Club Refuel Deadline, ABC Representative Elections, Event Spaces Form, and Financial Planning!

Dear ABC Student Group Leaders,

ABC looks forward to continuing our support for your student group in the Spring semester. We are reaching out to provide the following general announcements and updates:

1. Club Refuel Deadline (this Sunday!)
2. Want to join ABC?
3. Update your group’s email alias![Important]
4. Financial Planning and Transition for Fall 2025
5. Event Spaces Form
6. Summer Storage Updates
7. New Group Recognition
8. Co-sponsorship Fund Update
9. Faculty Connections Follow-Up

Club Refuel Deadline
If any of your 4 Club Refuel e-board members did not take the SOKA, attend an Enough is Enough session, or attend a Club ReFuel Adviser Meeting in Fall 202 OR if your group did not complete the Student Organization Survey (SOS) in Fall 2024, your group must complete these requirements on or before this Sunday, February 9. Please look into more information here. 

Want to join ABC next semester? 
Applications for the following ABC representative positions will be released on February 14th. If you are interested in joining ABC, feel free to pass by Lerner Satow Room (5th floor) at 8pm next Wednesday!

Academic
Dance
European/Middle Eastern
Latinx
Media
Music
Performance
South, Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander

*There might be other positions available, will reach out if so. 

Update your group’s email alias!
We have heard from many that new group leaders are not receiving communications from us. As a reminder, we send all of our communications to student groups’ email aliases. It is of utmost importance that you update your student group’s email alias with the appropriate group leadership. This is the best way we can ensure communications are being sent to the appropriate people. If you do not know how to manage this, please reach out to your USL adviser. Click here to learn more.

Financial Planning and Transition for Fall 2025
From submitting purchase requests and co-sponsorship applications, to reviewing your official financial reports and understanding student group financial policies, it is very important for your group’s treasury to have a strong understanding of how to manage your finances. In addition, it is essential that new group leaders are trained about these processes as well.  

Financial Report Reconciliation:
Your group should continually monitor its financial reports, which are sent to you by completing this form. It is of particular importance that by the end of the year, your group does a final review to ensure the accuracy of these reports. We highly recommend that this is done in April. This will ensure a smooth transition for the next fiscal year. As a reminder, along with A&P, we have implemented the following policy:

ABC and A&P are accepting correction requests for expenses that were incorrectly posted to the trial balance for the previous academic year and the current year only.

This year, we have noticed an incredible improvement in groups being responsible for their finances. Thank you so much for your diligence on this and keep up the good work!

ABC created the following 3 videos to help you in this: Treasury 101, Funding 101, and Balance Reports 101: 

Event Spaces Form:
One of the common issues we have heard about many groups, especially the performing arts groups and those that hold big events, is the general need of finding spaces to hold events. Along with administration, we are working on ways to find specific solutions for this broader issue, and your input will be invaluable in projects to move forward.

We are requesting your group to fill this Student Group Event Needs Assessment to hear about your perspective on this manner. Deadline: February 18 11:59pm

Summer Storage Updates
During the first week of May, ABC and SGB will distribute storage bins for your group to store your items, and request your group to drop off these bins some days afterwards. We will only be storing items for groups that have reached to us beforehand. From the assessment that we did, we expect to store all items your group requested.

Please be on the lookout for logistics and dates.

Want to form a new group?
Apply for New Group Recognition! There are some general points to have in mind:

Groups are under different governing boards in Columbia, specifically:

1. Activities Board at Columbia (broad range of categories)

2. Student Governing Board (activist, humanitarian, ideological, political, religious, or spiritual)

3. Community Impact (community-service oriented)

4. Club Sports Governing Board (athletic)

5. InterGreek Council (sorority/fraternity)

6. Governing Board at Barnard (mostly Barnard students/Barnard-oriented)

7. Interschool Governing Board (mostly graduate students) 

This application form will only benefit groups that might fit under SGB or ABC’s mission statements, but we are happy to facilitate communications with other governing board about their specific processes.

There are three very important points to have in mind before considering to apply: uniqueness, membership, and programming. Please ensure that your group brings a unique niche to campus, maintains a substantial and consistent membership, and has hosted succesful programming for at least one semester.

Deadline: Sunday, March 9th at 11:59 p.m.

Co-sponsorship Pool Update:
As of today, our current co-sponsorship pool has $33,851.91 and has supported  $157,516.91 in co-sponsorships, in addition to the initial $325,436.00 in allocations. As a reminder, we are able to continue supporting your programming due to the $400,000 support to cover this year’s facilities and securities costs. We continue to express our gratitude to President Armstrong and Dr. Bernitz in supporting your programming. 

Faculty Connections Follow-Up
Along with SGB, ABC representatives are currently working with groups to establish faculty connections. If you hear from them, please reach out if you're interested! We're excited to see strong faculty interest in connecting with student groups in various ways—whether as faculty mentors, resources for financial and space support, or opportunities to engage beyond their academic disciplines. We deeply appreciate the support from Dean Lehecka, Dean Sorett, and Dean Hungerford in moving forward with this project.

As we've emphasized throughout this time, we truly appreciate your dedication to building community on campus. We also want to extend our gratitude to our fellow student leaders—from the student councils, governing boards, and the University Senate—for their support of student groups in various ways! 

Please do not hesitate to reach out to your ABC representatives! They are your first point of contact and advocate for ABC-related inquiries.

Have a good rest of your day!

Best,

Julian Infante
ABC President

Christina Xiao
ABC Vice President

Armando Gimenez
ABC Treasurer

Alexander Zhao
ABC Secretary