Dance Team funds approved for nationals

On Thursday, the Dance Team received additional funds to help cover the cost of attending nationals, and the Global Medical Brigades asked for the rest of the money necessary to cover the cost of a bus to the airport for their trip to Honduras.

First on the agenda was the Dance Team, who came before the Board asking for additional money to help reduce the cost of attending nationals this year as much as possible. They had already received $4,000 from the Board for the competition. This year was the third year the team attended Regionals and will be the first year that they attend nationals.

They started off by thanking the Board for the money they already received for uniforms for Regionals, saying that they received lots of compliments on them—the uniforms will be brought to nationals. Next, they talked about the fundraising efforts they have made to raise money to cover the cost of the trip; they held an event called “Dance Day,” partnered with Bootlegger’s Bar & Grill to bring a food truck to campus, held two 50/50 raffles at men’s hockey games, and came back to campus early to work concessions for other men’s hockey games. Additionally, dues for the club are $350 per person and, according to the presenters, dancing is a sport with a lot of individualized costs that don’t get factored into budgeting.

When asked how many people were going, they informed the Board that it would be 11 dancers—the entirety of the team—and two coaches. At further questioning, it was revealed that the coaches were required to go for safety reasons, and that the cost of covering the trip for the coaches was factored into the estimate they provided.

In the discussion for the merits of the motion, the majority of the talk was centered around how much the Dance Team should be given, considering they had already been given money for the competition. Director of the Mueller Center Steve Allard informed the Board that they were looking more to get the costs down to around $400 or $500 as opposed to receiving full subsidy. It was also brought up that, because giving any money would be going over the policy of $4,000 for national competitions, it would require a three-fifths majority vote.

After further consideration of the funds and how various potential amounts would affect how much each individual Dance Team member would have to pay, the motion to reallocate $1,375 from travel contingencies to the Dance Team for the national competition passed 11-3-3.

Next to come before the Board was the Global Medical Brigades, asking for funding for their domestic travel costs for their trip to Honduras. They had come before the Board two weeks ago with the same request and received the full amount. However, the Board was informed that when they attempted to purchase the tickets two days prior to the current meeting, the club found out that the quote they had received was only for a one way trip, not a round trip. While they were able to use the money that they had already been given to put down a deposit for a reservation, they did not have enough money to pay for the entire trip and each member would have to pay more than they already had to cover the additional cost.

They mentioned that they had originally wanted to use funds from the “weR Gold” fundraiser, but found out that their alumni contributions were well below average.

With some further discussion, the E-Board approved the motion to reallocate an additional $850 from contingencies to the RPI Global Medical Brigades to subsidize the round trip busing cost to the airport 14-2-1.

During the director’s report, Business Administrator Martha McElligott reminded everyone that clubs are running out of time to make large purchases with the funds that they have in their budgets.

The Executive Board meets every Thursday at 8 pm in the Shelnutt Gallery.