Society Finances

Frankiestylee

Are DIT societies' accounts available for viewing by the majority of students? Is there any transparancy there or is it all kept hush hush?
Just curious as it's mostly student capitation money that funds societies and there are a few societies I'm a bit suspect about.

Baggly

Which ones?

Frankiestylee

Ah,all in good time.

Baggly

Lol. Well some of the more obstinate socs probably wouldnt let you see their accounts, but alot of socs are just run by regular students who are up for a laugh and dont care if anyone sees the accounts.

Frankiestylee

Heh heh, I don't think the ones I'm thinking of will just let me see the accounts, but do they not have to submit them to the SU or something? I've tried getting in touch with the societies co-ordinator with no response, so I'm going to head in next week and start banging on doors looking for answers.

Baggly

They are presented to the social and cultural committee, which is comprised of two student reps, elected by the societies committee's, some people from the budgeting dept of DIT, and the Socs coordinator.

While im happy to see someone interested in what goes on behind the doors that noone seems to be bothered opening, i personally dont know of anything suspicious worth investigating. Would be interested to see what you dig up.

Ah, go on and tell us which soc it is.

Sundy

Frankiestylee wrote:

Heh heh, I don't think the ones I'm thinking of will just let me see the accounts, but do they not have to submit them to the SU or something? I've tried getting in touch with the societies co-ordinator with no response, so I'm going to head in next week and start banging on doors looking for answers.

Why dont you just mind your own business?

Frankiestylee

Sundy wrote:

Why dont you just mind your own business?

I pay my capitation money, the capitation money is used to fund societies etc... hence I'm partly funding all these activities and I, like every other DIT student, have a right to know. The whole point behind this stuff is that no one should have anything to hide, so why try and hide the facts.

Baggly

im not saying this is why, but perhaps its cause there will always be some who object to one soc having such and such, and another soc having that much and so on.

if you go banging on the soc organisers doors literally tho, i know the response you will get. correction, i know the exact words you will get.

Mellor

I remember from last year that when a soc planned a trip for example, they had to produce a list of student numbers and reciepts for release money.

Frankiestylee

No, I'm not looking at it from being in one society and begrudging another something, it's just that some societies really don't do what they're supposed to... just wondering how much money they get not to fulfill their purpose

shoutman

I'd also be interested in this, I was a fresher last year and the amount of societies I joined up to which have since ceased to exist is ridiculous, law soc, pr soc to name but two.

Now I was involved in the poker soc a bit last year and all of the money received was transparent and well used, including buying a poker table for college students use in aunigier street.

Frankiestylee

That's the thing in DIT, it seems far too easy to set-up a society and then disappear just as fast.

Do societies remain in existance when they don't do anything for a year? I know in other colleges it takes so much effort to get a society recognised that it takes about two years for the soc to be de-recognised, so if one committee mess up for a year, there's still a chance for a new committee to rescue it rather then creating a new society from scratch.

shoutman

So do you think it should be harder to get a Society recognised? How would DITSU go about doing that? Would there be a waiting list of a year to get permission to run a society or something?

I just want to know where all those two euros went that the Law society recieved.....

Frankiestylee

To be honest I'm not exactly clear how it works in DIT, I've asked but nobody seems in the mood to answer emails during the Summer.

In TCD, and in UCD I think, societies have to go before a commitee in order to get recognised. They have to draw up a constitution that explains their aims and goals and lays down how the society runs. If the society gets the go-ahead then they get access to facilities and funding etc.

Baggly

So what your saying is we should make it harder for people willing to volunteer for a thankless job to do the work?

The simple fact of the matter is that there are a shortage of people willing to go and make the effort of running a soc. People just arent arsed.

I had a similiare discussion with someone (i cant remember who) on this board about the SU, and he said that he should run for office. Well run then. If he had run when he was supposed to, he wouldnt have had a reason to winge at the tinterweb.

Oh, and socs finances are NOT controlled by the SU. Money goes from our capitation fee to the SU, and a seperate amount goes to socs and stuff like that.

oh and in response to where does all the dead socs money go, well each year, the budget for socs gets decreased because socs money isnt all used up. Any money left over from last year gets redistributed around the college into crap that noone really notices (like new light bulbs, and toilet cleaning fluid and a quater ply bog roll instead of one eight ply).

shoutman

LOTP wrote:

quater ply bog roll instead of one eight ply.

First of all dont knock the quater ply bog roll, that stuff is soooothing

Also is the soc committe not run by the SU? Are they not the people who decide how much of the socs budget go to each society?

Frankiestylee

Running a society isn't a job, people do it for whatever reason they do it for, but it's nothing like some random charity. People run the paintballing soc (for example) because they're interested in paintballing. If people feel running a society is a burden then they shouldn't do it in the first place.
I'm not suggesting it should be harder for people to get involved, but perhaps it should be harder for a society to be officially recognised, there should be a vetting process there to stop time wasting societies slipping through the cracks.

Since my last post I've gotten a response to my emails etc and yeah, now I know more about how societies work in DIT. No need to be so hostile when this thread started as a question, not a confrontation.

I was unaware that the SU didn't control the clubs & socs, I just got that impression since the clubs&socs are built into the DITSU website and the SU has Clubs&Socs officers.

Baggly

I havent been hostile. You may have interpreted my posts that way, but i was just pointing out facts and common misconceptions.

And i dont think a smart person such as yourself would believe that an enjoyment of something totally negates the effort involved in running something over a long period.

Enthusiasm is of course present in most societies, but for every case of enthusiasm (which would usually involve freshers), there are ten cases of applied effort and forced committment.

shoutman wrote:

Also is the soc committe not run by the SU? Are they not the people who decide how much of the socs budget go to each society?

Lastly, the SU have representatives on the committee that decides, but they dont have the majority, and by no means call the shots.

Frankiestylee

Ah, tis all in the nuances.

People involved in running societies get rewards in various ways. They wouldn't be doing it otherwise. I've been involved in voluntary societies and organisations for years, never getting any monetary rewards. I know all about this society running lark and believe that if you find it's too much of a pain then you shouldn't be doing it. Credit should be given to all the people who run societies, I'm not saying what they do is worthless, but I certainly wouldn't call it a "thankless job", nobody gets involved in thankless jobs. In some way people always benefit from something they volunteer for, especially if they keep doing it.

Is there some sort of guide as to how all this society funding works, or is this something to learn with experience?

Grim_Reaper

It's understandable why you want to find out.. i mean what about a "Beer taster's Society" for those who like the drink beer... or in other words college funded piss up under a more acceptable title. All societies should be encouraged on the basis that they are actually doing what they applied to do. I've heard of societies (Not in DIT) getting grants and splitting the cash between the members to do whatever and that's the end of it. What's the point of that.. i mean if we could all do that it'd be brilliant. Let us all go to college and join societies and never have to work again!..heh..

Baggly

You cant set up a society with a view to getting pissed, unless its wine and cheese tasting.

What i mean by that is that you cant spend money from your budget, or from members joining fees on alcohol.

Grim_Reaper

That's the thing. It's not set up to be seen as a piss-up... it's hidden behind a title of some other form.. then they get their grant and from there no-one hears of it again as the group has split the grant between the members and gone their separate ways.

kdouglas

Grim_Reaper wrote:

That's the thing. It's not set up to be seen as a piss-up... it's hidden behind a title of some other form.. then they get their grant and from there no-one hears of it again as the group has split the grant between the members and gone their separate ways.

it's not like the socs office just hands committee members a big wad of cash at the start of the year, everything that society money goes on must be pre-approved by the socs office and then a cheque is issued (payable to whatever relevant company) for that amount

also, very little of the actual capitation fee goes to societies, god knows what its spent on, (getting ditsu trading out of bankruptcy (sp?) likely) but in general societies dont get much and every year the staff of the societies office are struggling against a decreasing budget.

Frankiestylee

Yeah, I imagine that's the case. I was thinking more along the lines of society finances where the society recieves funding from an outside sponsor. Some societies popped up last year that seemed to have the backing of big companies, I'm really curious about that, though it'd also be interesting to find out what happened to a few societies who collected money for membership and then disappeared off the face of the Earth.

Baggly

Cough (redsoc)(b and e) Cough.

kdouglas

in fairness, redsoc did have a few nights out, but whether they even cost them anything to put on or not is another matter....

***wonders if redsoc will be back this year??

shoutman

redsoc got best new society or something didn't they?

Frankiestylee

I'd say Red Soc will definitly be back... B&E (was it not B&T?) are a differant matter altogether. I had a look on the DITSU website and it seems they're in the process of updating the societies. I see a Red Soc, but at a glance there was no B&T.
I dunno if anyone experienced this last year, but the B&? soc came into my class before the society week thing and pretty much press ganged everyone into joining. They actually stood over people til they signed... it was unbelievable, someone asked them "So what do you do?" and they couldn't answer them straight, they had to go off on a tangent about great parties and drinks promos. I was sitting with another not-so-fresh fresher and the B&T guy just wouldn't leave us alone, it took a bit of a "listen, I'm not some 18 year old fresher who's going to believe he'll be 'cool' if he joins... so why don't you go **** yourself... dick" type comment to get rid of him.
In the end I was STILL pestered all year with their stupid text messages, dispite not joining. Biggest scam I've seen in any college.

kdouglas

Frankiestylee wrote:

I had a look on the DITSU website and it seems they're in the process of updating the societies

no offence to you Frankie, but id just like to point out to anyone that reads this DITSU != Societies, as LOTP pointed out already

LOTP wrote:

the SU have representatives on the committee that decides, but they dont have the majority, and by no means call the shots

and that's about the only involvement they have in societies.


(sorry for being pedantic, but that really gets on my nerves)

Frankiestylee

Yeah I know, I'm not saying the SU decide which societies are around, but they're hardly going to go and update their website for no reason. Obviously they've been handed a list or something. I doubt the webmaster would just take it on him/herself to go and make up a new list.