ABC Update: Columbia SecurePay, cosponsorships, new group recognition
Dear ABC Student Group Leaders, I hope that everyone has had a vibrant start to their year, opening their floodgates to new members, from a diverse set of backgrounds. I write with key updates regarding Club ReFuel, ABC’s Town Hall, Columbia SecurePay, ABC Co-sponsorships, New Group Recognition, and Board Vacancies. ...
Dear ABC Student Group Leaders,
I hope that everyone has had a vibrant start to their year, opening their floodgates to new members, from a diverse set of backgrounds. I write with key updates regarding Club ReFuel, ABC’s Town Hall, Columbia SecurePay, ABC Co-sponsorships, New Group Recognition, and Board Vacancies.
In these opening lines, I will specifically highlight Columbia SecurePay as a paradigm-shifting mechanism in your student group’s ability to fundraise. The opportunity to open and maintain e-commerce pages, with the ability to solicit credit card transactions, finally connects the Columbia undergraduate student life system to the modern digital transaction ecosystem. I encourage every group to have a conversation with your advisor about this new tool - and how you could implement it within your own operations.
ABC Town Hall will be on September 27th at 8:00 p.m. EDT in Lerner Satow (5th Floor Lerner Hall). All student organizations are required to send at least one e-board member. We also have two positions available on the board: Performance and Special Interest representative. Please send in your applications in time for town hall, and be sure to attend as a candidate. Nota bene to our Special Interest groups: I will be serving as your Interim representative - please send your queries and purchase requests directly to me.
Lastly, all of us on ABC are here to support you and your organizations. Please don’t hesitate to reach out!
Sincerely,
Theodore M. Nelson
ABC President
Club ReFuel Reminder
Club ReFuel is in full swing (all steps must be completed by Oct. 6th)! All four e-board members from each student group are required to complete this process. Please review the following page for details about each of the three steps (SOKA, Enough is Enough, and Advisor Meeting): https://www.cc-seas.columbia.edu/ClubReFuel
Please make sure to review the page by Sept. 25th at the latest, since you must schedule meetings amongst your e-board and sign-up for specific Enough is Enough sessions. If you do not complete all steps, your club may be de-recognized as a student organization. Additionally, your executive board will not be able to spend funds until Club ReFuel is complete.
These trainings are all crucial for the health of our student group communities. Thank you for your participation!
ABC Town Hall
ABC Town Hall will take place September 27th at 8:00 p.m. EDT in Lerner Satow (5th floor Lerner Hall). All student organizations are required to send at least one e-board member, and may optionally send additional leadership. We understand that these email updates are lengthy; town hall provides us an opportunity to share this information in a digestible format. Additionally, we will be available to answer any questions you may have.
In particular, town hall will focus on trial balance reconciliation, as a preview for sessions, dates and times to be announced, for events hosted by the Undergraduate Student Life Administration and Planning office regarding the same topic. Although financial transactions at Columbia can be at times arcane, your presidents and treasurers are the best advocates for your group in identifying each charge - and potentially even mischarges to your account. Having a good grasp on your finances is crucial to the long-term success and sustainability of your organization.
See you September 27th at 8:00 p.m. EDT in Lerner Satow!
Columbia SecurePay
We are happy to announce that we have a new financial option for soliciting payment, outside of Eventbrite (and their associated fees), check, and cash. Nevertheless, these are still very much available as fundraising options, and you can learn more about how to utilize these on the USL financial policies page: https://www.cc-seas.columbia.edu/studentlife/groups/policies/funds#deposits
Yet, the medium of credit cards is ultimately the dominant form of transaction, which was very much missing from the financial ecosystem available to student groups. We are happy to say that there is a new tool at your disposal, Columbia SecurePay: https://securepay.columbia.edu/. With Columbia SecurePay, you can create individual e-commerce sites for each event and receive donations, which go directly into your group’s revenue account, minus a 3% credit card transaction fee. As compared to Eventbrite, which might be 3.7% + $1.79 per sold ticket, on top of 2.9% of the total order, depending on your Eventbrite plan.
In terms of student group fundraising this is a game-changer, as in the following three scenarios: a.) a student group utilizes their SecurePay page to email sponsorship tiers and solicit donations with a sponsorship packet online b.) a student group utilizes SecurePay to collect ticket sales for an event, without the need for eventbrite transfers or fees c.) a student group sells food or other merchandise via SecurePay, and later distributes the goods. These few examples highlight the flexibility of the platform; there is no time limit or otherwise on how long you can maintain the link.
Please contact your USL advisor to get set up and begin designing your page: https://www.cc-seas.columbia.edu/studentlife/groups/advisers
ABC Allocations
We are releasing an updated allocations sheet for all ABC-recognized groups, including ones that are not receiving any allocation from us this year: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yis4KxmgmgBQgQB94J6HN-nrNxLp3babNywHrgQHMwk/edit?usp=sharing
We have worked to ensure that the reported USL financial chart-strings are accurate. If your group is not listed, then it is not an ABC-recognized student organization for FY23-24. Please contact us if you cannot find your organization.
ABC Co-sponsorships
During FY22-23, ABC was proud to sponsor 89 separate student group applications, detailed in the following spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nbUkYDJk7p8n9GpExDUpQ6AIdUn0KZLp/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114033883868604300579&rtpof=true&sd=true
We are excited to open our co-sponsorship pool for the FY23-24 school year: https://forms.gle/VMhqEyYFEfKCHAmSA
Your ABC representatives have the opportunity to present co-sponsorship requests during our weekly Wednesday meetings. Please note that no co-sponsorships will be presented or voted on during the September 27th meeting, as this corresponds to our semesterly ABC town hall.
A notable difference from the previous year is a change in our co-sponsorship reimbursement process. ABC will provide award letters, which will be reimbursed directly to student groups once documentation and receipts for the program are received by both your ABC representative and ABC e-board ([email protected]), according to the exact amount within the receipts and relevant ABC spending guidelines. Please feel free to reach out with any questions.
FY 2022-2023 Recognized Student Groups
Please give a warm welcome to the following newly recognized student organizations:
1. Columbia Student China Forum
2. Columbia Chinese Acapella
3. Columbia Hellenic Society
4. Columbia Marketing Club (CMC)
5. Columbia University Culinary Society
6. Columbia University Gourmand Club
7. CU Boricuas
8. CU Samovar
9. GYNECA
10. The Women's Network: Columbia
11. Columbia Poker Club
We look forward to your contributions to campus culture and society!
New Group Recognition
Dear Student Group Leaders,
We are pleased to welcome you back to campus. We are very excited to see all your programming that will occur this Fall. After careful consideration, ABC has decided to open the New Group Recognition (NGR) and Returning Group Recognition (RGR) applications for the Fall 2023 semester. For those who have gone through the process, we have made some changes to make it easier for student groups to apply in a clearer and less repetitive way. There are some important points you should know before applying to NGR/RGR.
1. Official recognition by USL will occur earliest during Fall 2024. Recognition depends on many factors including space and staff availability. Therefore, if your group is approved to be recognized by USL, the timing of official recognition would depend on many factors. ABC and USL will do the best in our ability to approve new groups, but it will all depend on the resources we have.
2. Student groups that apply during this Fall will have priority over Spring 2024 groups. If recommended for recognition by ABC, you do not need to reapply in the Spring.
3. NGR will shift during Spring 2024, the details are outlined here.
ABC looks for those groups that demonstrate a clear sense of purpose, fill a unique niche in the campus community, and demonstrate a sound organizational structure. We are looking for really unique groups which do not duplicate the function and/or stated purpose of any other ABC organization (or university division/department). Please read over the application thoroughly, as it contains all the requirements and regulations you should be aware of in detail before applying.
NGR applications are found here.
RGR applications are found here.
Estimated timeline:
September 18: NGR/RGR applications are released.
October 15: NGR/RGR applications deadline.
October 18-22: NGR/RGR presentations.
October 23-27: ABC announces groups to recommend for recognition.
October 30 - November 3: Appeals.
Please communicate this message to your group members, friends, and peers – we would like this message to be communicated across campus.
Interim Special Interest Representative
We thank Ansen Gong ([email protected]) for his work on the board. Theodore Nelson ([email protected]) will serve as Interim Special Interest Representative, until such time that a candidate has been elected and sworn into the office.
ABC Representative Vacancies
The board has two upcoming vacancies, in the category of Performance and Special Interest. Please see the groups these categories represent within the updated Allocations sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yis4KxmgmgBQgQB94J6HN-nrNxLp3babNywHrgQHMwk/edit?usp=sharing
Please request access to the application form at the following address: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Afncmg1jnurigY9BnadczVkQnsTWubyF_ryGRjwsrd0/edit?usp=sharing
Applications are due by the date of our fall town hall: September 27th at 8:00 p.m. EDT. All candidates are required to attend fall town hall.
ABC will host an election for each position, whereby each group e-board leader within the relevant category receives one vote. Candidates will have two weeks to campaign for their roles.