Student Union Financial Report: Winter 2021

Senior and Student Union (SU) President Julian Giordano and junior and SU Vice President Shivali Korgaonkar released information regarding the SU’s yearly allocations, Clubs and Pubs, and SING! from the past school year. Much of their budget shifted to accommodate for COVID-19 and adjusted accordingly to online learning in the 2020-2021 school year.

The SU started the school year off with a balance of $222,458.84. The SU then used their budget to determine allocations for SING!, clubs, dances and events, and other expenses. The number increased from last year’s beginning balance of $191,248.88 due to revenue from last year’s SING! shows and because there is no longer the Galaxy Budget expense of $25 thousand to $30 thousand, which covers the salaries of SING! faculty advisors.

Club Funding Distribution

Due to the lack of in-person events and clubs this year, fewer clubs requested funding from the SU as most events moved online and fewer clubs applied for allocations. As a result, the SU allocated $4,839 for only eight clubs in the fall: Speech and Debate, StuyFlow, Stuy MSA, Stuy DECA, Stuy Board Games Club, Stuy Research Club, Project Kaleidoscope, and Digital Photography Club, with the top-funded club, Speech and Debate, receiving $2,750. While tournaments and competitions went online this year, organizations, such as Speech and Debate and Stuy MSA, still had to pay entrance fees to participate.

The amount the SU allocated for clubs in the fall sharply declined from the total $25,050 allocated for clubs during both the spring and fall of last year, with the top-funded club, Speech and Debate, receiving $9,500. However, the total amount of money for club allocations for the 2020-2021 school year will rise as the SU will be doing a second round of club allocations in the spring semester.

Allocations

In total, the SU allocated $9,569 dollars this year, split across SING! ($4,500), clubs ($4,839), and events ($230). While the chart does not currently show allocations for apparel for the 2020-2021 school year, the SU plans to allocate apparel funds later in the year. The $230 spent on allocation for events includes only SU events and was largely spent on gift cards and other prizes.

The amount of money used for allocations this year was significantly lower than that of previous years, with the largest change in funds coming from club allocations; though the SU allocated $44,279.28 in 2019-2020, they only allocated $9,569 this year.

SING! Allocations and Expenses

The profits of last year’s show increased due to the logistical changes made for the SING! productions last year. With three judged SING! show nights, full priced-tickets for all three nights, an increase in audience attendance, and an increase in member dues (to incorporate the cost of T-shirts), the SU had a revenue increase of $86,653.95 and profit of $71,813.49.

However, due to the constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, allocations and expenses for this year’s SING! performances will be different from those of years prior. Because there will be no ticket, concession, or merchandise sales for this year’s SING!, the production will not yield any returns for the SU, compared to the approximately $80 thousand to $90 thousand from shows of previous years. Additionally, each individual SING! performance will not collect member dues from SING! participants this year.

While the SU has a sizable enough budget to allocate enough money for SING! this year, they are also planning to fundraise and crowdfund through events such as the Giving Tree in the Parents’ Association Spring Fest.

The SU will still allocate $1,500 to each grade’s performance as they did last year. Thus, the SU’s allocations for 2021 SING! will total to a tentative amount of $4,500 with no revenue. Because of the lack of revenue, the SU is not expecting a stream of income for the rest of the school year.