RPM Finances
From RoboWiki
RPM Manages the finances of the robotics team. To understand how finances work for RPM, we will follow the bouncing ball of money from income to expenditures.
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The Family Account
Before we look at how money is accounted for on the team, we need to understand that each student has a family account.
The family account is used to pay for individual and team expenses associated with that team member and his or her family. Rather than account for each individual, all family members are combined into one account. A family includes, the student, any siblings that may join the team at a later time, and parents. Parents play a role on the team either as mentors or as chaperones.
Sources of Income
The team has three general sources of income
- Sponsorships (10% individual/90% team)
- Fundraising (90% individual/10% team)
- Bingo (80% individual/20% team)
- Family Payment (100% individual)
Each source of income has a different affect on the students family account.
Sponsorships
A sponsorship is money donated to the team by a company or group for the purpose of supporting or sponsoring the team. A sponsorship gains advertising privileges with the team. Many sponsorships are directly applied to the team general fund. For example, the Rotary Club makes a donation to the team. This money will be applied directly to team general fund.
Sponsorships can also come as the result of a family member's company or even from a family member. For example, several student grandparents have sponsored the team. In this case, the student is responsible for the sponsorship and deserves some of the credit for acquiring the money. For sponsorships, the student account is credited 10% of the donation while the team general fund receives 90%.
Fundraising
During the year, the team will have several fundraising events. Fundraising has included car washes, raffles, game nights, and working bingo.
Fundraising is most often a direct participation event. Therefore the student receives a larger portion for their individual account. The team general fund will receive 10% of the fundraising income. The balance of the fundraising is divided among the students that participate in the fundraising event based on their level of participation.
Participation must be measured according to the fundraising event. A few examples will help. Participation at a car wash is determined as a percentage of the amount of time the student and family spends at the car wash over the total number of person hours at the car wash.
The raffle works similarly. The number of raffle tickets sold by a student over the total number of raffle tickets sold determines the percentage of income that student receives for the raffle fundraising event.
Bingo is specifically an individual fundraising opportunity. Parents and family (you must be 21 or older) can work bingo. The team general fund will receive 10% of the income while the student account receives the 90% balance. There is a lot more information about bingo.
Some fundraising is a team event. In this case, the team general fund receives all of the proceeds. For example, the students do campus recycling. The proceeds from recycling benefit the entire team and are applied to the team general fund.
Family Payment
The team works hard to try and raise enough money to support the team and all of the expenses. However, it is often necessary to supplement the fundraising activities with money from the family. This is especially true when the team decides to travel a distance to a regional event. In these cases, the family will need to supplement the student account to cover individual travel expenses. All payments made by the family are applied 100% to the student account. These payments are donations and can not be refunded.
Holding Accounts
The student accounts are really paper accounts managed and accounted on paper (well actually on a computer). The actual money is held in one of three different accounts.
- Travis Education Foundation is a non-profit organization that assists the Travis Unified School District groups. TEF is the primary holder of our accounts.
- The Vanden Associated Student Body is the on-campus club and school accounting group. All fundraising associated with the a student group is handled by the ASB.
- Bingo Boosters manages all of the money sent to the school as a result of parents and family working bingo nights.
Treasurer
The treasurer of RPM keeps the books for the team.
