Discussion: policy

Lending is a little different from spending, though that doesn't counter your point. Is the interest on the loan at least as good as the interest on the bank account?

The map loan policy is for 0 interest loans I think.

I should clarify that I think the loan is fine in principle. I'm a little concerned at the size of BAOC's proposed spend - and perhaps it should be scrutinized in greater detail, but they did explain in broad strokes how the money will be allocated. Maps are expensive, and they are also spending a good chunk on important areas like publicity. We should encourage and support boldness in event organization, and event organizers already have a lot of bureaucracy to deal with. That said, I think this decision was made hastily, without the complete picture of the facts that our responsibility as board members requires. And now, a substantial chunk of cash will be held in limbo for two years instead of going to programming now. I would have likely voted for all or part of the loan, but only with more info. Apparently, no one except Kris agreed with me.

Is this a map loan, or something more than that? I thought (maybe mistakenly) that there was a separate fund for map loans.

There are no longer any separate funds in OUSA except for the restricted team funds. All the fund balances got rolled into the general fund when the ED was hired.

We do have a budget item for map loans and grants, but such loans are typically on the order of $1000 (I believe we set aside $4k this year for that purpose). A loan on this scale to support an event is unprecedented as far as I know, though OUSA's records are not comprehensive.

I don't have a problem with the loan itself, and BAOC's proposal was informative. I have a problem with acting without all the information and disregarding our stated policies.