by Heather R. Gabel
ASUNM Vice President
I want to wish all of you luck on your finals this week and I hope that you will have a fun and safe winter holiday.
And of course I want to wish the best of luck to our Lobo football team during the Sega Sports Las Vegas Bowl. I hope that we will be able to show our Lobo spirit by packing the stadium with screaming Lobo fans. To help make this happen they are offering an outstanding travel package! The LoboBus is going to be taking students to Las Vegas for free. And no, these are not the parking shuttles; these are very nice coach buses!
The offer includes a free ride for UNM students (with valid LoboCard) and one guest, other guests can ride for $55 each. Once in Las Vegas, they are offering a special $45 room rate at The Golden Nugget Hotel for students. Students can also pick up free tickets to the game on the Lobo Bus or at the official hotel location. Any of your non-UNM guests will be able to purchase tickets to the game for only $25. The buses will be leaving UNM early Monday, Dec. 23, and will return to UNM late on Thursday, Dec. 26. This is a great opportunity to go show your Lobo spirit and get to Las Vegas for close to nothing! I hope you all take advantage of this opportunity. You can get more information and make your reservations for the bus ride by calling 925-5014. And you can reserve a room at the Golden Nugget Hotel by calling (800) 634-3454.
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This is going to be a nice long winter break, but I want to give the chartered student organizations some valuable information so you can be prepared to participate in the ASUNM Spring Budget Process next semester. The ASUNM Spring Budget Process is limited to funding general operating expenses for organizations during the upcoming fiscal year. The fiscal year runs from July 1, to June 30, so student organizations must apply for these funds during the spring semester.
In order to participate in the spring budget process your organization will need to attend a mandatory budget workshop that is put on by the ASUNM Finance Committee. These workshops are being held Tuesday, Jan. 28, at 2 p.m., in Dane Smith Hall, Room 125, Thursday, Jan. 30, at 9 a.m., in Dane Smith Hall, Room 120, Monday, Feb. 3, at 4 p.m., in Dane Smith Hall, Room 125, and Friday, Feb. 7, 9 a.m., in Woodward Hall, Room 147.
During these workshops you will receive the spring budget packet and instructions on how to complete the appropriate forms and how the budget process will work. After the budget workshop, your organization will need to decide what funding to request. There are helpful instructions in the packet and you can contact an ASUNM Senator at 277-5528 with any questions that may arise.
All completed budget request forms are due to the ASUNM office by 5 p.m., Friday Feb. 14. Once all the forms are received, the ASUNM Finance Committee chairperson will assign your organization a time to appear before the committee during one of the mandatory budget hearings held on Feb. 22-23, and March 1-2, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., in Mitchell Hall, Room 105. The times of each organization's budget hearing will be posted outside the ASUNM Office in the Student Services Center room 262 by noon on Wednesday, Feb. 19.
During your budget hearings, be ready to speak about your organization and why you are requesting funding. Due to the limited amount of funds available, budget requests are rarely completely funded. There are numerous student organizations that will request funding and we have a limited amount of money to distribute between these organizations, but know that the ASUNM Finance Committee will do their best to make sure each organization is given a fair share of the pie.
The ASUNM Finance Committee then balances the budget and presents the final budget to the ASUNM Senate on Wednesday, April 9, at 6 p.m., in the Kiva Lecture Hall. The budget will be discussed at the Senate meeting and will be passed as presented, or may be changed by the Senate and then passed.
Once the budget has been passed by the ASUNM legislative branch, it is sent over to the ASUNM executive branch to be signed or vetoed by the ASUNM president. If signed by the President it is sent to the Student Government Accounting Office, where your funds are made available to your organization at the beginning of the next fiscal year, which would be in July 2003.
I hope that these columns have been helpful this semester. President Onuska and I look forward to continuing them in the spring. Have a wonderful break and we will see you next semester!
