Spring Budgeting: Publications

Members Present: Josh, Vince, Sulan, Hassan, Austen, Elijah, Monique, Peace, Natalia
Time Start: 7:10pm
Time End: 9pm

The Grape
Hassan: Can anyone find their mid year report?
Sulan: I couldn’t.
Monique: Did they meet with us?
Vince: Yeah they did.
Josh: Last year the Grape got 18,927.78. So their max allocation is 17,035.
Hassan: They’re asking for 22k.
Josh: We can fund in full and make the deduction. They live up to their mission statement.
Elijah: Out of the almost 19k they were allocated they’ve only spent about 7k so far.
Vince: Wow that’s low.
Peace: How much did they spend last year?
Monique: I remember they came in and talked with me and remember Peace they said they wanted to add two staff writers to improve writing.
Josh: We said that’s like a policy thing, we don’t fund writers for the Review.
Monique: I also think it would improve the quality of the Grape because if someone is getting paid to write for them they’d write better articles than someone not getting paid.
Josh: I think it would be better if there was a flat rate like 10 dollars an issue.
Natalia: We can’t afford to fund every writer.
Vince: They’re providing a product, a regular service.
Natalia: People who put on programming is for the whole campus also. We cannot make a definitive and valid choice about this.
Monique: I would do it in terms of we pay for two full time writers.
Natalia: I think it’s going to be so hard for us to say ok if you spend like ten hours a week writing articles then you get stipended; we have no way of checking that.
Elijah: The way I see it, they’re trying to institutionalize their writers so they have people on call and don’t always have to rely on volunteers. The Grape and the Review provide products that go out into the greater community and the impact they have is what warrants them having a staff that is consistent. Having paid writers does assist in letting them do that. These publications don’t stop on this campus. They need writers to be paid in order to have accessible positions.
Vince: We do stipends for the Pottery co-op and most of us don’t see that product, so why would we not fund the writers.
Elijah: Even though this is the issue, we shouldn’t give it to them this year if we set that precedent because they’ve barely spent any of their money.
Peace: The controller’s office might be behind though on putting in their payment.
Josh: I propose to fund in full. I also propose to fund in full minus the staff writers positions.
Monique: I don’t think we should fund in full because they’re asking for an increase in their stipends from 4 to 5 hours.
Josh: I’m okay with the increase, they work a lot of hours, looking at their timecards.
Hassan: They’re domain pricing and software costs are wrong.
Vince: They have an itemization error. They should say where they get their costs and services from.
Josh: They said last year their domain was from Weebly so I’m fine to carry that over to this year.
Josh: Proposal to fund printing, housing, supplies and food in full.
Sulan: Food is wrong. It should be 124.
Peace: Our cap is 120 so we’ll make it that.
Josh: Do we want to give them the extra 4 dollars or nah.
Natalia: We should give it to them.
Josh: Printing, supplies, housing and food adjusted is 10,487.78. Proposal to fund.
7/0/0
Passes.
Monique: Do you think they’ve demonstrated that they need an extra hour for their stipends.
Josh: They work way more hours than they’re getting paid for. We funded Exco at like 66 percent of what they actually work, while the Grape is getting funded at 30% currently.
Josh: If we don’t give them more hours it would be 8424 as opposed to 9792.
Josh: Proposal to fund at the same level as last year 8424.
7/0/0
Passes.
Josh: I’m going to propose to fund the website in full at 780.
6/0/1
Passes.
A: 19691.78 is the total.
Josh: As per our punishment, proposal to deduct 2656.78
7/0/0
Passes.
Josh: Their budget is slashed to 17035.

Plum Creek Review
Sulan: They sent an email asking if someone could check if their mid year report was submitted and no one replied.
Vince: Let’s table it.

The Oberlin Review
Peace: I’m going to send a two minute timer so we can read through the budget.
Monique: I want to fund account 9023 in full.
Vince: There’s a lot of increase.
Peace: The web hosting last year was about 5 a month last year and now it’s 13.
Peace: Proposal to fund 9023 in full.
7/0/0
Passes
Natalia: Alright, stipends.
Josh: They’re requesting 7k more in stipends this year than they did last year.
Monique: Before we get into numbers we should see if they have any timecards.
Vince: I don’t see any time cards.
Josh: Everything from Production Manager down is the same, just adjusted for the higher minimum wage.
Josh: Proposal for 41858.40 - oh wait they reduced some position’s hours.
Natalia: I would change all the 18 hours to 15’s.
Josh: Did you find timecards?
Natalia: No, but we trusted them on the decrease so we should trust them on the increase.
Josh: That’s why I’m saying we shouldn’t increase or decrease at all.
Peace: If someone’s asking for an increase they need to explain it.
Natalia: I’m going to fund the stipends in full.
Josh: My proposal is no increase except for the minimum wage increase.
Natalia: They’re doing a really good job of self reporting when they’re doing less and when they’re doing more.
Natalia: Let’s vote. Top Down. Proposal to fund to full
7/0/0
Passes.
Josh: Commencement stipends are about 200 more than last year.
Natalia: It’s half the people doing double the issue. I’m going to propose to fund in full.
Josh: Competing proposal is 1956. I understand they’re doing more work but I don’t know if just because it’s half the staff they’re doing double the work.
Natalia: Proposal to fund stipends for commencement in full at 2,200.50
7/0/0
Passes.
Natalia: Last year their income was 600 for 24 weeks and this year they lowered it to 500.
Monique: How do they make income?
Natalia: Ads.
Elijah: You know the Washington Post is having the same problem. Print is a dying media.
Natalia: Proposal to deduct 12k (500x24)for income.
7/0/0
Passes.

Arts Students Committee
Vince: They have a mid year and they met with us.
Josh: They’re asking for the same amount they got last year.
Hassan: They haven’t spent any money so far because everything they’re spending money on happens in April and May like every year.
Vince: Proposal to fund in full 6784.
7/0/0
Passes.

Members Present: Natalia, Peace, Vince, Hassan, Sulan, Monique, Elijah
Time Start: 7:05pm
Time End: 9pm

Wilder Voice
Vince: They decided not to host a speaker last semester because they collaborated with a bunch of groups to do something else. They also did several other small publications in addition to their big one and they’re trying to bring two speakers.
Monique: They’re asking for an increase in the Google Drive amount. They’re at 99% of their Drive capacity. They’re also asking a lot more for advertising compared to last year.
Monique: You guys want to vote on supplies?
Natalia: I would like to fund supplies and fees in full.
Natalia: Wait do they get payroll?
Hassan: Yeah. But they work low hours.
Natalia: I do not think the Wilder Voice should get paid.
Peace: Supplies in full for 350.
6/0/0
Passes.
Natalia: Proposal to fund fees in full at 219.87
6/0/0
Passes
Monique: Having the hiring positions and the general interest meetings both funded is funding two things at the general interest level. There’s no point.
Peace: I would do general interest at 20 and hiring positions for 20.
Monique: They’re asking for the same amount we gave them last year for printing. I’d be down to do the same. Last year they got 250 for the artists books because they didn’t itemize it. This year they itemized the costs.
Natalia: I think we’re funding too much. They’re asking for 3 zines so they’re making about 60 of each.
Monique: No they said they were going to be printing 190 copies of each.
Natalia: That doesn’t add up. Because by this, each zine is going to be 3 pages. They can’t include a lot of artists that way.
Monique: That’s why they’re doing 3 a semester plus their artist book plus the bigger Wilder Voice.
Hassan: And three pages folded up can make a six page book.
Natalia: If this is per semester we have to double the money. That’s way too much. I don’t think that’s logistically possible.
Hassan: I’d rather fund it and if they fail then don’t fund it the next year than not give them the chance.
Peace: I can also see oversaturation being an issue.
Monique: Proposal to fund artist books in full, 4 zines for the full year, chapbooks at $450 a semester, $900 for the year.
Vince: Proposal to fund in full.
Top Down
3/3/0
Tie
OST breaks tie.
Proposal to fund chapbooks, zines, and artist books in full for 1000 passes.
Hassan: How does the speaker they’re requesting relate to their mission?
Vince: They’re talking about journalism and radical thinking.
Peace: I kind of only want to fund one speaker.
Monique: In the mission they only mention the publication.
Natalia: I don’t think it’s necessary for them to bring speakers to campus.
Vince: Yeah it’d be reasonable if we didn’t fund it.
Peace: I think it’s reasonable to fund one. They are doing this programming and I’d feel some type of way if we just stopped funding it.
Peace: Proposal to fund at 689 for one speaker.
4/2/0
Passes.
Monique: Ok, payroll.
Natalia: I don’t believe they should be paid. They don’t even give an hourly breakdown of what they want to be paid for.
Peace: Last year we had a conversation about how a lot of people for a lot of orgs do just maintenance work for most of the year and then when they have a lot of programming, the amount of work ramps up.
Natalia: Exactly. Peace has a point. Wilder Voice isn’t special. Why should they get paid when everyone else doesn’t?
Hassan: I think those who work 10 hours a week should be funded like Editor in Chief.
Elijah: The precedent you guys set last time was that you’d fund editors not writers because there’s a specialized skill in editing for the other publications. But in their budget they only wrote the positions and didn’t say what any of them do so on that basis you shouldn’t fund it.
Monique: They had it on the last budget, I don’t know why they didn’t just carry it over. The Editor in Chief and Managing Editor seem to do most of the work and share similar work.
Hassan: I’m down for funding Editor in Chief and Managing Editor in full.
Hassan: Also the descriptions from last year may not be relevant to this year’s because the hours they gave for the positions last year are very different from the ones they put this year. They may have restructured some of the workload.
Monique: Wait why do we think these people should get paid but InSolidarity shouldn’t?
Natalia: Did they ask for stipends?
Monique: No.
Elijah: So what are you going to do about this?
Peace: I don’t want to cut all of the stipends but some of these positions seem redundant.
Monique: I’m down to do the first two.
Peace: Proposal to fund stipends at 860 times 2 which is 1720, for full stipends for both co presidents and nothing else.
6/1/0
Passes.
Peace: Proposal to fund publicity at 75.
6/0/0
Passes.


InSolidarity
Peace: In their mid year they said they’ve held meetings and put out a call for submissions. Their main thing is that they didn’t publish a zine last semester because of a lack of leadership.
Monique: Last year they got 2290.
Sulan: The printing costs are wrong. The fall one should be 2000 and the spring. So it should be 4k.
Monique: How did we do printing last year?
Peace: We funded 150 issues at 7 dollars a issue.
Elijah: They haven’t spent any money this year yet.
Peace: I’m cool with funding one total publication. And I would cut posters to 20 for call for submissions.
Natalia: Proposal to fund 2020 total.
6/0/0
Passes.
Natalia: I propose to fund general interest at 20.
6/0/0
Monique: I propose $100 for fall and spring release.
Natalia: I’m going to propose $117 which is half the pizza, half the printing, half the soda.
Elijah: I feel like we should just do $100 because we don’t need to fund posters.
Peace: I propose $127 which is money for posters and food in half.
Natalia: I’ll take my proposal down.
Top down
4/2/0
Passes. Release party funded at 127.

Synapse
Natalia: I love Synapse.
Monique: They said they had 8k but overspent and spent a total of 12k somehow and said they needed the increase.
Peace: I think I accidentally told them they had 12k.
Peace: Last year they said their cost per issue was 2k and this year they’re saying it’s 3k.
Monique: Can we just fund 3 issues?
Peace: Yeah I would do three if there’s just trying to include more issues and make the issues bigger.
Sulan: All their issues are on backlog. The November issue just came out before spring break and they just sent out a call for submissions for the fourth journal.
Peace: That means they’re purchases aren’t up to date which means there’s a chance they’re overspending.
Elijah: Well given that information, if they had more they would do more with it so y’all should fund them for next year.
Sulan: From my experience with them everything is done in a timely manner.
Vince: I just don’t think it’s fair to give them a 4k increase because we made a mistake.
Monique: We made a mistake and they thought they had this money and they’re putting out the work to match it.
Vince: Yeah but other groups haven’t had the opportunity to suddenly get an extra 4k and prove what they could do with it. Money makes a difference.
Natalia: We added like 6 more issues to Wilder Voice.
Vince: That was 800, this is 4k.
Natalia: Yeah but they’re doing 6 more issues whereas Synapse is just trying to do one more issue.
Hassan: But also just because groups can spend a bunch of money doesn’t mean they should get all that money. Like Solarity has the ability to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars but we don’t give them all that money.
Monique: But Synapse has shown that they can spend that responsibly.
Peace: Because it was my fault, I feel bad. I feel like compromise would be to give them 3 issues at a larger size.
Vince: I don’t think that would affect the size of the book because I think they want to stay at four.
Natalia: I propose to fund the total request in full: 4 issues. 12809.16
Peace: I propose 3 issues at 9342.69.
Top Down
4/2/0
Passes for 4 issues for 12809.16.
Natalia: Okay website expenses. Proposal to fund in full. 237.88
4/1/1
Passes.


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