An honorarium is a payment given for professional services for outside speakers and performers brought to the college.
This policy applies only to honorariums and not to board, lodging, travel or other related costs
SFC may choose to allocate beyond the caps mentioned in this policy.
Please contact Tina Zwegat at the Office of Student Involvement for contract negotiation, which is required before services can be rendered.
Contents:
Overview
Coaches
Student Honorariums
Negotiation of Contracts
1. Overview The SFC will follow this policy when determining how to fund honorariums for speakers, performers, and other visitors to Oberlin College, during both the Ad Hoc and Spring Allocation processes. This policy applies only to honorariums; other common components of speaker compensation, such as lodging, food, and transportation, are covered in the SFC Pricing Guide. When considering allocations for honorariums, the SFC will consider the following factors, in addition to adhering to the guidelines of this policy: expected attendance at the event, accessibility of the event to the student body, level of interest on campus about the subject, the uniqueness of the event, and the level of honorariums paid by academic departments for similar events (in the case of academic speakers).
When planning to pay professionals for their service, it is important to note that checks are cut by the Controller’s Office on Wednesday afternoon each week.
2. Coaches SFC can fund one coach for each club sports team at a maximum of $1,000 per semester. Student coaches must have been paid as a coach outside of Oberlin to be eligible for SFC funds. SFC will not fund separate travel/gas costs for speakers and coaches outside of the requested honorarium.
3. Student Honorariums Performers
Student performers seeking a degree from the Conservatory may be paid up to $50 an hour to perform. SFC will only review budget requests for active performance times. Active performance time does not include time where students are not performing.
Student performers who are not seeking a degree from the Conservatory may be paid up to $50 per hour to perform in addition to one practice before the performance. The SFC will consider the student's professional repertoire for this type of request. Students with a robust musical repertoire (previous albums, performances, teaching experiences, etc.) are potentially eligible for compensation.
Photographers
Student photographers may be funded at a maximum of 30 minutes of editing time per hour of shooting time. Student photographers seeking payment must have documentation of professional experience. If the student photographer’s only professional experience is as an employee of Oberlin College, SFC will fund payment at Oberlin College minimum wage. SFC may fund student photographers at a maximum rate of $50 per hour only if they have documentation of professional experience outside of Oberlin, which must include an invoice or another form of proof of payment and an artistic portfolio. Student photographers must negotiate a contract with the Office of Student Involvement prior to any work.
4. Negotiation of Contracts To book an outside performer or speaker, you must first receive a quote from the individual (or their team, such as an agent) with a requested price. After a quote has been requested, communication with the professional must cease until contract negotiation is initiated. Next, your org needs to reserve a room for the desired day(s) of the event. Now you are ready to request money from SFC! Be sure to include the correspondence between your org and the professional (a screenshot of the conversation is great), along with the space you have reserved for the event in your ad hoc/budget request. Once your funding request has been approved, you may contact Tina Zwegat to begin contract negotiations. After both parties sign the contract, your org will need to submit an RFP to pay the professional. It is the treasurer’s responsibility to ensure that payment is submitted sufficiently in advance so that the guest is paid per the terms of their contract. Please be aware that if SFC gets word that an organization has begun contract negotiations without having approved funds, SFC will not fund that event. It is essential to receive confirmation of funding before any negotiations take place.