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su@seren.bangor.ac.uk IN THE UNION SEREN October 2001 5Balancing the booksEdited highlights of the SU’s financial forecastSU FeedbackLet Management Know…Send these to Seren: we’llanalyse the results and letmanagement know what youwant.On Monday 22nd October, CCSOMatt Tapping presented to Seneddhis proposed allocation of theUnion’s income for the presentacademic year. His proposals wereaccepted, though they must stillbe approved at a General Meetingbefore they can be acted upon.These are some of the more interestingaspects:♦ This year we’ve got £508,000.This is slightly more than lastyear, although the Union’sservices won’t be gettingmuch more, because:♦ The University has increasedthe “cost of living” allowancewe have to pay employees.Therefore we have to payour staff (and some of theCompany’s) a total of£326,000, which is 64% ofthe Union’s cash. This leaves36% of the Union’s cash(£182,000) for the serviceswe offer.♦ The AU gets £46,950, whichis 25% of the remaining cash(9% of the overall Unionbudget).♦ Clubs and Societies get afeeble £5,994, or 3% of theremaining cash (1% of thetotal Union budget).♦ Standing Committees (ofwhich 14 out of 27 arerepresented) receive in all£5,970, again 3% of theavailable funds, or 1% of thetotal funds of the Union.As well as that, we’ve agreed toallocate, but not yet pay, £33,000(6.5% of our overall budget, 18% ofour costs after staff wages) to theNUS. This covers our affiliationfee, although we are currentlylooking into what our benefits ofUnion membership are. The othersignificant cost is the GeneralExpenses allocation, which coversmost other things: this stands at£47,000, which is 26% of the poststaffcosts (9% of the overall Unionbudget). In comparison to previousyears, these are my observations:♦ Campaigns have requested£750 again when last year,when the requested the sameamount, they spent only £600,despite various large-scalecampaigns.♦ Elections allocation: the Unionintends to get more people tovote, and therefore more cashneeds to be spent to achievethis, yet this is not recognisedby its distribution.♦ General Meeting allocation: inmy view this is too low, takinginto consideration of the costsincurred and spending lastyear.♦ LGB have been granted nearlyfive times as much as theyspent last year on nearly thesame allocation (£470 lastyear, £480 this year).♦ Mature Students group has£100—last year none wasgranted; this year there is anofficer.♦ Women’s Group have beengranted £100; last year theyonly spent £6 from anallocation of £220.♦ The Senedd allocation is toolow if Senedd is to functionproperly.Of course, the budget can beamended in the future, and at thetime of writing is still to have thescrutiny of the General Meeting,where I suspect that it will beapproved. A report of the Budgetdebate and the other importantdebates (and perhaps those notquite so important debates) in thenext issue… if you’ve got anythingyou want to be included, or anycomments on this section, let meknow (su@seren.bangor.ac.uk)and it could be included.Bob ConnertonI think my Union needs/should provide:_____________________________________________________________________________________Year of study:_________________I live in:_________________Signed (if you want):_________________