The UNLV Graduate & Professional Student Association
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING
WAYS & MEANS COMMITTEE MEETING 44-02
Monday, June 17, 2024
HYBRID PUBLIC MEETING:
IN PERSON: Graduate Commons, LLB 2141
4505 S Maryland Pkwy, Las Vegas, NV 89119, USA
VIRTUAL: https://unlv.zoom.us/j/7028952261
IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE AGENDA AND PUBLIC MEETING NOTE:
PERTAINING TO VIRTUAL MEETINGS:
Public Comment may be submitted via email to gpsa@unlv.edu.
Messages received by 9:00 AM on the day prior to the meeting, may be entered into the record during the meeting. Any other public comment form submissions and/or voicemails received prior to the adjournment of the meeting will be transcribed and included in the permanent record.
Members of the public wishing to listen to the meeting may do so via: https://unlv.zoom.us/j/7028952261
CONTINUED:
Below is an agenda of all items scheduled to be presented and considered at the meeting. Notification is hereby provided that items on the agenda may be taken out of the order and presented, two or more agenda items may be combined for consideration, and an agenda item may be removed from the agenda or discussion relating to an item on the agenda may be delayed at any time.
Some agenda items are noted as having accompanying reference material. Copies of the reference materials that are distributed at the meeting may be requested by emailing the Chair at gpsa@unlv.edu. Copies of any such materials will also be made available at unlv.edu/gpsa on the “Agendas and Minutes” folder of the appropriate meeting. Reasonable efforts will be made to assist and accommodate persons with a disability attending the meeting. Please email the GPSA Manager at gpsa@unlv.edu in advance so that arrangements may be made.
This meeting’s agenda has been posted in accordance with NRS 241.020. Agendas may also be also be available online at unlv.edu/gpsa/agenda in the appropriate session and meeting number folder.
PUBLIC COMMENT:
Public comment will be taken during this agenda item. No action may be taken on a matter raised under this item until the matter is included on an agenda as an item on which action may be taken. Comments will be limited to three minutes per person. Persons making comment will be asked to begin by stating their name for the record and to spell their last name. The Board Chair may elect to allow additional public comment on a specific agenda item when that agenda item is being considered. In accordance with Attorney General Opinion No. 00-047, as restated in the Attorney General’s Open Meeting Law Manual, the Chair may prohibit comment if the content of that comment is a topic that is not relevant to, or within the authority of, the Body, or if the content is willfully disruptive of the meeting by being irrelevant, repetitious, slanderous, offensive, inflammatory, irrational or amounting to personal attacks or interfering with the rights of other speakers.
WAYS & MEANS COMMITTEE MEMBERS
All other members present will be available in the meeting minutes and listed below.
Members of the Public Present:
Virginia Smercina, Business Manager GPSA
Teresa Marie, proxy for GPSA Treasurer Devin Lopez
AGENDA
Meeting called to order by Chair Peña 5:00pm.
- PUBLIC COMMENT INFORMATION ONLY
(See foregoing notation regarding public comment)
No public comment.
- APPROVAL OF MINUTES FOR POSSIBLE ACTION
Request is made for approval of minutes of previous meetings.
3a) CONSENT AGENDA:
-
- Minutes for the May 22, 2024 (44-01) Ways & Means Committee Meeting as posted to the public GPSA Drive.
Moved to Approve: Hearn
Seconded: Marie
Motion passed unanimously 2-0-0.
4a) GPSA Treasurer Report
Treasurer Lopez will report to the Ways & Means Committee information concerning the GPSA budget and operations of the committee.
4b) Ways & Means Committee Chair Report
The Chair of the Ways & Means Committee will report information concerning the operation of the committee and necessary updates on the programs overseen by the committee.
4b) GPSA Manager & Advisor
Business Manager Smercina will report to the Ways & Means Committee concerning UNLV related issues or events important to the UNLV graduate student body.
- UNFINISHED BUSINESS FOR POSSIBLE ACTION
Unfinished Business is any motion or action item that was under discussion and was postponed or moved to this meeting at the discretion of the public body as approved by the chair.
5a) Review and vote on previously delayed or appealed RSO Application(s).
Treasurer Lopez requests the Ways & Means Committee to discuss and provide decisions relating to previously submitted RSO Funding applications.
- NEW BUSINESS FOR POSSIBLE ACTION
New business is any motion that is new to this meeting. All items will be for possible action unless otherwise stated.
6a) Review and vote on the new RSO Application(s) and workflow in TeamDynamix (TDX)
Treasurer Lopez requests the Ways & Means Committee to discuss and provide decisions relating to recently submitted RSO Funding applications.
Moved to Open: Hearn
Seconded: Marie
Motion passed unanimously 2-0-0.
Chair Peña: We have $500 left in our budget, the Neon Lit RSO application is asking for $780.
Hearn: Can we fund gift cards? I noticed they asked for gift cards as part of their application.
Smercina: We need to check what the operating policy states.
Peña: The only thing I could see in the policy that we could make an argument for is gifts. Gifts were a problem at CSUN because you cannot control what people buy with them, but it’s not in or operating policy to not fund it so it’s up to our committee.
S: How are they planning to utilize the gift cards?
Peña: A place called ‘Writers Block’. They uploaded a receipt for it. I assume it’s a gift card.
Marie: It is one of the few individually owned book stores in the valley, it’s very nice.
Peña: Any more thoughts?
Hearn: I think we should fund them the $500 we have left in our budget.
Marie motions as proxy for Lopez to approve $500 towards the Neon Lit RSO funding application.
Hearn seconds.
Motion passed unanimously 2-0-0.
6b) Discussion of GPSA Budget Reallocation to the Sponsorship Program
President Marie requests time to discuss and vote on budget reallocation to cover eligible sponsorship applications from March and April funding cycles and remaining cycles through the current fiscal year.
Motioned to open by Hearn.
Marie seconded.
Motion passed unanimously 2-0-0.
Peña: We are now discussing the budget reallocation of funds to Sponsorship. Since this was brought by President Teresa Marie I will let her discuss.
Marie: We, GPSA Executive Board, met last Thursday June 13th and sponsorship committee is about 73,000 dollars in the hole. We were able to reallocate about 80,000 dollars and we are looking to come to Ways and Means to add transparency and to support the Executive board in these efforts to support the Sponsorship Committee.
Smercina shares screen to show the complete budget to explain where each piece of the new allocation is coming from to accommodate the budget increase.
Peña asks for clarification.
Smercina shows specific line items and where the money goes.
Hearn and Marie opt out of further discussion and choose to motion.
Marie motions to approve the reallocation of budget funds from PG21962 to the tune of 35,000, PG22206 to the tune of 10,000, and PG22108 to the tune of 10,000 for the total of 80,000 to support sponsorship applications that are exceeding our total amount.
Hearn seconds.
Motion passes unanimously 2-0-0.
After the motion is passed, general budget discussion occurs.
Smercina: As of this moment for this fiscal year Sponsorship has received 481 total applications. That includes cancelled applications, group applications, everything. Removing anything that was cancelled or group applications that are later split into individual applications, that number is 426. Pending requests that are currently pending review total $35,329.42 from May and June. These tend to be slower months. The total amount of awarded funds stands at $333,497.59. Declined award funding totals $5,022.05.
Marie asks how we got to the total of $333,497.59 as that far exceeds the original budget. Smercina explains that there was money left over in the budget. $308,000 was the new Sponsorship budget taking previous funds into consideration. Then the discussion moved to Smercina explaining how the lack of funds for Sponsorship was first noticed as a problem moving into March and April, which are traditionally popular months for applications.
Marie and Smercina continue to discuss the Sponsorship budget for the FY24 school year including additional budget allocations, reserves that are held, and the new allocation that had just been approved. This is discussed in the context of the entire GPSA budget and how budget allocations affect the future budget for FY25.
Marie indicates that she will discuss with Treasurer Lopez to make sure the overall FY25 budget looks appropriate for the goals and vision of GPSA moving forward.
Marie asks if we are covered for FY24 with what we have already moved to allocate, and Smercina says yes. Sponsorship now has enough funds for applications that have already been approved.
INFORMATION ONLY
6c) Discussion of Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Allocations
President Marie requests time to discuss annual program budget allocations for FY25.
Smercina addresses the idea of a moratorium on Sponsorship applications moving forward. The question on the table: are applications that have already been submitted subject to the previous operating policy or the new operating policy that is being drafted? That is a decision to be made, and we need to make sure that there is enough money in the budget to support those applications that have not yet been approved. That is a decision for the executive council to make, but it is something to keep aware of.
Smercina requested the exact amount of money allocated to Sponsorship from the Ways and Means meeting on May 22, 2024. That number is $33,154.00.
Smercina makes it clear that GPSA will need to replenish its reserves after these allocations to support Sponsorship. She then brings attention to the Continuation Support Grant fund, the Open Access Journal fund, and the RSO fund; specifically, how these budgets will look for FY25 as GPSA tries to replenish reserve funds.
- ANNOUNCEMENTS INFORMATION ONLY
No announcements.
(See foregoing notation regarding public comment)
No public comment.
- ADJOURNMENT FOR POSSIBLE ACTION
Meeting adjourned by Chair Peña at 6:30pm.