PROPOSED FUNDING SCHEDULE

The GSG Assembly has recently been challenged by the difficulty of trying
to cosponsor an ever-increasing slate of graduate student-run events with
a normal annual budget, as opposed to the past few years when irregular
surpluses swelled the co-sponsorship budget.  The tendency to fund
generously suggests that we may deplete that budget before the end of the
fiscal year, and some Assembly members have called for more planning.
Assembly has discussed whether creating a more regulated funding
application schedule would help Assembly decide how to best allocate
funds, as well as conserving the time spent discussing funding requests
during meetings.

To help meetings and the budget run more smoothly, the Executive Committee
has drafted the following funding schedule and practices for Assembly's
consideration.  At Assembly, we will present a simulation of these
practices.  Assembly is in no way bound to use this system, but is invited
to experiment with it and consider its utility in addressing the problems
referred to above.

After discussion of several possibilities, the Executive Committee
proposes a schedule of three four-month terms, described below. The
rationale for four-month terms instead of quarters is to avoid (to the
extent possible) having such important decisions on already busy meetings,
over generals time, or over long breaks.

This new schedule would take effect on March 2004, and funding requests
for events from March to June would be filed so as to be discussed in the
February meeting.  Recognized graduate student groups would be informed by
mid-January, in order to plan their requests adequately.

January 14, 2004
GSG Executive Committee


I. SCHEDULING

1. For cosponsorship purposes, the GSG fiscal year will be informally
divided into three four-month terms: November-February; March-June;
July-October.

2. Groups are encouraged to file funding requests in advance of the term
in which the events fall.  From now on, these requests will be referred to
as "early requests".  Regular requests will continue to be accepted
throughout the term on the understanding that less or no funding may be
available.

3. The GSG Assembly will discuss early requests in the meeting before the
term starts.  Thus, the early funding decisions will be made in October
(after the budget for the fiscal year has been approved), February, and
June meetings.

4. The GSG Assembly will discuss regular requests in the monthly meetings,
as happens now.


II. FUNDING DECISIONS

1. In order to make it easier to use uniform criteria, all requests
submitted for a meeting will be discussed at once, as described below.

2. The treasurer will first let Assembly decide whether to consider late
requests (as per By-Law IV.1 and Standing Rule of Assembly III.7).

3. The treasurer will provide:
(a) information on our current place in the four-monthly and yearly budgets,
(b) the amount of each request under consideration,
(c) the total budget for each event under consideration,
(d) the cosponsorship (from other sources) already secured for each event,
(e) the total amount that has already been allocated to each group in the
    current fiscal year,
(f) the value (if any) recommended by the treasurer (as per Standing Rule
    of Assembly III.8).

4. Before debate and decisions on funding, the treasurer and Assembly will
interview representatives (if they show up at the meeting) from the groups
requesting funding.

5. After Assembly is satisfied as to the details of each request, Assembly
will discuss informally what is the global funding decision.

6. Among the possibilites that Assembly may wish to consider during
informal discussion on early funding are:
(a) changing any of the treasurer's recommendations;
(b) deciding whether and how much to allocate for regular requests in the
    term under discussion;
(c) spending more or less money than initially allocated for the term
    under discussion (on the understanding that this decision will affect
    the funds available for the remainder of the year).

7. Among the possibilities that Assembly may wish to consider during
informal discussion of regular funding requests are:
(a) changing any of the treasurer's recommendations,
(b) spending more or less money than previously allocated for regular
    requests during the current term (on the understanding that this
    decision will affect the funds available for the remainder of the
    year).

8. After a consensus is reached, it will be possible to formulate and vote
upon a global motion on all requests.