Annual Budget Process

Excepted from the MSS Budget Policy, last amended February 13, 2018

Each Spring, the MSS shall undertake an annual budgeting process to allocate student activity fees to its divisional chartered organizations, in accordance with any requirements set forth by the Emory Graduate Student Government Association (GSGA). The budgeting process shall proceed according to the timeline described herein, with specific deadlines set at the discretion of the Executive Board.

Timeline

January:

Budget Committee (or Executive Board in the absence of an existing Budget Committee) shall convene for one or more meetings to review this budget policy and report suggested amendments, if any, to the Executive Board

February MSS Meeting:

• 1. The General Assembly will vote on any proposed amendments to this budget policy.

  2. The Executive Board will deliver a briefing to the General Assembly about members’ roles in the budgeting process. 

  3. An announcement to all divisional student orgs and class governments regarding the details of the annual budgeting process, including specific dates and deadlines, shall be distributed no later than 72 hours after this meeting

Late February: 

Deadline for submission of budgets for consideration shall be no later than one week prior to the scheduled March budgeting meeting.

Early March:

• 1. Small group meetings with each org submitting a budget shall occur no later than 48 hours prior to the scheduled March budgeting meeting. Small group budget recommendations must be reported to the Treasurer by the end of the day the small group session is held

  2. A compilation of all small group budget recommendations must be distributed to the General Assembly no later than 24 hours prior to the scheduled budget meeting.

March MSS Meeting

• 1. Treasurer shall deliver an up-to-date report on the estimated funds available to allocate to divisional organizations for the upcoming fiscal year.

  2. Each budgeting small group will present its recommendations for deliberation by the General Assembly. Each submitted budget will receive a vote, with subsequent votes if necessary in order to approve a budget. The results of this process shall be reported to SGA in accordance with its requirements.

Late Spring

After receiving a final approved budget allocation from the University finance office and/or SGA, each final org budget shall be communicated to the current student org leadership. The final budget spreadsheet shall also be made available to all General Assembly members.

Annual Budgeting Eligibility

Any eligible student org may submit a budget request for consideration under the annual process. Consideration of a request does not guarantee access to funding; MSS reserves the right to allocate zero dollars in response to a request.

An eligible org is defined as any organization chartered under the MSS and in good standing with the SGS office.

An ineligible org includes any of the following:

1.  Allied Health orgs or Graduate Wide Organizations (GWOs). These groups should submit budgeets to the Allied Health Council or GSGA, respectively. 

2. Orgs with charters approved by MSS, but not considered fully processed by the full Student Involvement, Leadership and Transition (SILT) or SGS offices.

3. Orgs that are currently frozen, or for some other reason do not have an active page on the Hub. 

4. Orgs that have been chartered by MSS since the end of last year's budget process (March of the prior year).

5. Orgs that have been found to be in violation of University-wide, GSGA or MSS policies in the current fiscal year.

6. Orgs that have not been active within the past fiscal year (i.e. no spending of allocated funds in the current year, not electing officers, no budget request submitted last year, no events in the past year).  The Vice President of Administration shall make all initial determinations as to the eligibility status of groups submitting requests. The full Executive Board shall make a final determination in the event of a dispute regarding a group’s eligibility status.