Association of Independent Living Groups

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AILG Accreditation Reviews

Guide to filling out the Basic Data Form

We have provided the Basic Data Form in several formats. We expect that for most organizations the Excel Spreadsheet (.xls) will be the most convenient version to complete, but you are also welcome to complete the Word Document or, if necessary, print out the PDF Response Form and complete it by hand. We request that the alumni and undergraduates work together on the completion of the form, and return a single form with both alumni and undergraduate responses. We need your responses well in advance of the review date, to allow the visiting committee time to prepare for the review.

Explanation of the details requested for each section and item:

This Document is Confidential -- The information details submitted will not be shared beyond the members of the AILG Accreditation Visiting Committee, the Accreditation Coordinator, and yourselves. Please see our Privacy Policy.

There are six sections:

  1. Reference Information
  2. Financial Information
  3. Governance
  4. Member Development
  5. Behavioral
  6. Physical Plant

R. Reference Information

  1. Date Submitted
    Please indicate the day, month, and year (e.g. nn-MMM-yyyy) the form was submitted by your organization.

  2. Submitted by:
    Please provide the role or title of the person who completed the form, and if not one of the roles listed below, please also include his or her full name, year of graduation (and if not MIT, the name of the undergraduate university), and the requested contact information.

    (Items 3 and 4) Undergraduate FSILG President
    Please provide the name and class year of the undergraduate president, previous undergraduate president, the requested contact information, and the starting and ending dates of their terms.

  3. President for current term

  4. President for previous term

  5. Full FSILG Name, address
    Provide the full name of your undergraduate organization as it is known on the MIT campus, its chapter designation within your national organization if applicable, and its legal name if different. Please include the street address.

  6. Is there a National affiliation?
    If your FSILG is affiliated with a National organization, please provide the full name of the national organization, the address, the name of the main contact official, telephone, email address, and web site.

  7. What is the legal name of your House Corporation?
    Please provide the full legal name of your House Corporation as registered with the Massachusetts Secretary of State. If none, please explain.

  8. What is its fiscal year?
    Provide the ending date of your House Corporation's fiscal year.

  9. What is its incorporation type (e.g. 501(c)(7))?
    Provide the type of corporation as referenced in the federal tax code.

  10. House Corp. President
    For this and the next three items, please provide the names, class year (and undergraduate university of not MIT), and contact information for the listed officers of your house corporation.
  11. House Corp. Secretary
  12. House Corp. Treasurer
    (12a) House Corp. House Manager

  13. Has annual filing with Commonwealth been made in past year?
    This is the required annual filing with the Massachusetts Secretary of State. If you have not filed it, please explain.

  14. Who is your current Resident Advisor (RA)?
    Please provide name, undergraduate university, year of graduation, number of years as your RA, whether a member of your FSILG, and email address. If this RA has not yet completed a full year with you, please provide the same information about the previous RA.

  15. Have you submitted an IRDF Operating Grant request?
    If No, why not?

  16. Membership in FSILG Cooperative, Inc. (FCI)?
    Yes/No.

  17. Safety, Licensing, & Inspection (SLI) program?
    Yes/No.

  18. SLI Building Safety Facilitator (BSF) for pre-inspection advice and assistance?
    If no, how do you prepare for inspections?

  19. Summer occupancy
    If your house is occupied during the summer, please indicate the most recent summer's occupancy by non-member boarders and members, and indicate how you handle security, risk management, and house rules, during the summer.

  20. Regular occupancy
    Please indicate both your "ideal" occupancy and your legal maximum occupancy. Then, in the chart provided, please indicate occupancy by category for the four most recent terms. In each column, the same person should not be listed in more than one category. If you have graduate students as members, please include them by providing UG/G numbers separately in the same box.

F. Financial Information

  1. When were the last real estate taxes paid?
    Month and Year.

  2. Are any real estate taxes overdue?
    If Yes, please explain.

  3. List any mortgages, including loans from MIT.

  4. For each mortgage, list the frequency of payments due.

  5. Are there any payments on any mortgage currently past the due date?
    Please provide details if yes.

  6. Were any payments during your current or previous fiscal year made after the due date?
    If yes, please explain the reasons for and magnitude of the shortfall and the length of the late period.

  7. Did you file a Federal IRS Form 990 last fiscal year?
    If you did, you may wish to bring a copy to the review. If you did not, please be prepared to explain why not at the review. The Form 990 is a public document, and Treasury Regulations 301.6104(d)-2-5 permit any member of the public to request a copy. However, we are explicitly not making a formal request for you to provide a copy, because we do not wish to trigger the daily fines for failure to provide copies to any j-random requestor.

  8. Are any Federal taxes currently due or overdue?
    If so, please explain.

  9. Do you have any employees?
    If no, skip to #16.

  10. Employee names and job title/description
    For each employee, provide name and a job title with a short description of responsibilities.

  11. Do you use a paid payroll preparer?
    If yes, who. If not, how do you handle payroll?

  12. Withholding taxes
    Is this being handled properly, and how?

  13. Workmen's compensation
    Is this being handled properly, and how?

  14. When were your last state and federal payments made?
    Month and year.

  15. Were any payments made late during the current or previous fiscal year?
    If so, please explain.

  16. Which officers are responsible for vendor and utility payments?
    Current term.

  17. Which officers are responsible for vendor and utility payments?
    Previous term.

  18. Have any accounts to vendors or utilities been in arrears?
    If any account was more than 90 days overdue at any time in the past 12 months, please explain which account, how much, and why. Has it been paid off now?

  19. Budget process
    Please give a brief overview of your budget process, including how house bills are set. Has this process proved satisfactory, from the view of both the undergraduates and the house corporation? If no, how do you plan to improve the process?

  20. By what percent did the house bill change from last school year to this year?

  21. What percent of your house bills remained unpaid at the end of either last school year or last semester?
    You may choose to answer either the most recent semester or the previous school year; indicate which. Provide both the percentage and total amount due but unpaid and the number of bills that were delinquent.

  22. Is this considered a problem?
    If not, why not? If yes, are you using the ability to place registration holds and/or graduation holds through the Bursar's office?

  23. Loss or profit
    For each of the last two years, did the undergraduates and/or the alumni corporation show a profit or a loss. If possible, answer this separately; if not, you may combine them. We would like the result as either a dollar amount or a percent, or both.

  24. Ratio of last year's operating budget to cash reserves.
    Divide operating budget by savings, set asides, and reserves. Please provide this ratio. Do you consider it satisfactory? If not, what are plans to improve?

  25. Commercial Alumni Relations and Communications company?
    Do you use the services of Stewart Howe or a similar company? If yes, please indicate the name. If no, please explain how you remain in contact with your alumni.

  26. Do you actively solicit annual donations from your alumni?

  27. Do you have any alumni capital fundraising initiatives underway?

  28. Are any planned?

G. Governance

  1. House meeting frequency
    Please provide your frequence of house meetings per semester (weekly, every two weeks, etc.). Do new members attend? If yes, what is their allowed participation?

  2. Officer meetings
    Are there separate officer meetings, and if so, how often? If no, please explain.

  3. Officer to house communications
    How are the results of officer meetings communicated to the other members? Is this working? If not, how might it be improved?

  4. Filling officer positions
    Is there difficulty getting members nominated for officer positions? If so, which positions are the most troublesome?

  5. Young alumni
    Do recent alumni in the area remain in contact? Are they a positive and mutually desired influence? How are any problems handled?

  6. House corporation frequency
    How often does the house corporation meet: please answer for (a) meetings to which the entire corporation is invited, (b) meetings to which the entire elected board is expected to attend, and (c) meetings attended by a subset, such as an executive committee. (We recognize that in some organizations a=b or b=c and maybe even a=b=c. Please explain.)

  7. Which of the above meetings are open to undergraduates?
    Officers only or all members? Explain.

  8. Alumni to undergraduate communications
    How are the results of house corporation decisions communicated to the undergraduates? Is it working well, and/or how could it be improved?

  9. Full alumni board
    Provide a list of the alumni/house corp. board(s). Some organizations have separate house and advisory boards. Please explain. List the names of all members, and for those not already listed earlier, please provice class year (including school if not MIT), city/state of residence, email address, approx. when joined the board, and current office/role held.

M. Member Development

  1. Leadership involvement
    List both undergraduate and alumni involvement as officers or committee members in any MIT IFC/AILG organizations, student government, activities, clubs, sports teams, or fraternal leadership at the National or Interfraternal, level, including similar independent organizations. Please use a separate sheet within the Excel file or attach a separate page. You may optionally also include, separately counts of general sports team and club involvement by season or semester.

  2. New Member Training
    How are your processes and expectations documented? What is the duration in elapsed weeks (calendar weeks) and in contact hours (hours of expected activity together with other new members and active members). How are activities reviewed to prevent hazing or the appearance of hazing?

  3. Grades
    Provide your house GPA for each of the most recent four semesters.

  4. Withdrawals
    How many members have withdrawn from MIT on their own (or been required to leave), due primarily to grades, in each of the last two years?

  5. Scholarship Development
    What does the FSILG, and/or the alumni, do to encourage scholarship?

  6. Alumni Involvement
    What activities or efforts are made to maintain good relations and communications between undergraduates and alumni, both local and dispersed, young and old?

B. Behavioral

  1. Neighbor Relations
    What proactive efforts are made to maintain good neighbor relations? What community or civic activities are supported or engaged in by the FSILG as a unit? What about such activities done by brothers individually or as small groups?

    For each of the following roles, please provide name, email, and approximate class year (undergraduate school if not MIT).

  2. Faculty Advisor
    Member? Or are you likely to offer alumnus membership?
  3. Alumni Advisor
  4. National or Regional, Advisor(s) to FSILG
  5. Alumni Risk Management Advisor(s)
  6. Undergraduate Risk Manager, this semester and last semester

  7. Does the FSILG have a Risk Management Policy? Is it in writing?

  8. Is it provided to each new member and each member?
    How often?

  9. Does the FSILG have an internal judicial process for serious issues?

  10. Have any members been told to move out in the past year?

  11. Have there been any IFC, national organization, MIT or city investigations and/or sanctions in the past two years?
    Explain each.

  12. How often, and for what reason have the police made a visit to your house in the past year?
    Identify whether it was MIT police or city/state police.

  13. How often and for what reason has the Fire Department sent equipment to your house in the past year?

P. Physical Plant

  1. Is your Property Insurance with Kirklin (billed via FCI)?
    If No, give name of insurance company, amount and evidence that it is in force.

  2. Is your Liability Insurance via Kirklin (billed via FCI)?
    If No, give name of insurance company, amount and evidence that it is in force.

  3. Boston Dormitory, Cambridge Lodging House, or Brookline Lodging House License
    Do you have a current license from your city and when does it expire? Where is it displayed in your house? Answer for each of your locations if separately licensed.

  4. Fire Department Inspection
    Provide date of last inspection and list any citations given during the past two years and the status of each, indicating which are open and which are closed.

  5. (Boston, Brookline, Cambridge) Egress Inspection
    Provide date of last inspection and for any deficiencies noted, list which are open and which are resolved.

  6. Other Inspections
    for each of the following:
    • Sprinkler System inspection
    • Fire Alarm inspection
    • Ansel inspection
    • Fire Escape Affidavit
    • Fire Extinguisher inspection tags
    • Member Fire Drills
    indicate if any are not up to date and plans to resolve the problem.

  7. Do you have a contract with a Pest Control company?
    If Yes, which one?

  8. Which undergraduate and which alumni officer(s) are responsible for maintaining safe and sanitary conditions?