Funding Large Events at MIT

TheASA administers two funds from the Student Life Fee for large events atMIT on behalf of the Division for Student Life and the Graduate StudentOffice.

• Current fundinground
• Fund Descriptions
• Fund Criteria
• Application Process
• Appeals
• Board Members

Current Funding Period Details

The Large Event Fund (LEF) and Assisting Recurring Cultural and DiversityEvents (ARCADE) funding deadlines for 2007-2008 school year are approximately as follows:

September 19, 2007 (Events between Oct 1, 2007 and December 31, 2007)
December 7, 2007 (Events between Jan 1, 2007 and February 29, 2008)
February 20, 2008 (Events between March 1, 2008 and June 30, 2008)

Download application: LEF/ARCADE Application (doc)
Please email completed applications to the ASA Treasurer [asa-treasurer@mit.edu] by 5pm on the deadline listed above. If your group has questions about your application, please also contact the ASA Treasurer.

Do not submit more than one LEF application and one ARCADE application perorganization (as the primary sponsor) per period.

Operating agreements are offered when an allocation is made,and they are required to transfer funds.

Past Allocations:

IAP-Feb 2008 (pdf)
Oct-Dec 2007 (pdf)
Jun-Sept 2007 (pdf)
IAP/Spring 2007 (pdf)
LEF/ARCADE Fall 2006

Any and all questions regarding this process should bedirected to the ASA Treasurer <asa-treasurer@mit.edu>.

Fund Descriptions

LEF (Large Event Fund)

LEFwas started in 1998 to increase the number of large events on campus.The mission of the Large Event Fund is to provide funding to largeevents that promote interaction and foster good relationships. LEFreceives $80,000 of the DSL portion of the Student Life Fee to allocateper academic year.

Defining Philosophies

TheLarge Event Fund seeks to be the primary funding board for largeevents, giving the largest portion of an events funding. Groupsare then strongly encouraged to find ways to make up for any fundinggap between the LEF grant and their desired budget by securing fundingfrom the student government funding boards, other MIT resources or fromother student groups.

The Large Event Fund wishes to focuson quality over quantity.  The limited resources of the fundrequire the board to focus more money into few events rather thanspread thin the resources over more events.  While the latterpractice has been used in the past, the result has been that someevents are not as successful and others are not able to happen atall.  It is therefore the long-term goal of the board to findafair way to limit the number of applications per group in order toallow more funds to be concentrated on fewer, higher qualityevents.  (The rules of this requirement have not been fullydiscussed nor set but a suggestion is to make a maximum ofapproximately 2 applications per group per year.) NOTE:  Forthe upcoming cycling, the restriction is that student groups may applyas the primary sponsor to at most one application to LEF for IAP andone for Spring and oneapplication to ARCADE for IAP and one for Spring.  (Four intotal.)

Another goalof the Large Event Fund is to foster collaboration between students andstudent groups.  This has often been misinterpreted to meanthat“the more groups on the application, the more fundingreceived.” This is not the case, and the intentions of the board could probablybest be described with an example:

A group comes asking formoney for an event that costs $6000.  The LEF board is able toaward them $4000.  If the primary sponsor is able to cut somecosts and perhaps chip in a few hundred of their own money, they areable to hold the event by themselves.  On the other hand, saythegroup is unable to cut costs and so finds itself $2000 short. Nowthe group should go out and try to find other groups to help it pulloff the event.  If the primary sponsor finds other groups toeachcontribute a few hundred dollars and perhaps manpower forsetup/cleanup, then they are able to pull of the event.  Thisisthe sort of collaboration we would like to see.  Not just alistof groups “interested in the event,” but tangiblefinancial and timecommitment contributions.

Period	Dates	Approximate Allocation	Meeting	Appeals
Summer/Early Fall	June 1 - September 30	20 K	May	On Request
Fall	October 1 - December 31	20 K	September	On Request
IAP/Spring	January 1 - February 28/29	20 K	November	On Request
Spring	March 1 - May 31	20 K	November	On Request

ARCADE (Assisting Recurring Cultural and Diversity Events)

ARCADEwas started in 2002. The mission of the ARCADE Fund is to fund eventsthat promote interaction and foster good relationships between thedifferent cultural, ethnic, and otherwise diversified branches of theMIT student community. ARCADE receives $75,000 of the DSL and GSOportion of the Student Life Fee to allocate during the course of theacademic year.

Period	Dates	Approximate Allocation	Meeting	Appeals
Summer/Early Fall	June 1 - September 30	15 K	May	On Request
Fall	October 1 - December 31	20 K	September	On Request
IAP/Spring	January 1 - February 28/29	20 K	November	On Request
Spring	March 1 - May 31	20 K	November	On Request

Fund Criteria

Criteria for All LEF and ARCADE Applications:

• No group is guaranteed funding from either fund for anevent and should *not* spend money they have notyet received.
• Events may NOT receive funding fromboth LEF and ARCADE.
• The Chair of LEF and ARCADE reserves the right to consider applicationsunder the opposite funding board if it is deemed appropriate.
• Events requiring large space must demonstrate spaceavailability.
• Events that are administratively initiated, funded and rundo not qualify for LEF/ARCADE funding.
• Groupsrequesting funds that have alternative sources of revenue/funds(Student Governments that receive annual funds from MIT, Dorms thatcollect house taxes, reserve accounts, etc.) should clearly outline howthey are spending their other funds and why they should be consideredfor LEF/ARCADE funding.
• Events should be held on the MIT campus.
• Collaboration with other MIT student organizations isencouraged.
• Events should be alcohol-free (funding cannot be used foralcohol).
• Fundraising events will be given a lower priority.
• One application per organization (as the primary sponsor)can be submitted per funding cycle.
• Complete, itemized event budgets are required andapplications without detailed budgets may not be considered.
• Incomplete proposals will not be considered.
• If partial funding is given to an event which is actually a series of multiple events, then the group isstill held to hold allevents listed in their application.  Exceptions can berequestedto the funding board, but groups who do not follow the resultingdecision will be required to return the funds.

LEF Specific Criteria:

• Events must be open to and advertised to everyone in the MIT community andappeal to a large audience (more than 150 people).
• Events should be of a social, not academic, nature.
• Events should have a total budget of between $3,000 and$10,000.

ARCADE Specific Criteria:

• Events must be open to everyone in the MIT community.
• Events must have a cultural or ethnic focus.

Application Process

• Email completed applications (pdf or doc) to ASA Treasurer [asa-treasurer@mit.edu] by 6pm on the deadline.
• If necessary, group(s) may be assigned to meet with thefunding board.
• Group(s) should retain an additional copy of theapplication and bring this if meeting with the funding board.

Additional Notes

To increase the transparency of the two funding boards, the ASA will bemoving to upload previous LEF and ARCADE allocation numbers and thencontinue to post new allocations each period.  This will allowgroups to see what events applied for funding and which receivedfunding, erasing some of the mystery behind the process.

However, groups should be aware that the future may requiremore transparency on theirpart.  While not yet a rule, there are some who believe eachofthe funding boards should not only see the allocations of other fundingboards but should see how groups are spending allof theirfunds.  The belief is that for any funding board to make afairdecision of how to allocated its funds to student groups, the boardmust have an accurate picture of need of all the groups.

Appeals

Neither the LEF or ARCADE fund has a formal appeals process,but rather appeals are dealt with on a case by case basis.

Board Members

TheASA Treasurer is the chair of the LEF and ARCADE Funding Board.Traditionally, the Board has consisted of the GSC Treasurer,Undergraduate Association Treasurer, ASA Graduate StudentRepresentative, ASA Undergraduate Student Representative, GraduateStudent-at-Large, and an Undergraduate Student-at-Large.