For the spring semester, the Inter Club Council (ICC) redesigned the procedure for allocating funds to clubs. The resulting change involved the formation of a new Funding Committee primarily intended to ensure that the money was used well, according to ICC President Danielle Byrd, a senior.
Last year, there were weekly meetings where an allotment of $5,000 was given out, Byrd said. Representatives from all 85 ICC-member clubs could attend and vote on which clubs would receive money. The reality was that clubs would really only attend when they wanted money, and all of the proposals would pass because the voters just wanted to get their money and get out.
“Last year, people were not really committed,” Byrd said.
Another problem with the way the fund allocation process worked last year was a result of how requests were submitted to the council, according to Vice President of Finance Geoff Plourde.
“The funding process rewarded people for early submission instead of the merits of their proposal,” Plourde said.
The new Funding Committee, which allocates money on a weekly basis, is comprised of one representative from every club category. There are a total of seven voting representatives as well as Plourde, the Vice President of Development, Gabbi Wilson, and the Vice President of Operations, Devon Walker. Byrd runs the meetings, and as a result, is a non-voting member.
The representatives were chosen by application, Byrd said.
The Funding Committee also looks at every request that is brought up each week. As a result, the meetings usually last around two hours instead of the 30 minutes that were spent on the meetings last year.
“This year, people actually spend a lot more time talking,” Byrd said. “The students on the committee really care about what is going on and the changes that were made have been really good.”
Byrd said the new meetings are much more effective in allocating funds well, and the changes have been met with a positive response from the representatives, too.
“I think the changes overall are good,” said Nduka Nwankwo, committee representative. “They have helped the allocation process to function better. One problem that I see is that sometimes, with fewer people, one person can easily sway the opinions of other members, and it is sometimes more difficult than it needs to be to get funding passed.”
The changes put in place this semester will be reviewed in order to see if others should be made for the future, Plourde said.
“Overall we want ICC to be a catalyst for collaboration between clubs rather than just the place that hands out money,” he said.
