Senate passes Pemberley Society Ball funds

Finance Board amends $790 proposal to $650 for event

By BETH DOUGLASS, News Writer

Published: April 2, 2008

Senate passed a proposal Monday, as amended by Finance Board, to transfer $650 from the ASSP general fund toward a Pemberley Society Ball. The regency-themed ball, hosted by SPU's Jane Austen Club, the school's Pemberley Society, is scheduled for 8 p.m. on April 11.

Sophomore Alex Binz, Pemberley Society president, defended his club's proposed use of funds and expressed his confidence in their ability to sell the 114 event tickets required to break even. Ninety-one of these tickets have already been confirmed, Binz said.

Pemberley Society vice president Cassandra Vlahos and faculty advisor Bobbie Childers were both confident in this first-time event's overall success.

The original proposal, authored by Binz, requested $790 of ASSP funding in its proposed action line. ASSP President Daniel Miller clarified that the original proposal would actually hold ASSP responsible for the net cost of $1,977.50, if the Pemberley Society did not meet their projected revenue for ticket sales.

Finance Board proposed allocating $650 to the Pemberley Society to avoid taking liability for costs relying on ticket sales, said Joel VanderHoek, vice president of finance.

Previous experiences made the Senate finance board cautious of placing too much confidence in projected ticket sales, VanderHoek said. Unexpectedly-low ticket sales led to the cancellation last quarter of the Aqueduct concert originally scheduled for February 16 of this year, resulting in a loss of approximately $2,000 of ASSP funds.

The question was raised why Pemberley Society waited until two weeks before the event to bring their proposal before Senate. The club wanted to be sure their proposal was detailed and thought out before presenting it before Senate, Childers said.

"There were a lot of things coming together at the end of last quarter," Binz said, noting that additional details were worked out over spring break.

Another topic of deliberations was the fact that Senate had already allocated $1,600 in funds to the club Africa United for the Fundisha dinner also scheduled for April 11. The "Rock for DMD Research" concert will also take place off campus on the same night.

During proposal deliberations, Senate recognized that first-year clubs, such as the Pemberley Society, do not usually request such a sizable amount of funds.

An initial finance board proposal suggested moving the venue from Upper Gwinn to a less expensive location and opting for recorded music over a live band. Childers asserted that the English folk dancing central to the ball required ample space not available in other locations.

Additionally, the high amount of improvisational skill required for this type of music makes both finding and utilizing recorded music highly unrealistic, Binz said.

Binz requested that the $150 allocated by finance board towards a quarter-page ad in the Falcon newspaper be instead opened up to be used at the clubs' discretion. Senate passed the proposal without Binz's amendments.

In other business:

Matthew Koenig, Associate Director of University Ministries, spoke about SPU's "37five" project, which to date has given $8,375 to various charitable causes, such as orphanages in Nepal and Uganda.

Faculty representative Dr. Darrell Allen said that faculty council discussed a potential new Masters of Theology program at SPU. If approved, the program could start as early as next fall, though it would still have to undergo the process of accreditation, Allen said.

Senate passed a previously-tabled proposal to amend the ASSP Constitution by changing the title "Vice President of Campus Ministries" to "Vice President of Ministries," to reflect the split of Campus Ministries into both the John Perkins Center for Reconciliation and University Ministries.

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