CHRIS SEGAL
News Assistant
The clubs on campus are in for some major changes resulting from the summer-long restructuring of the Inter-Club Council. The changes will affect how clubs ask for and receive funding, as well as a new attendance policy for ICC meetings. Clubs will have to apply for funding on a weekly basis — instead of have a single budget meeting each semester.
A constitution was written over the summer for ICC — in the past only guidelines existed. The constitution will be presented at the first ICC meeting Sept. 13.
This meeting will be an opportunity for clubs to give feedback because nothing has been set in stone, said Misty Day, SGA vice president.
The main changes regard the distribution of budgets and the format of meetings.
“I worked hard this summer developing ideas to help ICC because there has always been a problem with the distribution of the budget,” Day said.
To stop budget inflation ICC will meet weekly to allow clubs to apply for funding. If a club is planning an event it will write a resolution and present it to the council at these meetings. The resolution will be subject to questions and remarks from other club representatives followed by a vote.
“I am not sure budgets were ever inflated in the first place,” Black Student Union President Dinah Galley said. “I think that the clubs that were most deserving of funds got the most funds and clubs that were starting out and needed to prove themselves got a few funds, and it’s up to them to build their reputation and come back and get more funds later.”
Another major change is the attendance policy. In the past, clubs would send members to “fill in” for their treasurer or president. Under the new rules each club will have one representative and no “fill ins” allowed. These club representatives will be voting on resolutions.
The weekly budget meeting will also serve as a time for club representatives to interact and share plans with other clubs.
“By developing a more fair way to distribute money, clubs will not be tempted to inflate their budgets, which in many ways contradicts the Pepperdine mission of honesty,” Day said.
Katie Vaughan, president of the College Republicans, said there are two ways to look at the changes.
“It really leaves us as an E-board quite handicapped because we don’t have any authority as far as funding goes,” Vaughan said. “On the flip side, it will give clubs the incentive to fundraise, and so in that sense, I think it is a good idea.”
BSU members were more critical.
“To make it more professional I think that it was a good change to draft a formal constitution,” BSU treasurer Timothy Foster said. “I just don’t agree on the new system.”
BSU members said they disagree with having a weekly budget meeting and making clubs submit SGA-like resolutions. Instead of having one representative, Galley believes that clubs should have three specific people who can represent a club.
“We believe that the ICC doing the same format as SGA will tend to overprotect the money and therefore will basically nickel and dime the clubs’ event budgets in the first few months …” Galley said. “We are going to have our funding for our event in the beginning of the year drastically undercut and our events will be cut to miniscule size. I don’t know how that’s good for anybody. That’s exactly what happened to SGA.”
Galley suggested in an e-mail to their advisor, Tabatha Jones, to “allow clubs to present their budgets month by month” instead of the new, weekly method.
“I want all clubs to know that ICC belongs to them, and that it is an important organization to be a part of,” Day said.
Information on clubs can be found on PepXpress.
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