo can do something about this, even if it’s just talking to the Registrar and sharing student concern(s).
Haverfest Budget
Oliver: I met with Haverfest co-heads a week ago and basically, the rundown is, they are getting a jump on planning and it is starting earlier than last year. A lot of stuff is not set in stone yet. They are encountering some issues with their budget, being that they are trying to do live music and merch that is at least semi subsidized and some other activities for students. Basically with the assumptions about merch and activity cost they are having trouble getting high quality artists to come. Currently, their budget is $40,000.
Victoria: That’s it?!?!?
Oliver: Last year it was 50k but I think it went over a bit up to 60k. Their big ask would be 20k addition so 60k total. I think we could do that or something in between. I would say in terms of our budget next semester, it will work. We have the luxury of a little more flexibility. In terms of long term thinking, Haverfest budget has been increasing every year and should continue increasing to keep up with inflation. We should probably have a fixed idea of what it should be going forward that can be adjusted given circumstances.
Thea: Part of the reason that the budget increased last year is because the classes of 2024 and 2025 were impacted by covid during their first couple years at Haverford and in high school so this made up for it a bit.
Kabir: Every year, there are massive additions to Haverfest and senior week budget normally led but the seniors on students council. Last year, in terms of treasurer decisions, a lot of clubs missed on items, but senior week and Haverfest were increased. I don’t know what the budgeting situation is for the year but I want to keep that in mind. Furthermore, the expenditure for the artist we get every year is not a good use of money. I think we can get creative with the quality of music without going after a celebrity label. These events are also not always the most accessible because they fill up super quickly. I think we don’t need to spend tens of thousands of dollars for music. Last, for merch, I support subsidizing merch to make it more accessible. In the past there were merch drops, and the merch disappears in two minutes. Haverfest isn’t free for everyone as there are students who spend the time studying. Not everyone can stand in line for merch or drop everything and go at a time. There are groups that often fill out and take advantage of the free or subsidized merch, so maybe an online lottery for merch and concert tickets.
Grant: I agree with a lot of Kabir’s points. I have some concerns with how we spend Haverfest money. Especially last year I feel like there was some misuse in how we spent funds. I think the number of people attending the music event was not that well attended last year. We probably spend 15-20k on an artist, which is a lot of money to be completely honest, to get someone no one has ever heard of. We should find someone cheaper or get other events. The fashion show is always packed, silent disco, I think a skating rink at some point. There are a lot of things we have that the money could be reappropriated to. I don’t think it’s necessary to increase the budget, just redistribute funds.
Victoria: When I go to Haveerfest, my main takeaways are the merch and the artists who are there. The performance is not always the best and I agree with Grant’s point that if this is a major thing that people think about but often disappoints people, I don’t see a budget increase being a solution to that. I think one of the major wins from the last Haverfest was the drag ball. That brought in Philly performers and drag artists, that was an amazing success. They raised money. That is another way we can start thinking of how we can bring performances to Haverford. Last year the performance was disappointing. That performer was quite expensive. I think, if we had a better idea of what they were trying to budget for, who do they want to bring, have they thought of more creative ways, then we can more easily address the question of a budget increase.
Oliver: The co-heads are happy to meet with us early next semester to discuss these things. To address some of those concerns, there is not as much of a situation this year where spending on Haverfest takes away money from clubs. In terms of long term stability of the budget, eventually that would eat into other clubs. There are other conversations that will affect the StuCo budget and what we are paying for over the long term.
Grant: I think the only way we get to a place where if we get to an artist we know is a looooot more money, like more than an extra 20k.
Yehyun: Last year, Haverfest and senior week, Kabir you mentioned how a lot of the budget increases were led by seniors on StuCo. I agree that is not fair. That is a conflict of interest. What I would like to ask and have a conversation about is when we are discussing senior week or campus events that are highly linked to a students’ class year, what would be the best way to ensure a fair decision is made?
Kabir: We normally operate under consensus. The issue last year was how quickly the process was. It was we wanted to increase it, then we did. Like what we are doing right now and talking, that didn’t happen. We were cutting a lot more from clubs last year. I think general consensus still works as long as everyone gets to speak.
Emma: We didn’t not discuss it, I think it was not on the forefront of a lot of people’s minds.
Oliver: Part of the concern is when we do budgeting, if you give someone a certain amount of money one year, they want at least that much in following years. With Haverfest, we have control over it, but people generally expect growth in their budget that we can’t sustainably provide. Our budget grows by 4% a year.
Victoria: Until they come to us with an itemized list for their budget and ask for an increase, then I don’t think we can consider expanding their budget.
Oliver: Even if they don’t have an exact price, a very good estimate. What they intend to spend and what they will work with.
Kabir: Has the sign-up for the Haverfest committee gone out yet? If not that will go out at some point so people that are interested should definitely join.
Emma: I think we need to be careful with setting precedents for budgeting. We need to roll that back.
Yehyun: First, are we getting bang for buck? Are we being smart and thoughtful with how we use the money, especially in response to feedback. Second, for resourcefulness, be mindful as soon as we set precedence it gets really tricky. We need to be cognisant of if you are using money at an optimal state and need more, we can talk about it. But you should not just expect more money because other people are getting it. That expectation definitely needs to be addressed. I think Haverfest spends some of the most money so more accountability and care needs to be taken when making these decisions.
Meeting of the Clubs
Victoria: Now we are going to pivot back to our last meeting where we introduced the idea of how to streamline communication with clubs regarding budgeting and inventory. The first thing we want to start with is as a group, looking at the slides for meeting of the clubs and the information being told and how we can add accountability.
*off the minutes work session*
Yehyun: I adjourn this meeting at 1:51pm.
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