Finance

Members

• ET advisor and Chair: Jakob Berg Jesperson
• Members: -

Organization

The finance committee will be chaired the by the treasurer. It is estimated that four or five members are sufficient to perform the committee's tasks. The busiest time of the year is around November-January when the committee starts its work for the next year's symposium and will require its full strength of members to contribute.

Responsibilities

The committee has expanded its activities from solely raising funds for the annual Student Council Symposium to creating the annual budget for the SC, specific budgets for the symposia and yearly financial reports. It is also responsible for maintaining a sponsor database and a record for available funding opportunities/grants that may be applicable to us should there be additional activities planned*.

Future aims include building up of sufficient reserves to make the SC a financially healthy organization. This involves creating sufficient funds able to support the growth of the SC. In addition it will make sure that sufficient reserves are available to protect the SC against financial disappointments when incomes do not follow expectations.

Currently, an SC initiative that could use external funding is the Internship Program to support the Principal Investigators hosting the interns.

Student Council Symposium and Finance Commitee

Sources of income for the symposium: ISCB and sponsors.

The Finance Committee is responsible for raising funds for the symposium by contacting a list of sponsors. This list is prepared by compiling names and contacts of potential sponsors (companies, research institutes, research groups etc) and also by announcing on basecamp so that SC members can give out names. In our experience so-far, contacting companies through e-mail addresses obtained on their websites is very ineffective. Virtually all our sponsors have been obtained by selectively e-mailing contacts from SC members. Therefore it is wise to invest in mining the SC contacts rather than mass-mailing companies.

Sponsors are primarily recruited for:

• General operations at the symposium (See Note 1)
• Publication of symposium program/highlights
• Travel Fellowships (for students from EU, Non-EU developed nations, developing nations)
• Social Event(s)
• Awards (Best speaker, poster)
• Speaker and Sponsor registration
• Additional expenditure: Speaker gifts, gadgets, T-shirts, video & photography, additional advertising, food & beverage

Note: The SC booth nd (default) advertising materials such as brochures and business cards are provided by the ISCB which is included in the SC's annual budget.

The step-by-step plan to sponsor acquisition is as follows:

• Make a sponsor package, clearly outlining the goal of the event and the benefits of sponsoring the event.
• Generate a list of putative sponsors.
• Obtain approval to approach sponsors in the list. (See Note 2)
• Send the sponsor document along with an accompanying e-mail.
• Call sponsors that do not reply.
• Make clear agreements with interested sponsors.
• Communicate with sponsors to obtain logos, advertisements and make appointments for seminars.
• Effectuate the sponsor benefits or make sure they are effectuated in the future. (Note 3)
• Send sponsor an update before the event.
• Send sponsor a report after the event.

Note: Approval by ISCB is mandatory. We cannot approach any sponsor without ISCB's approval. The contact person from ISCB is BJ Morrison (BJ). Note: It is evident that the SC keeps its promises when it comes to sponsor benefits. It is however easy to forget to put a logo on the website, or pencil in a presentation slot. The fundraising committee is responsible for making sure that sponsors get what they are promised.

Timeline for the Finance Committee for symposium activities exclusively

Month	Task
October	Make sponsor document and generate sponsor list and get approval. Draft a budget along with symposium chairs.
November	Submit first batch of sponsor emails
December	Follow up on sponsor email (Call sponsors that have not responded)
January	Negotiate sponsor benefits. Generate second batch of sponsors and get approval (This is particularly important if we did not have sufficient success with the first batch)
February	Follow up on sponsor email. Call sponsors that did not reply
March	Make sure all pre-symposium sponsor benefits are effectuated (logos on website, ads for the booklet etc)
April	Negotiate sponsor benefits
May	Negotiate sponsor benefits
July	Send a report/update/acknowledgement cards

Student Council Budget and Finance Committee

The finance committee has to draft the annual budget for general operations and it has to be approved by the ISCB. The first draft is expected to be ready by mid-October leaving sufficient for revisions and changes. Ideally, it should be submitted by early November to the ISCB. However, if we want to introduce new items to the budget, it is strongly recommended that they be brought forward and discussed with BJ at ISMB (June/July) of the previous year.

General SC Expenses

• ISCB Standard Travel Fellowships for SC/RSG Leaders
• Basecamp Usage fee (project communication tool)
• RSG Annual Support Fund
• Poster printing
• Shipping Fees
• SC Brochures
• SC Popup Banner
• SC Business Cards

• Symposium expenditure. ISCB bears these costs.

Sources of income in the future

• SC Shop
• 5% of Symposium budget
• Grants

Distribution of funds

Whenever the SC has to give money to somebody (e.g. RSG funding, money owed for SCS expenses) this is done via a request to ISCB and they mail out a cheque. Some discussion was made around having a SC bank account but was deemed not possible.