SOBC Training | Photo by Monica Brutto | The Wright State Guardian
The Student Organization Budget Committee provides insight and tips for student organizations that are creating budgets for the upcoming academic year. Here are the voices behind the organization who echo its importance and meaning.
What is SOBC?
According to the Student Involvement and Leadership website about student organization funding, SOBC reviews and suggests amendments to student organization budget requests depending on the amount of fund availability from the university.
Logan Cummings, treasurer of Compassion in Action and committee member for SOBC, further explained the role of SOBC at WSU.
“Our main job is to allocate funds to the numerous organizations that request money for each semester,” Cummings said. “We review every club’s budget request and allocate funds based on our tier system.”
This tier system is based on budget types and submission periods, ranging from ineligible (Tier I) to semesterly (Tier II) and yearly (Tier III).
Training sessions with budget workshops
The SOBC committee, which comprises five undergraduate or graduate students with an advisor, holds training sessions for budget creation and management.
Cummings explained that the training sessions involve instruction for properly filling out a budget, which has different sections or categories that each request goes under.
Doniska Taylor is the chair of SOBC and a graduate assistant with SIL who coordinates and leads the team of committee members. Taylor explained the role of SOBC and how the committee encourages involvement on campus and is important for student engagement.
“Typically, you would have to be having events right or something that gives back to the campus community in different ways, shapes and forms. I think doing so allows individuals to be encouraged. It also allows organizations to have the opportunity to collaborate,” Taylor said. “It's an excellent way for student organizations to think about the different ways that they can be creative in terms of programming.”
Taylor also emphasized the importance of interorganizational communication about budgets. The chair highlighted that students should properly research and communicate prior to attending a training session in order to come fully prepared with proper and valuable questions. This collaboration not only benefits the student organization, but also builds the organization’s teamwork.
“So, when it’s time to submit a budget, it’s not just one person stressing over figuring things out all by themselves,” Taylor said.
Amy Walker is a student who attended an SOBC training session on March 15. Walker commented on the budget activity during the meeting, noting its effectiveness.
“I was impressed how well, when people work together, we can get to our goal,” Walker said. “It was admirable to see it and achieve it.”
Organizational benefits and impact
Cummings lended a voice to the organizational benefits of SOBC for student organization individuality, noting that the committee members are also part of clubs and want what is best for different clubs.
“SOBC is important for Wright State because it allows the students to remain in control of their own organizations. It's important that members of these groups remain on SOBC so that we can protect our interests as clubs,” Cummings said.
For more information about SOBC, terms, definitions, budget deadlines and fund charts, visit the committee’s website. Students can also contact Taylor via email for inquiries.
