Every year, Hamilton organizations renew their club and update their information through the organization renewal process. This process typically occurs at the beginning of the academic year in the Fall, but the Student Activities Board is initiating the process now to get a head start.
Noelle Juliano, Director of Student Activities, remarked that “the Student Activities Office has been looking to get club renewal to happen in the Spring semester for the upcoming academic year for a while now. Several other peer schools run organization renewal this way. The benefit of the new timeline allows clubs to start immediately upon the start of the next academic year rather than having to wait to send all-campus emails or reserve spaces until they receive approval. We also wanted to move the budget process in which clubs receive funding to the Spring for the same reasons.”
With regard to the budget process, Student Activities “did not want to approve budgets for groups until the groups were renewed.” The new timeline for this semester means that Organization Renewal will be open from Sunday, April 10 to Sunday, April 17.
Organizations that get funding directly from Student Assembly (SA) can apply for funding for the next academic year after the current renewal process. Budget applications will be open from Sunday, April 24 to Friday, April 29. This timeframe allows treasurers a few days to review applications and vote on them at the SA meeting on Monday, May 2.
During this transition period, clubs’ email Listserv privileges are temporarily suspended. Listserv is a software that allows club leaders to send campus-wide emails as well as emails specifically to their members.
In order to renew an organization, an organization leader must log into Presence and fill out the required forms. Presence is a website that helps organize and connect all clubs on campus. Additionally, Presence provides information to club members, including clubs’ constitutions and meeting times. On Tuesday, March 29, an email was sent to organization leaders from Hamilton Involve with a PDF guide for navigating the renewal process on Presence.
In addition to renewing their clubs, organization leaders have to complete required training. While no email has been sent out to complete the training for next Fall, in the past, members were required to complete Student Org Leader Basic Training, Funding 101 Training, 25Live Enhanced User Training and Title IX training.
Only two Executive Board members from each club have to attend the Student Organization Leader Basic Training. The treasurers of each club have to attend the Funding 101 Training. Those who want access to reserving spaces via 25Live must complete the 25Live Enhanced User Training. Finally, the members of each club’s executive board must complete the Title IX Training. If organization leaders do not complete the Title IX training or fail the test, they are removed from their positions. Leaders should be on the lookout for an email in the future detailing when to complete these training sessions.
Juliano commented that “we will still offer mandatory club training in the Fall and put clubs briefly in a transition period at the start of the school year so they can add new leaders and members to their club rosters. While we know this may seem like a big ask at a busy time of the school year, we think the benefits outweigh that. Something to note is that clubs won’t be able to send all campus emails while they are renewing so that is another reason to not wait to renew an organization.”
