PSAS/ PsuStudentClub

Student Club Update

PSAS was a PSU Student Fee committee (SFC) funded student group from 2005 until 2010. Unfortunately, new student group rules made it very difficult for PSAS to continue to be a SFC-funded student group. After consulting with our SFC advisor, we decided that it was best that PSAS continue as a non-SFC funded student group, which is our current status. For more information on our student group status, please contact us.

Note that PSAS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit group operating under the PSU Foundation; for more information, please see our donations page.

Old SFC-Funded Group Info

The content below here is old, and is only here for archival reasons. Eventually we should remove this content.

If your only goal in visiting this page is to figure out how to order parts via SALP, please visit this page: Parts Orders

Introduction

PSAS is officially a PSU Student Fee Committee (SFC) funded student group, with a 2007-2008 budget of $3956. While PSAS is a collective of sorts with members who are students as well as non-students, most of the SFC-related activities and benefits are for PSU students who are members of PSAS.

Don't worry: we're using our powers for good (meaning the good of the entire group).

This page is specifically for the PSU Student Club portion of PSAS, our responsibilities and goals, etc.

Any comments, questions or concerns, contact MariaWebster.

Student Group Goals

We host one introductory meeting and one Dead Week Movie Night per term (unless there's an eclipse - but was that really our fault?). We'd also try to host an "end of the year blowout", a day where we launch model rockets for fun.

Current Student Members

Aleksandr Ruban
Peter Welte
Allen Taylor
David Camarillo
Chris LeFave
Eric Wheeler
Maria Webster
Josh Triplett
Mike Conley
Daniel Heinlein
Jason Peterson
Theodore Hill

Where to advertise general meetings

There are several email lists that might be useful:

ece-322-001@cecs.pdx.edu, ece-300-level@cecs.pdx.edu, ece-400-level@cecs.pdx.edu, ece-500-level@cecs.pdx.edu, ece-200-level@cecs.pdx.edu

Sample email message:

Subject: Rocketry Group Intro meeting

We want you to work on rockets!  The Portland State Aerospace Society (PSAS) is a student group that designs, builds, and launches amateur rockets.  PSAS members work on electronics, software, motors, airframes, and more.  We also welcome non-technical participants who can help with marketing, logo design, launch logicistics, or communication with the general public.  Everyone is welcome to come and watch a launch.

There are two PSAS intro meetings this term (this is an example):
 * Wednesday, January 31st, 6-7pm
 * Friday, February 2nd, 12-1pm

We'll talk about our current projects, show launch videos, and explain how to get involved with our group.  Both meetings will be held in the Fourth Avenue Building, room 150.  For a map to the Fourth Avenue building, go to http://pdx.edu/map.html and look for section 10-D.  Room 150 is near the Electrical and Computer Engineering department office.  More information on PSAS can be found at http://psas.pdx.edu

Hope to see you there!

SALP publishes a list of bulletin boards that you can put posters in. The ME, CS, and ECE department will also put up posters around FAB, EB, and SB2. A sample poster is attached (general meeting poster.pdf).

Useful Information (numbers, etc.)

PSU Campus Catering: 503.725.4427

Note that when using Campus Catering, if items are ordered from the Student Organization menu, they will not be delivered. Also, all food orders must be approved by our advisor.

SALP office: 503.725.4452

Our advisor: Suzanne Flores, 503.725.5654

Alex Yucker, accountant: 503.725.4454

Budget

Next Year's Budget (working, not final)

2009-2010 Budget from SFC for PSAS

Link to SFC Online Budget System:

http://www.sa.pdx.edu/budgets/

2008-2009 Current Budget

2008-2009 Budget from SFC for PSAS

Sample Budget

Sample budget for PSAS.

How to spend our SFC budget

  1. Get the tax ID number of the business you're buying from.
  2. Get an expenditure request form (found outside SMU 119).
  3. On the SDO line, fill in PSAS' index code. Ask Maria for the index code.
  4. Fill in the business' tax ID.
  5. Make sure you put a good reason for the purchase on the form and fill out all the rest of it.
  6. Give Maria a copy of the form, then submit the form to SMU 119 (the SALP office) and tell them your advisor is Suzanne Flores.

Spring 2008 Activity

This term, we participated in or hosted the following events:

The complete list of parts purchased during Spring 2008 is on the following page:

Spring2008 SALP purchases

Summer 2008 Activity

Shirt giveaway @OSCON: Andrew from Scotland

Fall 2008 Activity

Vendor Information

Vendor Name Phone Address Contact
Abra Kazaam 503.234.6541 4144 SE 24th, PDX, OR TBD
Parks PCB 503.848.8292, also 503.649.7007 x126 n/a Dave or Kevin

Tax IDs

Vendor Tax ID
Outpost.com 770062030
Spark Fun 201617837
Newegg 954781122
FiberGlass Supply 20-0574622
ParaGear Inc 76-44011TLV
Team Numb 040700213

Equipment

A list of people who have checked out equipment can be found here.

SFC

Updates, forms, and budgets for SFC.

SFC Budget Process 2006-2007

PSAS Constitution

The PSAS constitution be found here.

Background

We've claimed to be a PSU student group since the founding of PSAS. But as far as PSU's student government was concerned, it's only been true once, which was when Andrew and Brian arranged for PSAS to be a student club sometime back in the late 1990's. It was only for a year, and nothing really came of it.

Official student groups get access to a long list of resources funded by part of the more than $7.6 million in student fees that all PSU students pay as part of our tuition. The Student Fee Committee, or SFC, is responsible for allocating these funds, and SFC group budgets are a matter of public record. We hope in the future that we'll be able to fund part of our activities using that money, which could be used for hiring students or staff, for example. The SFC Guidelines and Procedures document is the official reference for the options available with those funds.

However, all student groups must start as Student Organization Council (SOC) groups, which have much less money available. This year there are three "levels" of SOC groups. These are roughly as follows:

  1. New, small, or inactive clubs: may request a maximum of $400 per year.
  2. Somewhat established, medium sized, or somewhat active clubs: may request a maximum of $700 per year. (This number does not seem to be written down anywhere and may be wrong.)
  3. Well established, large, highly active clubs: may request a maximum of $1,000 per year.

According to the SFC Guidelines, one of the requirements to become an SFC-funded organization is that a group must have been an SOC club "for at least one full year by the budget submission deadline for SFC funding", which this year is around November 30th, according to the SFC Timeline. It's interesting to note that the SOC is itself an SFC-funded organization, allocated about $30,000 for this year.

There are once-per-month leadership workshops planned for this year, including topics like Robert's Rules of Order and consensus building techniques. Part of the stated purpose of these workshops is to prepare club leaders to interact with student government organizations like the SFC or the student Senate, which follow parliamentary procedure as a matter of course. However, attendance will be tracked and clubs that send representatives regularly will be considered highly active for the purpose of determining funding levels.

All clubs fall into one of nine clusters, which determines what adviser is assigned to the club. The SALP web site lists these clusters (with the exception of Publications), showing the current adviser and list of organizations in each cluster.

The budget request form has a series of specific line items (such as "Telecommunications") with no "Other" category, but according to the SOC Coordinators the intent was to highlight the usual sorts of requests, not to limit anyone to those few categories.

The "Primary Contact" can expect to receive important e-mail from time to time, so this position is somewhat important to the club. Identifying information for the other "Charter Members" is used only to verify enrollment.

On September 30th, 2005, the current SOC Coordinators held an orientation meeting that new SOC groups were required to attend. And quite a crowd did attend. The SOC Coordinators printed 120 copies of their orientation booklet, and ran out; and 15 giant Hot Lips pizzas were devoured and the boxes picked clean in short order, even though Jamey limited himself to two slices. Some of the material handed out or discussed at this orientation does not appear to be available on the web. It might be newly introduced by this year's SOC, but at least some of it was applicable last year as well. The relevant forms might also be available in dead tree format from the Student Activities and Leadership Programs (SALP) office or the surrounding student government offices on the first floor and mezzanine levels in Smith Memorial Student Union.

Past Work

PSAS was represented at the SOC Orientation, and then later the SFC Orientation, by Jamey Sharp. Jamey and the rest of our current group leadership are all not currently eligible to be charter members, since most of us are either about to graduate or have recently graduated and none of us are, in any case, currently enrolled in sufficient credits. (Glenn is perhaps an exception?) Several eligible students have stepped forward to ensure that we have enough signatures to qualify as an SOC group, fortunately.

PSAS fits best in the Academic/Honorary cluster; the current adviser for this cluster is Shannon Timm. (Last year the adviser was Natalee Webb, who is still with SALP but no longer in that role.)

Clubs are not allowed to be named "The PSU X Club" for any X, though they may be called "The X Club at PSU". As we have been called "The Portland State Aerospace Society" for a long time, we have been advised by an SOC Coordinator to consult with the Academic/Honorary adviser on whether we can continue to use this name as an official club.

At the September 30th orientation, Jamey filled out and turned in a Level Self-Assessment, thus marking the first occasion in a long time when he has turned paperwork in a week early. The Club Registration Form, PsasConstitution, and Free Publicity Form were submitted on Monday, October 3rd. The Budget Request form has not yet been submitted.

Jamey has drafted a PsasConstitution for review by the rest of the current membership.

Active Members

Student groups are often asked how many student members they have. For reference, here is a dated list of current student members. This is subject to change, and should only be used for rough counts.

Meeting Notes

Date

Comments

2006-08-02

General Meeting

2006-05-07

Officer Election

2006-04-26

Logo discussion

2006-04-11

Budget meeting

2006-02-24

Meeting with SALP coordinator Shannon Tim about travel and food expenses

2006-02-09

Jay met with Shannon Timm to talk about SOC requirements

2006-02-08-student-club

Officer election

2005-10-04

SOC Budget Meeting

2005-10-03

SFC Budget Meeting

Attachments: