Finance Committee
1.Data Management Team
This year, the Finance committee is establishing a new team, namely the Data Management Team. The purpose of setting up this team can be briefly summarised with three main points, to manage the enormous data collected, to streamline the process of data collection and data analysis, and to present the data in a well-organised manner.
The team is established because of the foreseeable demand of assistance after the shift of method in data collection. As students will use Google Forms for filling in the information for purchasing, extra effort and manpower is expected to manage the enormous data collected.
The main duty of the team is to process the data collected after the sales of products or publications. For example, after the sales of the Secretariat, team members from the Data Management team will summarise the data, which include the calculation of the total number of orders, the grand total collected from sales, etc. The team members will also categorise and combine the individual data by treating classes as units. The data will then be presented to respective board treasurers, which allow them to have a better understanding on the sales of their products. After this, respective boards can then distribute the products in a well-organised manner, by using the data treated by the Data Management Team, and ensure that the class representatives have a clear overview on the products ordered by his own class.
This establishment of the data management team can streamline the process of data collection and verification, and can effectively minimise the man-made errors when handling data, as the process will be carried out by computers. It can also assist the Student Association to order the products in a more precise, accurate manner, which leads to a minimisation of over-stock and unnecessary monetary loss.
The members of the data management team are required to possess some of the basic skills and traits for treating data, for example, reaching a proficiency level in Microsoft Excel, the sensitivity to numbers, and the awareness of finding out numerical errors. They are also required to clearly present data to their respective chairmen, in a clear, organised manner.
2.Structural Reform
Last Year, the Finance Committee along with the Administration Team had 23 members. The Administration Team, within the FC, offered a reasonable number of services, for example, the Service Request and the Voice Out system. It is undeniable that some of these services are widely appreciated and used, such as the weekly schedule of Interschool Sports competitions. And yet, it is discovered that some of its service have been overlapping with different boards, such as the Voice-Out System. Concerned that the Administration Team cannot maximize its productivity and usage, we will regrettably close down the team.
The Finance Committee of this year will also be trimming down its members, from 23 to 13.
The Board Treasurer has played an important role in supervising the financial control of each board in an effective way. However, some boards do not require a treasurer to fulfill their goals. As the discipline board doesn't have any events or have any financial expenses or income the Discipline Board Treasurer’s use is no longer needed.
Essentially, we Finance Committee has taken these steps to streamline activities and make sure that a high efficiency rate is maintained
3.Database Centre
Being resourceful is crucial for successful units. The Student Association has been up and running for 41 years. As Lasallians, we strive to be something more. First, we need to take reference from the past. By doing so, the Database Centre would be an eye-opener for future generations of Lasallian leaders.
A File Server will be installed in the Student Association Office with a hard drive that has the capability to be connected to the internet so that we can also take reference even when we are not in Student Association Office.
The Resources Centre would be divided into two major folders mainly: Documents and Reference
Firstly, Documents will have 6 boards as sub-folders and years as sub-sub folders. In general, it will contains documents of previous years like proposals, year-end reports, financial reports, financial budgets, quotations from companies, year plan. Etc
Secondly, comments on each activity held by the SA will be in each document, allowing for future generations to learn from past mistakes.
The Student Association has been up and running for 41 years and we hoped that with the establishment of the database centre we can learn from our mistakes take reference from them and reach new heights giving the best we could provide to our students
4.Sponsorship
Previously, the notes of sponsorship of the Student Association were solely from the Old Boys' Association and the Parent Teacher Association.
Although there is little burden on the Budget, as the Student Association is by the students, seeking for sponsorship by our own would still be optimal. It means a lot to us SA members. Moreover, extra expenditure on Service Bequest would need to be
covered.
From past experience, the Student Association noted that sponsorship from outside school was not encouraged as the nature of our activities or products will be altered. Therefore, limits of the requirements from companies are set as follows:
1. No advertisement of any company is allowed on all products, materials and occasions of the Student Association.
The companies could be provided with SA products as gifts. To avoid the company from falsely using our products (e.g. selling), a maximum of three of each product could be
given out only.
The Treasurer and the Administrative Heads would be the only ones responsible for sponsorship issues.
The procedures of inviting sponsorship are as follows:
1. A company would be approached by phone call to inform the company about our invitation of sponsorship for our event, and their email address or email address of the person in charge of sponsorship would be enquired.
2. An email which consist of three attachments, namely the Official Invitation Letter, the Proposal of [the event/ the product] and the budget of [the event/ the product], would be sent to the email addressed acquired.
3. If the company agrees to sponsor our event or product, the company would be required to make the payment by cheque. If possible, delivery of the cheque and the gifts from the SA would be done face-to-face through appointment. If not, the cheque would be sent to the School Office through registered post, and we would ask for their address to send the gifts through registered post.
Our target companies would first be those related to education (e.g. tutorial centres); second be those related to the equipment or resources we need in the event or the production of products (e.g. Fortress for Talent Quest, ePrint for Lasallian Issue), As some large corporations have an "education fund" reserved for schools activities, approaching these companies would be feasible.