Finance Code of the Simpson College Student Government Association 

Updated March 2025 

 

Section 1: Purpose of the Financial Advisory Committee 

1. The SGA Financial Advisory Committee shall serve to hear all budget requests and financial concerns of the SGA Senate and shall refer to this financial code to make recommendations of appropriations to the SGA Senate. 
2. The SGA Senate budget is generated from the annual Student Activity Fee. 
   1. The Simpson College Board of Trustees and the SGA Senate must approve all the changes to the Student Activity Fee. 
3. The SGA Senate shall refer to the following definitions when deciding whether a student organization meets the requirements of the SGA Finance Code. These definitions shall serve as a guideline to be interpreted by the SGA Senate. 
   1. Open membership policy: ensuring any student of Simpson College may join and participate fully in the organization unless the student poses a risk to the safety of those participating. 
   2. Fiscal irresponsibility: the mismanagement of an organization’s finances in such a way that expenditures exceed revenue, expenses are not transparent or justifiable, or financial records are miss-maintained so that the SGA Senate cannot review the organization’s financial activity. 
   3. Beneficial programming: events, activities, or meetings that students would enjoy or gain value from. 
   4. Non-programmatic monetary donations: donations not connected to an event on or off Simpson’s campus. 
4. Should any student organization that receives funding from the SGA Senate violate, disregard, or fail to fulfill the requirements laid out in this finance code or demonstrate fiscal irresponsibility, the SGA Senate should consider the behavior in any future appropriations to the organization. 

Section 2: Requirements of Fundable Organizations 

1. Requirements: To receive funding from the SGA Senate, student organizations must meet all of the following expectations:
   1. Be recognized by the SGA Adviser as a registered organization. 
   2. Groups must have a minimum of three participating full-time student members 
      1. At least one participating member must serve as president 
      2. At least one participating member must serve as treasurer 
   3. Groups must have at least one advisor who is a full-time faculty or staff member employed by Simpson College.  
   4. Groups must have an updated constitution on file in Modern Campus Involve that is reviewed annually by the SGA Student Organization Committee. 
   5. Groups must create a page on Modern Campus Involve and receive approval 
2. Have an open membership policy. 
   1. In the case that an organization does not have an open membership policy, the SGA Senate shall be able to allocate funding for specific events given that they are open to the entire student body. 
3. Make their presence known to campus through regular meetings and a clear marketing strategy for their events. 
4. Student leadership within the club or organization doesn’t originate from work-study positions (See Section 4(E) for more details) 
   1. UGA positions are not considered work-study.  
   2. Leadership can be paid through approved student activities fee allocations or other Simpson-related funds  
5. Events are planned and primarily hosted by students. 
6. The student organization’s account must be deemed fiscally responsible. 
7. The students must communicate directly with SGA and be able to articulate the request with or without an adviser. 
8. Organizations must use Modern Campus Involve (Storm Cloud) to track attendance at every event they hold (meeting attendance does not need to be tracked).  

Section 3: Requirements of Organizational Records  

1. Requirements of Organizations Receiving Appropriations
   1. All budget requests must be submitted on Modern Campus Involve. 
   2. Organizations must track all purchases and compile detailed proof of all purchases in Modern Campus Involve. 
      1. Receipts of expenditures must be uploaded when filling out the proper forms in Modern Campus Involve. 
   3. Organizations must reconcile their budgets in Modern Campus Involve within one week of any funding request and within two weeks of any spending.  
      1. Organizations must reconcile their budgets within one week, regardless of any funding or spending, at the request of the Financial Advisory Committee.  
   4. Must fill out end of semester reconciliations at least two weeks prior to the end of the semester. 

Section 4: Regulations and Restrictions on SGA Senate Appropriations 

1. Regulations of Appropriation Requests 
   1. Student organizations, excluding the SGA Senate, must submit their budget requests at the Fall and Spring Budget Hearing (refer to Section 5: Fall & Spring Budget Hearings for more information). 
      1. Following allocations made at the Fall and Spring Budget Hearings, Student organizations, excluding the SGA Senate, must submit budget requests for the Weekly Budget Hearings at least two weeks before their activity, event, or the organization’s need with at least one SGA Senate meeting prior to the requested date of allocation.  
   2. The SGA Financial Advisory Committee must hear budget requests before the SGA Senate votes on the request. 
   3. The purchase of food, prizes, or awards for regular meetings, introductory/informational meetings, and events of organizations is subject to the discretion of the Financial Advisory Committee. 
      1. Requests for food items for regular meetings may be approved no more than once per month. 
      2. Groups wishing to have food for events on campus must either cater these items through the College’s food service provider, or receive written permission from the food service provider’s General Manager or Catering Director before purchasing food from off-campus sources  
2. Restrictions of Appropriation Requests 
   1. If the SGA Senate were to have allocated the entirety of its anticipated operating budget, then it shall be barred from processing budget requests for the remainder of the academic semester. 
   2. The SGA Senate shall in no form fund: 
      1. The purchase of alcohol 
      2. Non-charitable fundraisers  
      3. Non-programmatic monetary donations  
      4. Activities where participation is closed to any member of the student body for reasons other than the safety of those involved 
      5. Activities where participation is required by a course, academic department, or major  
      6. Activities involving non-Simpson students unless their participation benefits Simpson students 
      7.  If an event involves both Simpson students and community members, include a breakdown of number of Simpson participants versus non-Simpson participants and costs associated with it in budget request 
      8. Scholarships 
      9. The purchase of weapons or ammunition 
      10. Registration fees for post-graduate exams, licensures, etc. 
      11. Retroactive reimbursements  
      12. Overages in spending beyond what the group has been allocated 
3. Conventions 
   1. The SGA Senate shall fund the costs of attending a convention given all of the following requirements are met: 
      1. Budget requests made to fund the trip are made at least four (4) weeks in advance of the convention.  
      2. The most cost-effective mode of travel is being taken. 
      3. It is reasonably expected that the students attending shall use what they experienced to bring beneficial programming back to campus. 
      4. The SGA Senate is given the names of all students attending. 
      5. The organization has submitted a line-by-line breakdown of the costs of the convention and travel. 
      6. The programming of the convention has been submitted to the SGA Senate. 
      7. No later than a month after returning from an SGA-funded convention, conference, or trip, representatives of the group who attended the conference are required to give a presentation no longer than five minutes to the full senate about what they learned at the conference and how this knowledge will benefit campus. 
      8. This presentation date should be scheduled with SGA prior to the group leaving for the trip.  
   2. The SGA Senate shall at most be able to fund the costs for six (6) student attendees and one (1) advisor. 
      1. A student attendee may not be in their final semester of their last year at Simpson.  
      2. Priority must be given to students who have not attended a conference. 
   3. The SGA Senate shall fund only the cost of: 
      1. Registration fees  
      2. Travel 
      3. Lodging 
         1. It is expected that students will be housed in double-occupied rooms and not pay additional costs for single rooms. 
         2. Exceptions may be granted if a student has approved accommodation on-campus.   
         3. Advisors may not stay in a room with students. 
      4. Up to $20/per day in peridium for meals for each attendee.   
         1. If meals are provided as part of the conference fee, it is expected that participants will eat at the event versus going out to another restaurant.   
         2. Exceptions may be made if a conference provided meal conflicts with the date/time of the lowest cost form of transportation. In those cases, meal peridium’s may be utilized while traveling. 
4. Fundraisers  
   1. Should a student organization hold an event to raise money for something which does not directly impact Simpson students, the student organization must fundraise more than the amount requested from SGA to fund the event. 
      1. If the fundraising events do not raise more than the amount requested to fund the event, the group is subject to potential loss of funds for that specific event in the future.  
   2. Student organizations may fundraise for their own organization. These funds must be deposited at the Business Office counter in Hillman.  Please work with Accounts Receivable to add these funds into the student organization’s fundraising account. Funds in the student organization’s fundraising account will stay in that account until spent by the organization and roll-over annually. 
      1. Groups who need a fundraising account should work with the Director of Student Activities to create one prior to any fundraising occurring. 
5. Student Salary and Payments 
   1. Should a student organization request as part of a budget request a salary for students, the SGA Senate shall consider funding the salary given that all of the following standards are met in the view of the SGA Senate: 
      1. The students being compensated are essential to the function of the group. 
      2. The student organization has demonstrated enough organizational longevity such that SGA can reasonably expect the group to remain active in the academic years following the appropriation. 
      3. Contributions to student and campus life must justify pay at the discretion of the Financial Advisory Committee and full SGA senate.   
      4. In order to receive money allocated for pay from SGA, the organization must not receive money allocated for pay from other avenues.  
      5. Payment must be made on an hourly rate at the current minimum wage.  Groups may set a maximum number of hours a person may not exceed per month.    
6. Post Allocation Expectations and Guarantees 
   1. The SGA Finance Committee Chair shall coordinate the transfer of funds between the SGA Student Activities Budget and the receiving organization’s budget in Modern Campus Involve. 
   2. Organizations are expected to spend appropriations made by the SGA Senate only for the reasons listed in the related budget request. Organizations are responsible for all other expenses not included in the budget requests approved by the SGA Senate. 
   3. Funds appropriated by the SGA Senate that are not spent shall remain in the organization’s account to be used on future approved events. 
      1. Organizations must request to reallocate those funds for another event during a weekly finance hearing.  
      2. These unspent funds will be considered when SGA makes determinations on spring semester funding requests 
   4. Funds allocated from the student activities fee may be spent within the June 1-May 31 fiscal year.  
   5. All allocated budgets for student groups will zero out on May 31.  Any unspent funds will be returned to SGA and transferred to the SGA reserve account. 
7. SGA Senate Requests 
   1. Should the SGA Senate wish to appropriate funding for its own use, the SGA Financial Advisory Committee must review the request before being voted on by the SGA Senate. 
   2. The SGA Senate must merely submit budget requests in time for the SGA Financial Advisory Committee to review the request at a committee meeting. 

Section 5: Fall & Spring Budget Hearings 

1.  Purpose 
   1. The Fall and Spring Budget Hearings shall be held at the end of the fall and spring semester by the SGA Financial Advisory Committee to evaluate how organizations have managed their finances and benefited campus. The committee shall review the organization’s budget for the upcoming semester. ****Fall and Spring occur for the next semester* 
   2. During the Fall and Spring Budget Hearings, all groups shall create budget requests for the upcoming academic semester.   
2.  Procedure for the Budget Hearings 
   1. Budget hearings will occur each semester on Reading Day.  For example, Groups seeking allocations for fall semester will present their budget request on Reading Day the prior spring semester.  Groups seeking allocations for spring semester will present their budget request on Reading Day the prior fall semester. 
   2. The SGA Finance Committee Chair shall send funding applications no later than: 
      1. The Wednesday immediately following Spring Break to all groups for the Spring Budget Hearing. 
      2. The Wednesday immediately following Fall Break all groups for the Fall Budget Hearing. 
   3. In order to receive funding for the next academic semester, organizations must: 
      1. Submit an allocation request in Modern Campus Involve with a complete and detailed budget request for the following academic semester in Excel. 
         1. These groups who request funds for conventions occurring in the next academic year shall be required to provide the names of all attendees except in the case of spots reserved for first year students. 
            1. All Information known about the convention by the time of the hearing must be included. 
      2. Provide the names and contact information of their advisor and organizational officers for the next academic year. 
   4. The SGA Finance Committee Chair shall submit the SGA Financial Advisory Committee’s recommendation of group funding to the SGA Senate. The Senate shall vote to approve and deny the recommendation. 
   5. Organizations shall be informed via email by the SGA Finance Committee Chair of the SGA Financial Advisory Committee and SGA’s recommendations no later than two weeks following their hearing. 

Section 6: Weekly Budget Hearings 

1. Weekly budget hearings shall be held throughout the year to allot money to organizations who require additional funding. FAC may allot money to clubs at these hearings if: 
   1. Organizations who were allotted money at the Spring or Fall budget hearing need additional funds; 
   2. Organizations who were allotted money at the Spring or Fall Budget Hearing would like to reallocate leftover funds; 
   3. Or they were unable to present a budget in the Fall or Spring Budget Hearing because they are a new organization. 

Section 7: Financial Advisory Committee Discretion 

1. All rules are subject to the Financial Advisory Committee (FAC) who, at any time, can circumvent the rules by majority vote of the SGA. 
2. Organizations are never guaranteed to receive all the money they request at any hearing. 
3. The Financial Advisory Committee may approve amounts of $500 and below to campus organizations without bringing the allocation to a vote to the entire SGA Senate.  
   1. The Financial Advisory Committee may only approve amounts to organizations who have submitted a budget request and met with the FAC. 

*** The SGA Adviser has final discretion to deny any allocated funding, provided they provide their reason in writing to the parties involved.