The Committee adheres strictly to the funding guidelines previously outlined. The clearest and most transparent requests will follow these guidelines as closely as possible. In addition, the Committee offers Budget Workshop sessions in the Fall semester led by the Chair and other senior members of the Committee. We highly recommend that the person who submits your budget attend at least one budget workshop session. In addition, you may contact the chair, Amelia Marceau, at sgawaysmeans@umass.edu, with any further questions or to set up a meeting with her or another Committee member. The Committee also offers office hours in the Spring semester.

Mission statements can be vague, and the Committee understands this. If you feel that the Committee may not understand your mission statement, we encourage you to add a clarifying explanation in parentheses following the mission statement. If you feel it is helpful, you may also quote specific parts of the mission statement when explaining why your line items relate to the mission of your group.

If there is a glitch or problem with Campus Pulse preventing you from filling out or submitting your budget request, please contact your SAI advisor or the SATF Financial Advisor. They can help you with the problem and ensure that your RSO is not hurt because of technical issues.

Yes, it is possible. Occasionally, a group will request funding only for ineligible line items (see funding guidelines for which items are ineligible). In this case, all of these ineligible line items will be removed and the group will receive an allocation of zero dollars. To avoid this, make sure to adhere to the funding guidelines.

Yes. No matter how much you write or how many line items you have, the Committee reads and considers everything that you include in your budget request.

An effective Council Review will serve as a peer review for your budget with the goal of helping you catch things like calculation errors, missing descriptions, or ineligible line items before your budget is submitted to the Ways and Means Committee. They might also provide meaningful feedback and help you interpret the guidelines. Each Council Review is overseen by the Council Treasurer and President through meetings of the Treasurers Board. Every Council will have a slightly different system, so reach out to your Council President to find out more specifics. The Committee is happy to answer questions of the Treasurers Board about the process.

The SGA bylaws specify that the SGA Senate votes on how high the Student Activities Fee is each year. The Senate has the power to raise the fee up to 7.49% each year. Once the Senate has voted on the Student Activities Fee, that money is entrusted to the Ways and Means Committee to allocate. If you have any concerns about the level of the Student Activities Fee, please direct them to sgaspeaker@umass.edu.