PSAS/ news/ 2006-02-24

Agenda

Shannon Timm called a meeting with several SOC groups to discuss the new rules for food purchases and travel.

Summary

Reimbursements

Don't expect to get reimbursements. Always discuss purchases before hand with Shannon and get a purchase order. If you have to keep track of spending (such as during a trip), make sure you get receipts and never pay with cash.

Hosting

Hosting means providing food to a group of students. The administration is heavily scrutinizing any travel or "hosting" expenses.Don't even think about purchasing alcohol. Only purchase food for students and staff.

When "hosting" a meeting at PSU or during a trip, you need to write down:

Approved max rates per person:

There have also been some changes about hosting on campus. PSU's contract with Sodexho (the SMU food service) states that they need to be the only food provider on campus. That means (starting Spring term) all food purchases need to be through Sodexho. They won't give us a purchase order for non-Sodexho food. So no more Hot Lips! :(

There are some exceptions to this. We can use Food for Thought catering (which should be able to provide meat "soon"). We can also get a waiver for "ethnic food" or if we have some dietary restriction that Sodexho can't provide food that meets our criteria. So we could try to get, say, Lebanese food or Vegan food with a waiver. That doesn't help our pizza issue though.

The worst part of this issue is that Sodexho is supposed to control all of campus. So if we have an event on campus in the Fourth Avenue Building, we have to use Sodexho. It's even a little hairy to use other PSAS funding to host an event on campus (although it's better if the funds are in separate bank accounts). Basically we should be very careful about this food issue.

Trips

Shannon also had some things to say about traveling. See the attached flier.

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