Rules and Regulations

Amended at June 2003 GSC BoD Meeting

Note: All time periods specified in this document exclude weekends and holidays.

1. The Quick-Funding Czar receives an electronic request. If time permits, the QuickFunding czar should check to see if the proposed date and time for the event does not conflict with any other GSC-sponsored events. Also, the Czar should see if the proposal contains any blatant or obvious violations of Caltech policies. If the Czar finds problems of this nature, he/she should try to work them out with the proposal authors. This is merely a service to the proposal authors, and is not intended to be an official or thorough review of the proposal to make sure it complies with Caltech policies. Compliance is the sole responsibility of the proposal authors and event holders. Approval for GSC QuickFunding should not be interpreted as certification that the proposed event complies with Caltech policies. Once these problems have been worked out, or after 48 hours has elapsed from the time of receipt of the proposal, whichever occurs first, the Czar forwards the QuickFunding request to the BOD for discussion.
2. The proposal is then sent to the BOD. A minimum of 24 hours are set aside for airing of concerns and discussion by directors on the QuickFunding discussion website (part of the GSC website). If there are no concerns aired within the first 24 hours, the Czar will then open the proposal to an email vote (step #3). If there are concerns, the discussion may continue for up to a total of 48 hours. If within this time, all concerns are satisfactorily answered/resolved, the Czar goes to step #3. If not, the Czar skips to step #5.
3. The proposal is opened to a vote. *All* BOD members should reply to the QuickFunding Czar within 24 hours with one of four possibilities:
   1. Fund
   2. Fund X amount if you feel the amount funded should be different from that requested, stating your proposed amount in your response.
   3. Need more information/further discussion.
   4. Do Not Fund.

These four options will be made clear on every e-mail sent by the Czar to the BOD calling for a vote. Also on the e-mail will be the amount left in the QuickFunding budget for the fiscal year, and the number of times in the current fiscal year that the same club or organization has applied for and received GSC QuickFunding.

4. If at least 5 people and at least 60% of respondents vote for Fund, the event is approved for full funding. If not, but at least 5 people and at least 60% of respondents vote for either full funding or funding a lesser amount, an award for the median proposed amount (counting (a) Fund votes as a vote for the full amount requested) is given. If at least 5 people and at least 60% of respondents vote for Do Not Fund, funding for the event is rejected.
5. If none of the above is true, the 5 BOD members designated as that month's QuickFunding committee will meet promptly at a time to be set by the QuickFunding Czar to decide. A QuickFunding committee member can delegate his functions to another BOD member if he/she obtains the consent of the other BOD member. QuickFunding Committee membership rotates every month, as per the following schedule: First month: the first 5 members listed under People in the GSC in the GSC webpage; next month: the following 5 members. And so on, with the list looping back to the first member after the last member.

Late QuickFunding Requests
The GSC must receive all quickfunding applications at least 24 hours prior to the event requesting funding (excluding weekends and holidays, as stated above). Requests received after the event has been held will not be considered for QuickFunding. In order to receive QuickFunding, the organizers must have Caltech approval (from the graduate or undergraduate Dean's office, including bartender, etc.), and must have advertised the event as open to the entire graduate student body. If the organizers have not done any advertising prior to applying for QuickFunding, the event may still be eligible for QuickFunding (at the discretion of the GSC board). In such a case, the organizers must have requested QuickFunding at least 48 hours in advance of their event and they must have posted their advertising immediately following their request for QuickFunding. This procedure is in place to ensure at least 48 hours of advance advertising for QuickFunding-supported events. In those cases where the application is received less than 5-7 days before the event, and the GSC board vote occurs after the event, the GSC will consider actual graduate student attendance, success of the event, actual event spending, and other actual data from the event in making its funding decision.

General Comments

• The GSC's mission is to "work to maximize the quality of life for the graduate student community at Caltech". As such, we aim to get as many good events organized as possible, so we should try to spend our whole social budget. When a group outside the BOD volunteers to organize a good event (and request money), they are doing us a favor, and not the other way around.
• The GSC's funding is subject to compliance with certain rules, which include compliance with Caltech policies, the event being open to the entire Caltech graduate student community, and widespread publicity on campus. If the event does not comply with these rules, the GSC Treasurer does not pay the organizers, regardless of whether the event was approved for QuickFunding. Therefore, compliance with these rules need not concern the BOD at the time of a funding decision, but only at the later date of funding execution. The GSC Treasurer will of course exercise discretion with such matters as advance payments, based on the organizers' previous history and references.
• Innovation in social events on campus benefits us all. We should therefore not penalize organizations that decide to organize new events that were not planned for in their last annual budget.