The CSD is starting to plan for First Week 2008 and we are looking for ideas for comedians for the big show. Feel free to comment on the blog as to who you would like to see or you can email donnally@stuaf.umass.edu with ideas. Thanks!
Photo: Archman8
The SGA has announced the dates for their budget workshops. All RSOs who want a budget have to attend one of these (or one of the ones that were offered in December) in order to request a budget.
If you have any questions, contact Yannick Brookes, Chair of the Ways and Means committee at: waysandmeanscommittee@gmail.com
Did you know that every RSO has a mailbox in the Center for Student Development Resource Center? Yesterday I was cleaning out the RSO mailboxes and noticed that many of you have abandoned your mailboxes- you haven’t checked them ALL YEAR! Some of you even have some snail mail in your mailboxes waiting for you! Please make it one of your RSO goals this year to regularly check your RSO mailboxes-try to check them at least once per week. And of course, don’t forget to check your RSO email as well!
Photo: cindy47452
The Resource Center may be a bit crazy during the first few weeks of school because we’re short two staff. Lizette graduated (congratulations to her) and Djade decided not to return (we wish him the best). Rebecca is looking for two replacements, people who have RSO experience and can work on Tuesday and Thursday. If you’re interested you should e-mail her at rsnyder@educ.umass.edu.
In the interim, you’ll see some of the staff from upstairs sitting at the reception desk. We’ll do our best to help you, but can’t wait until we have a full staff of ECOs again.
Photo: kandyjaxx
Many of you may be interested to know that the Student Government Association has put up a new website. This site should be updated more frequently, so make sure to bookmark it and reference it for information. Currently there are announcements regarding the General Student Strike, SGA Elections (just around the corner), and the Ways and Means budget process.
Does your group have an event coming up in March, April, or May? Are you in need of additional funds to put on this event? The Student Affairs Cultural Enrichment Fund awards grants to support organizations in the planning and sponsoring of activities that enliven the cultural life of the campus and supplement educational opportunities of the university campus. All programs must directly serve or include students.
Deadlines for Spring are February 14 for events after March 8 and March 13 for events after April 12. Groups are always encouraged to apply early!
Stop by the Center for Student Development Resource Center to pick up the application and guidelines or download it here! Don’t forget that your RSO advisor needs to read and sign the application before you turn it in!
I sent a notice to the SR list serve yesterday about the upcoming RSO Officer Orientation workshops. (If you need to know the dates see the end of this post). In response I got some questions about whether our records are up to date. I realized that I forgot to send the Events Office an updated SR list after the December RSOOO. I’ve fixed that so they should be up to date. But feel free to e-mail me paradise@stuaf.umass.edu or call me at 545-1280 if you run into a problem.
The dates for RSOOO are:
February 2, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
February 5, 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm
You can sign up on the CSD web page
Recently one of the RSOs discovered they had an old website in addition to their current, up to date one. I asked OIT to remove the old one, but I wonder how many other RSOs have old websites. 
Do you know if you have one? You might be surprised what a member of your group did five years ago and then abandoned.
There are several ways to find out if you have an old web site hanging around. You can google your group’s name and see what you find. Or you can do a search on the UMass site. Or you can ask me if your group has more than one OIT account. I’ve got a list of all accounts and I’m going to e-mail your president or information provider to let you know if you have two accounts.If you do have a UMass account that needs to be eliminated you can e-mail me at paradise@stuaf.umass.edu and I’ll contact OIT for you. They are pretty responsive to my requests.
Photo: eurlife
For a lot of student organizations, spring semester means preparing budgets to submit to the SGA Ways and Means Committee. Here is a brief overview of the process:
That’s it! Check back here or in your e-mail for dates/times for the budget workshops. If everything goes smoothly, the SGA plans to have initial budget allocations announced in April. After this, there will be a short appeals process before the full allocation goes before the senate in early May.
If you’ve got any questions, contact the Chair of the Ways and Means Committee, Yannick Brookes at waysandmeanscommittee@gmail.com.
Photo: zen
As Phee mentioned in a previous post, one of the sessions we are looking at adding to RSOOO is one on the use of technology. I’m going to be working on this during January. The topics I’m thinking of off the top of my head are:
So that is what I have so far. Any other ideas of things that could be included?
Photo: Matthew Clark