2008-2009 GSA Treasurer

The GSA Treasurer primary responsibility lies in developing the budget, and then monitoring spending and making adjustment (or reprimands) accordingly. In addition to the GSA budget, the GSA treasurer is responsible for the following:

• Determining the number of representatives each department/graduate group gets
  

• The GSA Travel Awards
  

• Ex officio member of the Student Services and Fees Administrative Advisory Committee (SSFAAC)
  

• What ever the the GSA Treasurer is interested in

What are the sources of income for GSA?
GSA's primary income source is the from GSA fees, which are paid by every graduate student ($12.00/quarter). Additional income comes from the GSA reserve (drawing it down as well as income from the accounts), and some supplemental moneys from Graduate Studies and Student affairs.

What does GSA spend money on?
The easiest way to answer this question is to look at the budget, however, in brief, the budget supports the following:

• Salaries for office coordinator
  

• Executive Council stipends
  

• Department support - department funds and orientation funds
  

• Organization funds
  

• Special project funds
  

• Travel awards and Interdisciplinary Graduate Symposium
  

• Social events - GSA picnic, Friday coffee/bagel/donut day, Third Thursday pizza, Outdoor events (e.g., skiing)
  

• Lobbying for graduation students - locally, and nationally

Determining the budget
Prior to the end of the fiscal year, the treasurers final task (if he/she is leaving office) is to prepare a preliminary budget to balance the coming year's income and expenses. This is molded by feedback in the previous year from the general assembly and usage of each line item, as well as the opinions of the Executive Council (EC). The EC must first approve the budget before it is sent to the General Assembly (GA) for discussion, modification, and approval (June meeting). This budget is then revised over the summer, and then new budget usually reflects more accurate income estimates. It is once again reviewed and approved by the EC, and then again reviewed and approved by the GA (October meeting).

Through the course of the year, it is inevitable that the budget will not be spent exactly as planned; some lines will be overspend while other lines will be underspent. In order to more accurately reflect this, the annual budget undergoes one final review, where line items are adjust to reflect actual and expected year-end spending. It is then again reviewed and approved by both the EC and the GA (March meeting).

Below is the preliminary GSA budget for the 09/10 year. Please email me at [gsatreasurer at ucdavis dot edu] if you have questions/comments/concerns.
09-10 Prelim Budget -for GA.xls

Last updated 27. May 2009.

The GSA budget. The 2008-2009 budget was passed in the June 2008 GA meeting, revised over the summer to reflect increased expected graduate student enrollment, and then re-passed in the October 2008 GA meeting. Currently, I am monitoring expenditures on our active accounts, and additionally I am working on next years budget. Check back in the next ~week and I plan to post my proposed budget; I would love to hear your thoughts on how GSA should be spending its money through my (comments) page.

SSFAAC. This is a committee which is devoted to advising the administration regarding student fee issues; it meets every other Thursday (meetings are open to the public; if you are interested in attending let me know and I will let you know when/where the next meeting is). With the current budget climate, there are many interesting and scary facts/scenarios which are brought to the committee. SSFAAC has been heavily involved in advising Student Affairs on the upcoming budget cut, and owing to the volume of work associated with the budget cuts, minutes have not recently been approved. For more information, see the committee meeting minutes below (only approved minutes are posted — ~2-4 week delay):
SSFAAC_Minutes_01-08-09.doc
SSFAAC_Minutes_01-22-09.doc
SSFAAC_Minutes_02-05-09.doc
Five Year Budget History by fund.xls

Orientation Fund. Orientation funding was guaranteed at $2.45 per student this year. The GSA received 22 applications this year, which is comparable with last year application rate (21 applications). In 2007-08, orientation funding was awarded at the lesser of $7.55 per student or the amount requested, while in 2008-09 it was the lesser of $8.86 per student or the amount requested.

Travel Award. This January, the 35 people applied to the GSA travel awards, however several of the applications were immediately excluded (not judged) because they were either incomplete or incorrectly formatted. That being said, there was no difficulty in awarding the $5,000, which was awarded to 17 recipients. In addition the the changes made in the actual application, GSA Travel award recipients are now required to provide a transcript; a academic advising transcript (or "banner" transcript) is acceptable so long as it is sent directly from the home department to the GSA office (is never touched by the student). The travel award was modified slightly for the May submission deadline; this was done to reflect applicant and judge feedback. Let me know what you think about this on my (comments) page. Remember that GSA Travel award applications are due 29. May @ 4 pm. Additionally, I will be looking for people to help me judge. We will be judging at the following times, email me if you are interested:

• June 1st, 2009 - 10 am - 12 pm
  

• June 2nd, 2009 - 2 pm - 4 pm

Student Health Fee Oversight Committee. I am serving as a graduate student representative on this committee. Thus far there has only been one meeting which was devoted to covering the committee charge (to review user fees associated with Cowell services) and current Cowell financing.

Lobbying in DC. Marrah and I went to DC, as part of NAGPS lobbying days, from 3. - 7. March, 2009. During the time in DC, I met with 10 legislative staffers, to whom we lobbied for dependent health care, H1-B visas, and student loan interest rates. For more information, see Marrah's page (GSA External Chair).

UCD Student Affairs Budget Cuts Marrah, Cynthia, and I have all been involved in an ad hoc advisory committee to Student Affairs regarding the upcoming budget cuts. SSFAAC has also been heavily involved in this (and owing to the volume of work associated with the budget cuts, minutes have not been approved). The EC spend a lot of time reaching out to grad students to understand what Student Affairs units are important to them. These efforts, and their results are summarized in the below letter.
GSA - SA budget cuts.pdf