SocietyHandbook2016-2017Last version – September 2016

For further questions, contact your CAO

Roosevelt’s All Student Association (RASA)Established: 24 November 2004

Contact Information

Visiting address Postal addressRASA RASALange Noordstraat 48 Postal box 944331 CE Middelburg 4330 AB Middelburg

(0031) (0)118 - 655553http://www.rasa.nu/Kamer van Koophandel (Chamber of Commerce) number: 22056506Account number: 1017.73.110, Rabobank Middelburg

RASA Board 2015-2016

Matthijs Roobeek +31 6 31934460Faye Bovelander +31 6 13152355Daniël van Hemert +31 6 21913733Tessa Elfrink +31 6 14452854Kirsten Kapteijns +31 6 34722555Amir Pliev +31 6 83903208

RASA Office hours

Monday – Friday 12:30 – 14:00 RASA OfficeTuesday & Wednesday 19:30 – 21:00 RASA Office

Tessa Kirsten AmirCultureCo Archimedes Music Society

FBS ArtCo PhiloComFilm Society CogniCo CameRA

PoLaw LitCo PhoRARDS MedAffairs Cooking Society

PUMA PsyCo CURASusco SportsCo PartyCoTLS THEATRA GamesCoGSR

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Table of Contents

1. General information.................................................................................................41.1 Introduction........................................................................................................41.2 RASA Membership............................................................................................41.3 Division Societies and Teams............................................................................41.4 CAO / RASA Board...........................................................................................41.5 Society board structure......................................................................................51.6 General Assemblies..........................................................................................6

2. Events.....................................................................................................................62.1 Budget...............................................................................................................62.2 Sponsoring........................................................................................................72.3 Contracts and Invoices......................................................................................72.4 Cashbox............................................................................................................82.5 Organizing events..............................................................................................82.6 Scenarios...........................................................................................................92.7 External contacts...............................................................................................92.8 Promotion........................................................................................................102.9 General Elliott policies.....................................................................................112.10 Reimbursements...........................................................................................13

3. Election & Transition.............................................................................................133.1 Up to date Member List...................................................................................133.2 Academic Societies.........................................................................................143.3 Election Procedures........................................................................................143.4 RASA Server & Storage System.....................................................................153.5 End of Semester Report..................................................................................153.6 Society Transition Handbook...........................................................................153.7 Merging, suspension, disbandment.................................................................15

4. UCRSN.................................................................................................................16Possible problems.....................................................................................................164. Appendices...........................................................................................................17

Appendix I – Budget Procedures...........................................................................17Appendix II – Organizing Lectures.........................................................................20

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Committees

Societies Teams

1. General information

1.1 Introduction

This handbook serves to help society boards with their functioning and continuity.

Although many points are covered in the Articles of Association and the Policy Manual, we

think that this handbook is more accessible and makes sure that both the societies and the

RASA board have a nice guideline to hold onto. If there is anything you would like to see

added or changed, please do not hesitate to contact us. We will take all of your comments

into consideration.

1.2 RASA Membership

All societies and teams are part of the Roosevelt’s All Student Association. Their

budgets come from the RASA budget. This is paid for with the yearly student contributions,

sponsorship from UCR, and sponsorship from external parties. For this reason, societies and

teams have a responsibility towards the Roosevelt’s All Student Association as a whole. This

means that, even though committees are active in diverse fields, they should aim to interest

as many RASA members as possible. We encourage the societies to be creative and keep

in mind RASA’s goal: to enrich the student life at UCR.

1.3 Division Societies and Teams

RASA’s committees can be divided in Societies and Teams. Societies are

continuous, quite independent and form an organization focussed on people with similar

interests. Teams on the other hand work towards one big event that is important for the

entire RASA community. Further explanation about the structures and differences can be

found in the policy manual.

This handbook is only about societies, not about teams. Teams have their own

handbooks in which the relevant and important information is documented.

1.4 CAO / RASA Board

To keep the societies functioning, the society board and their Committee Affairs

Officer (CAO) have to work closely together. The society board is responsible for the smooth

running of the society, and the RASA board is responsible for the overview. For this reason,

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the society boards should keep their CAO well informed; keep them up to date on the

organisation of events, and problems that might occur in the society. You should CC RASA

in your contact with external parties, and upload your minutes to your society Storage

System. The CAO should try to go to the most important society events, and always be

ready to offer help and advice. You can reach your CAO via the RASA email, this is the best

and official way of doing it. However, you can also approach them during office hours, in

person or if urgent via Facebook.

Any complaints about other societies or the practice of the RASA board should be

brought to the RASA board. If there are severe objections to the conduct of the RASA board

that cannot be resolved, any RASA member has the right to file a complaint with the

Independent Body (IB). The IB will try to mediate between the parties involved and, if

necessary, provide a binding decision. However, if there are any problems first try to solve it

by talking about it. The IB only comes in on cases that cannot be solved otherwise. You can

contact the IB via email: ib@rasa.ucr.nl

1.5 Society board structure

All societies should have a Chair, Secretary and Treasurer. When only two RASA

members are willing to fulfil a board position, they should fulfil the tasks of the chair and

treasurer. However, very important to note is that it should always be the aim to have three

different RASA members in the board of a society. These positions can entail various tasks

for different societies, but in principle each position is linked to its own tasks. These positions

will be further explained during the position training at the beginning of the semester but the

main points are these:

Chair:

The chair is the primary spokesperson of the society towards the RASA community

and RASA board.

Sets the agenda and leads the meetings.

Bears final responsibility for the society. This includes ensuring the proper functioning

and continuity of the society.

Treasurer

Keeps track of the society’s finances – make sure you know where the money goes.

Makes the budget proposals to hand over to the RASA board in the beginning of

each semester.

Handles the reimbursements.

Goes to the treasurer meeting at the beginning of the semester

Handles sponsoring after talking to the RASA treasurer

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Secretary

Has the primary responsibility of recording the proceedings of meetings. This

includes taking minutes, create to-do lists for the other members and keeping the

society folder up to date.

Keeps track of the active members list.

Organises the e-mail inbox (recommendation: by means of tagging or folders)

Bears the final responsibility of the promotion of the events; RASA website, posters,

Facebook.

Apart from the people in the board, essential to every society are its members. A

society member is someone who attends meeting regularly and is passionate about the

society. All activities are open to all RASA members, and anyone can become a member of

a society. Active members are defined as members that attend at least two meetings per

over the past two semesters. There are some exceptions to this rule which will be

communicated to you by the RASA board.

1.6 General Assemblies

Because society boards are responsible to all RASA members, the chair should

always be present at a General Assembly (GA) and the treasurer should at least go to the

Budget GA. If this is not possible, they should appoint another board member to go. We also

recommend the treasurer and secretary of each society to be present, because someone

might bring up your financial matters or a general point where the other board members

have more knowledge about, such as a project that they have taken up.

2. Events

2.1 Budget

In the first two weeks of the semester there will be a mandatory treasurer meeting

with all treasurers from all societies (and teams) and the RASA treasurer. Make sure you are

there since the RASA treasurer will explain the most important rules and changes regarding

the budget.

The ‘Budget Proposal Form Committee” is used to request budget as a society. The

design of the budget is event based. This means that per event you can specify what you

need and how much money you expect it to cost. Please clearly state what kind of event

you’re doing and what you need. The categories on the bottom make it easier to assign

budget and for evaluating budget. In general, you can only reimburse money for the specific

category (item) you requested it for. In 2016 a second part was added to this form, namely

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the justification for the GA. This needs to be a very clear explanation of what you want to

budget so the GA can be more informed.

The event budgets are fixed and can only be changed with official permission of the

RASA treasurer. This means that if you requested €50,- for a workshop, and €40,- for

supplies, you cannot reassign left-over money from the workshop to buy more supplies

without contacting the RASA treasurer first. In general money will not be reassigned. If you

think you have an exceptionally good reason or very good idea there is the option to

reassign left-over budget. If you would like to do this please fill in the “One time-event 2015-

2016” Form, only after explicit permission from the RASA treasurer can this reassigned

budget be granted. A reassignment can never exceed the limit of the left-over money and

can generally not be assigned to events that are already mentioned in the budget.

There are some things that we highly discourage committees to budget for. Food and

beverages are most of the time denied (even for presents we prefer that you do not budget

them). Exceptions do exist. Cooking Society is the most common exception to this rule. All

other committees can only budget this if the expense greatly ameliorates the event (has a

significant contribution to its purpose or makes sense in the event). Do not count on the

exceptions, most of the time they will be denied.

The society’s treasurer is the person responsible for keeping track of the budget. The

treasurer should keep a copy of the approved budget proposal for bookkeeping and make

sure the document is up on the online rasa storage.

When a new society is established, it can request budget at the time of its

establishment. Appendix I will explain all the procedures and rules about budget proposals.

2.2 Sponsoring

All sponsoring activities for societies will be handled by the RASA treasurer. In practice

this means that:

- Whenever you have ideas for sponsoring please contact the RASA treasurer first.

After explaining who you are going to approach you can approach the sponsors

yourself.

- Always CC RASA in any email regarding sponsoring.

- Whenever you want to sign a sponsor contract, ask the RASA treasurer to sign it,

otherwise it will not be a legal contract.

The main purpose of these rules is to ensure that the sponsoring communication with

external parties remains central. This can prevent that an external partner is approached too

frequently by different societies. The RASA treasurer should have an overview of

sponsoring of events in the past in a sponsoring database. This also means that once you

approach new sponsors that you inform the RASA treasurer so that they can be added to

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this database. The database should have the name of the company, contact details, reason

for sponsoring (or denying it), and the amount that is being sponsored.

2.3 Contracts and Invoices

Please note that only the treasurer of the RASA Board is entitled to sign contracts

(except for borrowing RASA goods) this includes offers from Elliott. All contracts must be

handed in to RASA mailbox (next to their office), the pigeonhole of the RASA treasurer, or

received by one of the RASA board members present at the office.

If an external partner asks for an invoice, contact the RASA treasurer. The RASA

treasurer will make the invoice and send it to you. Please do not make invoices as a

committee to keep the structure of the invoice the same to external parties.

All invoices received from external parties either by mail or in paper need to go to the

RASA treasurer. Preferably this means printing the invoice and handing it in in the RASA

mailbox, or the Treasurer’s pigeonhole or during office hours. Another option is sending it to

RASA via e-mail.

Please make sure that you keep track of the reimbursements and invoices and have

an up-to-date overview ready that you can send to the RASA treasurer at any point in time.

This way the RASA treasurer can pay invoices and reimbursements on time, to avoid

additional costs or delay. For reimbursements see 2.10.

2.4 Cashbox

For events that require tickets sales you can use a RASA cashbox. Please send an

email to the RASA email 48 hours in advance to request a cashbox. In this e-mail please

specify what the ticket price is and what kind of cashbox you probably need (coins, bills or

both). Generally, ticket sales will happen during the lunch break and you can pick up the

cashbox at the beginning of the lunch break and return it at the end. The RASA treasurer will

make sure that there is a “Cashbox Form” in the cashbox, please check this when you

receive the cashbox. Please make sure to keep track of the ticket sales when you are selling

and fill this in on the cashbox form.

2.5 Organizing events

Many societies have regular meetings. But sometimes bigger events like lectures,

workshops, fieldtrips, or performances are organized. There is a guide for organizing

lectures in Appendix II.

Keep in mind these points when you are organizing events:

1. When planning the time and date of the event make sure that

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1. It does not conflict with other events that are already set. An updated

calendar can be found on rasa.nu or on the Committee Facebook group.

2. You take into account the overall workload of the students at the time.

3. Send RASA an email when you start planning your event.

4. When you finished planning your event, you inform the RASA board by filling

out the event planner on rasa.nu. This way, your event can be put on the

semester-calendar, and other societies can see you have planned something.

It will also be in the RASA newsletter under ‘calendar’ if it is requested for the

week that the newsletter is about.

5. You promote it (see the section on promotion)

2. When thinking about the location of the event, remember the following:

1. Make sure you organize access to the desired location on time: email the

person who is in charge of this (such as CHEF for areas in Elliott and the

Student Desk for classrooms –also C-19 & C-20 between 8:30 – 18:00).

3. Keep in mind the equipment you might need, such as the beamer or camera.

1. All societies can borrow RASA equipment. When you need anything you

should fill out the Borrowing form on rasa.nu to reserve the object. When you

pick up the object, you will have to leave a bail (like an ID card or driver’s

licence).

You will have to use the site: http://login.rasa.nu (Use the log in information

you got from the RASA IT Team. Send them an email if you do not have the

correct login credentials)

2. Return the equipment as soon as you are done with it, other people might

need it.

3. The best time to pick up and return items is during office hours, if you want to

do it at a different time please let the RASA board know.

4. For events in the Common House Elliott see section 2.9 General Elliott Policies.

2.6 Scenarios

Please make sure that you have a scenario that can be used when organizing

specific events for your society that require careful planning before and during the event

(e.g. THEATRA play, CultureCo trip, FASST). The scenario should describe your role or that

of future society members: what they should and should not do when organizing a certain

type of event. Writing a scenario is especially important for large events, which are more

complex and often organized less frequently and by different people each year.

Ideally, the scenario for any large or frequent event should be put down on paper

step by step. It is useful to indicate how far in advance certain things should be organized or

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which people should be contacted. In other words: setting deadlines will avoid time pressure.

If scenarios do not yet exist for your societies big (annual) events, which might very well be

the case, please write them down. As this will greatly benefit the boards after you!

If you need a scenario template, ask your CAO!

2.7 External contacts

When you are organising big events, you might come in contact with external parties,

like lecturers or external people giving workshops. To keep the overview, please inform your

CAO before you start to contact external people. Your CAO can tell you whether other

societies have already been in contact with the external party, and give you the information

you need. External contacts are recorded in a database by the RASA Secretary. This way,

RASA’s external communication is organized properly.

When contacting external parties, make sure you use the RASA title, apart from the

explanation of your own society. This helps to promote RASA, but also helps to prevent

confusion as different societies or teams might contact the same people or organizations.

Apart from that, mentioning the overarching association is often a way to make sure

companies take you seriously. Phone costs to contact external people will not be

reimbursed. RASA has a RASA phone in the office that can be used for contacting external

parties.

It is important to contact people well in advance, this way you have enough time to

prepare the event but you also ensure that the people you want there will be able to make it.

Be clear about what is expected from them and what they expect from you. Make sure your

guests know their way around Middelburg, or that you pick them up at the train station if

necessary. Also, make sure you know how to address the person, and prepare a proper

introduction for example if your guest is giving a lecture. Finally, do not forget to send the

guest a thank you-note afterwards. If requested beforehand via the budget form it is often

possible to reimburse the train-costs made by the lecturer and to present them with a thank-

you gift.

Elliott has specific rules for external parties and their presence in the building. Guests

of UCR are allowed to be in Elliott and buy a beverage, also a guest lecture is considered a

guest of UCR. When your event is also promoted towards Middelburg or locals officially you

cannot have your event in Elliott (they are not allowed to buy drinks etc.). However, contact

Elliott for the possibilities on this (if there are around ten or more non-UCR guests it is

handier to find another location for your event). If you are unsure whether you can host the

event in Elliott, please contact CHEF for clearance.

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2.8 Promotion

Promotion is important for a society to build up and maintain an active member base,

and to generate more interest in your bigger events. Keep in mind you should only start

promoting bigger events after the RASA board has approved your date. Make sure to

promote your event as a RASA event, meaning use RASA’s name and logo. In general, do

not use UCR’s name for promotion. If you do want to use the name of UCR, please contact

your CAO to ask for the possibilities. These are some of the best ways to promote your

society on campus.

Newsletter

Fill in your regular meetings in the event form on login.rasa.nu at the beginning of the

semester. Bigger events can be promoted in the newsletter separately with a short and

simple text provided by the society board. You can send this text to the RASA email, and the

RASA secretary will make sure it ends up in the newsletter. However, do take into account

that sometimes format has to be changed in order to fit it in the newsletter.

The deadline for the newsletter is Saturday at 24:00, if you send it later it may not be

included. Check your text for spelling mistakes and dates, because we cannot send out

corrections. Keep in mind that the RASA board has the right to refuse news items as there

are many activities going on, sending a piece before the deadline does not necessarily mean

it will be in the newsletter.

Website

The website where you can find a lot of information about the RASA community is

rasa.nu . Each society has its own page with information, there is a calendar for the entire

semester. The society page is meant for explanation and promotion, and it should contain

the names of the board members and the society email address. If you want anything

changed or added, inform the RASA IT-team and RASA board, since you cannot access the

administrator settings yourself.

Posters

Only hang up posters in the designated areas in the university buildings, otherwise

the housemasters will take them away. Posters should be A4 size, if you want bigger posters

contact us before. Please remove your posters after your event. You can print about 10

posters per event during office hours. If you would like to do this, please send the file of the

poster to the RASA email and state on what day you will come pick it up.

Facebook

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In a society where social media has almost become a standard, Facebook might be

of good use to promote your society, event, or any other plans that might cross your mind.

Keep in mind though, that too many messages will not reach their target, whereas too few

messages will not do any good either. Only make a Facebook event after we have accepted

your event on the RASA website!

To make sure your post is seen just as much as everyone else’s, we implemented a

few rules:

o Promotion for events can only be posted once a week per event.

o Job or volunteering opportunities can be sent to PUMA for their Facebook

page. Please send them a 100-word description of what the opportunity will

entail.

Elliott

The poster policy for Elliott is as follows. There are two boards in Elliott for posters,

please do not hang your posters on any other walls. You can only put up A4/A3 sized

posters. Posters facing outside the windows are not allowed. If you want to hang up any big

posters, you should discuss this with Elliott board first. In 2016-2017 the third board will be

used to give an overview of all the events of that week. This will be put up by the RASA

Board and will be based on the event calendar as entered via login.rasa.nu. If you put your

events on there before Saturday 20:00 and they are approved, the RASA board will put them

up the board.

2.9 General Elliott policies

Opening hours of Elliott are: Monday – Friday 8:30-00:00 and Saturday and Sunday

12:00-18:00, provided that they have enough volunteers. If you want to organize an event

outside the opening hours send an email to Elliott: elliott@ucr.nl (a key contract needs to be

signed for events outside opening hours), do so as soon as possible. Permits allow Elliott to

be open seven days in a week from 08:00 – 00:00. The bar downstairs can be open until

02:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Any other day the downstairs bar has to be closed at

22:00.

Room Booking Policy (see flow-chart)

There are two different distinctions to make when booking a room in Elliott, which has

consequences for the exact manner in which you should request the room:

1. Classrooms on weekdays from 08:00 – 18:00 are managed by UCR. Is your request

for a classroom and for an event on weekdays before 18:00? Your booking request

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should go to the Student Desk, not to Elliott. After a society event, the society board

is required to clean the classroom and put the tables and chairs in the formation in

which they were found.

2. Is your event a public event or a private event? Meaning, do you want your event to

be in the RASA Event Planner or not? If yes, request your event through the RASA

Event Planner. If no, only send an email to elliott@ucr.nl.

3. If your event is booked through the Student Desk, but you still want it to show up in

the RASA Calendar and Newsletter, you should still request it through the RASA

Event Planer!

4. Meeting rooms: there are two meeting rooms, to book them you always need to email

Elliott.

Elliott General Rules

1. If you are selling tickets during the lunch breaks, notify Elliott at least 48hrs before

the ticket sale. They need to have an overview.

2. No people from outside of UCR are allowed, unless they are guests of UCR.

However, no big groups of UCR guests are allowed.

3. A five second rule applies for fire hazard. Can you hold a Lucifer near your

decoration for over five seconds? You are good! (Unless Elliott disagrees).

4. No alcohol can be served before 18:00.

5. No more than 230 people are allowed downstairs and no more than 431 upstairs.

6. Essentially, the Elliott House Rules state that it is not allowed to bring (and

subsequently sell) any own food or drinks into Elliott. Should you have an event that

requires this, contact Elliott beforehand for the possibilities.

Event in Elliott

Public events (Register in RASA

calendar)

After 18:00

Email Elliott

Before 18:00

Request it to Student Desk

Private events

Before 18:00

Classrooms: Email Student Desk.

Meeting rooms: email Elliott

After 18:00

Email Elliott

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2.10 Reimbursements

In order to ensure smooth reimbursements of approved expenditures, make sure that

your expenditures are in your budget or the RASA treasurer knows. Make sure also that you

only spend money on budgeted items, if you want to spend the money in another way,

please consult the RASA board through your CAO. Expenditures can be reimbursed by

submitting the reimbursement form with the original receipt attached to it. The society

treasurer should keep a copy of both the form and the receipt for the society bookkeeping. It

should be noted that no RASA member gets paid for services to the association. Also please

note that without a clear receipt, money cannot be reimbursed.

As of Spring 2012 specific rules have been put in the policy manual with regards to

participation fees. The general rule is that everybody (including board members) has to pay

the entrance/participation fee to any RASA event. However, there are two exceptions in

which the fee may be (partially) waived. First of all when a member has important organising

tasks during the event itself, and secondly when a member performs or lectures at the event.

The details of these rules can be found in article 1.4 the policy manual. Waiving of a fee

should always be cleared with the RASA board before the event takes place. Committees

are not allowed to budget for personal items and discouraged to budget for food. The

general policy will be to decline these expenses, except if such an expense would greatly

ameliorate the event (article 4.1.5 policy manual).

3. Election & Transition

3.1 Up to date Member List

There are two lists of members for each society: an active member list and a mailing

list. The mailing list anyone can sign up for if they want to be kept posted and informed about

the society’s activities. The active members list is more important and must be kept actively

by the secretary. This means taking attendance at all meetings and if possible, at events. It

is important to keep track of the active members, as these will be the members who will have

the right to vote during the elections for the new board. An active member is someone who

has attended two or more regular meetings or events. There are some exceptions in this

rule:

PartyCo: all RASA members are active members of PartyCo and are therefore allowed

to vote.

SportsCo: all RASA members are active members and are therefore allowed to vote, due

to the CLF (installed in 2016)

RDS: In counting the number of meetings/events attended, the regular meetings and

workshops count.

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CultureCo: all RASA members can vote.

Academic Societies: these might, so only if necessary, have as active members also the

students who have followed at least one course in the last year in the related track(s) of

the society.

3.2 Academic Societies

Academic societies exist to add the information in the courses at UCR. Since we

have short semesters and few contact hours per week, courses can only cover specific

topics. These societies organize events that benefit the students in the tracks, prepare them

for life after UCR and also speak to and are accessible for students not following the tracks.

Right now, the societies considered as academic with their related track(s) are:

- Archimedes (Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics)

- FBSM (Economics or Business Management)

- GSR (Earth Science, Geography)

- MedAffairs (Pre-Medical)

- PhiloCom (Philosophy)

- Political and Law Society (Politics, Law)

- PsyCo (Psychology)

- CogniCo (Cognitive Science)

3.3 Election Procedures

All members of a society board should be democratically elected by the active

members of the society. If you are elected, you are in the society board for two semesters.

Every semester the RASA board organises the Election Week.

The societies that have board positions opening will hold their elections during this

week. The Friday evening before the election week is the deadline of the first sign-up round:

for all the elections, no matter where in the week they are held. All RASA members can run

for one position only in this stage. If a RASA member wants to run for another position

before their term has ended, they will have to resign from their current position before they

can run.

When the deadline has passed, the society boards send a list of candidates for each

position to the RASA board, the CAOs will make an overview. In the newsletter and on the

website all the positions that are still open will be published. This is when the second sign-up

round starts. The deadline of the second sign-up round is before the election begins. All

RASA members can sign up for the open society positions, also the ones that are already

running for another position. In this stage it is possible for RASA members to be running for

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multiple society board positions. It is however not possible to run to be chair of two societies

at the same time.

When a new board has been elected it is very important that there is a proper

transition period. In this period the old board should teach the new board the ins and outs of

their positions, go over their own society’s handbook, which should be updated every

semester. This period should also include handing over the transition book of your society,

possibly a society folder and storage system, introducing the email, and answering all

questions that might pop up. Make sure to have at least one meeting with both the old and

new board present.

3.4 RASA Server & Storage System

All societies have aces to the Storage system. The login details are provided by the

previous board or the RASA IT team. The server works virtually the same as Dropbox and

you can store all your files there. You can access it online via: storage.rasa.nu If you have

any problems, please send an email to the RASA IT Team.

3.5 End of Semester Report

Every society will be asked to write a small end of semester report. Towards the end

of the semester you will receive further guidelines from your CAO about the content. This

report is supposed to be around approximately 200 words explaining the events, board

dynamics and contact with the RASA board the past semester. Your CAO will let you know

when this exactly needs to be handed in, preferably an End of Semester Meeting will take

place after this.

3.6 Society Transition Handbook

Every society is supposed to make or add to the society transition handbook. This

handbook is mainly used as a tool in the tradition of the new board, but is also useful for the

continuity of the society and will help not make the same mistakes as before.

This handbook will help in:

- Documenting the achievements of the society that semester;

- Reflecting on performance and on how societies performed compared to previous

years;

- Documenting the plans for the future;

- Documenting any external partners the society has or had;

- Documenting involvement of members in order to mention this on someone’s

participation record upon graduation.

If you would like an example of a society handbook, please contact your CAO.

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3.7 Merging, suspension, disbandment

Merging:

If two (or more) societies severely overlap, they can be merged. Both societies are

then disbanded and a new society is created.

Suspension:

If a society does not have a complete board or does not function well according to the

RASA Board, they may be suspended. This means that their budget is frozen and no

more events are organized. There will be elections to get a new board.

Disbandment:

If a society is either suspended for more than a full semester or does not have

enough active members to warrant the budget and workload, the society is

disbanded. This means that the society is inactive and no elections will be held. The

society (or a variation on it) might be revived by student initiative at a future moment.

4. UCRSN

The UCSRN (University College Student Representatives of the Netherlands) is a

platform with great opportunities. There are currently 8 UC’s represented by the UCSRN

(UCU, AUC, LUC, UCG, EUC, UCM, UCT and UCR). This allows for you as a society so set

up something huge, with a lot of possible attendees. Think big!

If you want to collaborate with other UC’s to set up something big, then you can by

sending an email with your ideas to info@ucsrn.nl. The UCSRN can help you by funding

your idea, but can also be the main contact between you and another committee. The Social

Committee of the UCSRN has a database with all societies and teams, and there is quite

some overlap with different societies in various University Colleges. This year, the

representative of the Social Committee is Faye Bovelander (RASA Secretary) and the

Academic Committee is represented by Maxim van der Kaaij (AAC external officer). If you

want to discuss an idea you have for an overarching project, you can contact the

representatives as well. But the UCSRN is not only there for discussing events. If your

society is having some issues, you of course first contact your CAO, but since UCR is in

contact with the other UC’s, now we can also bring this topic to other, similar, societies. So

don’t be afraid to bring your problems to RASA, since we have a huge advisory organ able to

help you out.

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Possible problems

If there are any problems with external parties, students, society members, within the society

board or simply with the content of this guide, please do not hesitate to contact your CAO.

They as well as the rest of the RASA Board, will be there for you.

Most important of all: Do not forget to enjoy your year in office!

The RASA Board 2016-2017

Matthijs, Faye, Daniel, Tessa, Kirsten, & Amir

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4. Appendices

Appendix I – Budget Procedures

To make sure that your society is provided with the budget to organize activities, you need to

hand in a budget proposal to the Treasurer of the RASA board. In discussion with the

society’s CAO and the RASA Chair, the Treasurer will compose a budget proposal for the

coming semester. There is a standard procedure to determine the budgets for societies, and

some rules have to be taken into account.

1) All requested money should be specified; what do you want to buy, and how much

will this exactly be. Fill it in on the “Budget Proposal Form Committee” form.

2) There are some standard restrictions: no food/drinks (exceptions mentioned in

2.10),

3) RASA wants to promote trips to for events for educational (example: museum, hos-

pital, deltaworks) purposes or that matches the society very well (example: Cultureco

trips to cities). Therefore in general the rule is that 5 euro’s per person will be reim-

bursed. Please make sure to put this in your budget.

a. RDS is an exception to this rule. Because RASA sees the value of debating

tournaments and because the main purpose of the RDS events is to be able

to go to a tournament, RDS can budget more traveling expenses. This should

be discussed with the RASA treasurer first.

4) Printing costs will not be reimbursed, however you can print in the RASA office.

There is a soft limit of 10 posters per event, if you have a very special event (think

major event request form and teams special) you can ask the RASA board for more

posters.

5) Since fall 2015 the RASA board has decided that Master events although not always

relevant to all students are important enough to be part of the budget proposals.

Please do remember to contact the AAC however to see if you can collaborate with

them on their Master events (like Future Week). The normal rules apply for these

events.

6) For lecturers please make sure you have a general idea or name for the lecture when

you want to budget it because it enables the RASA board to see if the lecture is open

to all students. An unspecified lecture can be budgeted under exceptional circum-

stances.

7) If lecturers come from far away, we can offer them a meal (5 euro for lunch and 10

euro for dinner), a room for the night, and a train ticket for the next day, but this de-

pends on the profile of the lecturer and can only be done with prior consent from the

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RASA Board. For meals the general rule is that the lecturer has to travel 3 hours

(total from back and forth) and the lecture is likely to miss a meal (meaning around

lunchtime or dinner time). It’s up to the discretion of the RASA board to decide if this

gesture is fair for every case separate. RASA wants to support lecturers and external

parties coming to Middelburg and we understand that this can be costly. Therefore

travel expenses of external parties can be reimbursed up to €51,40 (the price of a re-

tour ticket from Groningen to Middelburg).

8) Presents for external parties are only for symbolic purposes. This means that a max-

imum of €7.50 can be spent on a present.

9) Generally no one is paid for his or her services.

10) Reimbursement will be done only when the “Reimbursement Form Committee” is

filled in correctly, WITH receipt. Without receipt money cannot be reimbursed.

11) Only approved budget will be reimbursed.

12) For unforeseen costs, additional budget can be requested. Please send an email to

rasa@ucr.nl . Please take into consideration that this can only be done with excep-

tional cases, in general this will be denied. Don’t count on it, but hand in your budget

on time!

The Budget deadline will be communicated to you. Again, you are obligatory to attend a

meeting with the RASA treasurer as a Society Treasurer.

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Budget Proposal Form CommitteeDate: ____/______/____ Purpose: Fall/Spring 20_____Deadline: ____/______/____ CAO: _______________Committee: _______________ Committee Treasurer:

_______________Please specify your request below per expense, in other words on what do you want to spend and how much money do you need. Start with the highest priority so that the board can take that into account when discussing your budget.Name Event:___________________ Amount: € ____ , ____

Explanation of the event:

__________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

__

What do you need to pay for?: Office supplies / Travel / Food / Electronics /

Furniture / Games / Kitchen supplies/ Props/Lecture / Entrance Tickets

Other:

_________________________________________________________

Name Event:___________________ Amount: € ____ , ____

Explanation of the event:

__________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

__

What do you need to pay for?: Office supplies / Travel / Food / Electronics /

Furniture / Games / Kitchen supplies/ Props/Lecture / Entrance Tickets

Other:

_________________________________________________________

Name Event:___________________ Amount: € ____ , ____

Explanation of the event:

__________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

__

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What do you need to pay for?: Office supplies / Travel / Food / Electronics /

Furniture / Games / Kitchen supplies/ Props/Lecture / Entrance Tickets

Other:

_________________________________________________________

Total proposed budget€ ____ , ____If you have additional expenses please feel free to add those to this form.Please print out the form when completed and sign it before returning it to your CAO. Also make sure to keep one copy for your own administrationSignature of Committee treasurer: Signature of CAO:

Justification for the GATo speed up the GA and to make sure the GA is informed properly, we will include a short justification of your expenditure in the proposal. Every post should have a justification. Below, please write per expenditure a elaborate explanation and a reason why you think you should be able to spend this money. This will be presented at the GA.Expenditure:____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Expenditure:____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Expenditure:____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Expenditure:____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Expenditure:____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Expenditure:____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Appendix II – Organizing Lectures

These are the general rules for reimbursements for lectures:

1) The location can either be a classroom (up to 30 guests), the Maquettezaal (up to 30

guests), the Raadszaal (up to 75 guests), or the Burgerzaal (up to 180 guests). Think

in advance how many guests you reasonably can expect, since it would be a shame

to have too few or too many empty places.

The classrooms and the Maquettezaal can simply be reserved by sending an email

to the Student Desk or the housemasters. If you want to make use of the Raadszaal

or the Burgerzaal, first ask the RASA treasurer to check with the Housemasters and

the facility manager (Hugo Steenhouwer), before booking it. Should your lecture also

be promoted for non-UCR visitors, the front door needs to be open, which means

extra costs for security, for which the RASA board needs to be informed beforehand.

Before contacting the housemaster or Willem Vreeke to provide coffee/tea, please

consult the RASA treasurer.

2) For promotional costs check the promotion guidelines.

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3) For all reimbursements the organizing society has to fill out a Reimbursement Form.

Reimbursements for travel expenses require signatures of both the lecturer and a

board member of the organizing society.

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