Early one Saturday morning about three years ago, I arrived in the Phalanx Room of the Union prepared for my first budgeting session with the Executive Board. I was the newly appointed freshman member just getting a feel for the position. There were coffee and bagels for a quick breakfast before we dove into the piles and piles of paper and binders that were the proposed budgets for fiscal year 2004. I remember Rick Hartt, director of the Union, coming in with boxes of No. 2 pencils and balance sheets outlining the budgeting process and our duty as Board members. Armed with calculators, budget and expense reports, and exhaustive notes, we plowed through massive three-inch binders, approving and amending program after program, line item after line item. The process was exhaustive, with each group checking and re-checking numbers. Why does your subtotal for 031 not match mine? How is it that we can have four people add the same numbers and get four different results?
This past weekend, marking the end of club budgeting for fiscal year 2007, was an entirely different process—and it was not just because we had a full breakfast with eggs, bacon, and sausage. Automation has swept through the Union’s budgeting experience, transforming a process that was all too cumbersome. During freshman year it took five full days—including a holiday weekend—to get the job done. This year, we left at 4 pm on the second. However, what the advances in budgeting technology have truly given Board members is freedom—the freedom to concentrate on meaningful, objective decisions instead of fumbling through papers and numbers. The Board has gone from being accountants to decision makers. This year, we reviewed over 100 clubs with over a thousand line items and well over $600,000 in proposed expenditures.
The new budgeting process has allowed Union staff to compile numbers and data on clubs that makes the decision making process much more objective. We were able to track historical trends—including membership numbers, expenditures, and income—with greater clarity. We were able to make decisions on the margin, yet keep the bigger picture in mind of what the Union is trying to accomplish for this year and the next.
The budget for this year was compiled within the context of a larger initiative to improve the Union including over $1 million dollars in physical facilities upgrades, thousands of dollars worth of new services including printing and computing, and raising the level of competitiveness of our intercollegiate athletic programs. Throughout this process, we have remained financially responsible; at times short-term sacrifices were necessary for long-term progress. New programs were given additional scrutiny, past funding did not guarantee future funding, and activity fee dollars were first allotted to clubs of standing excellence and improving performance. As far as budgeting is concerned, three years has made all the difference—from mundane work to meaningful decision making with a defined direction. These differences have helped to make this year’s budget and this year’s priorities possible.
