Event 2: Men's Crew Early Budget/Position Meeting

The student organization meeting that I attended this evening was a preliminary meeting that precedes a larger, officer-elect meeting that will follow in a couple weeks. The purpose of the meeting tonight was to discuss the budget for next year's race season and to discuss any other sorts of business pertaining to the novice men's crew team. Unlike the women's crew team, the men's crew team is not funded by the university. The budget meetings therefore have to be extremely precise, as each member must pay dues of 6 payments of $150 during the course of the seaons (which is both the fall and spring semester). The meeting covered how much money needed to be spent on what products in order to have a successful race season. Further, the meeting discussed how the officers for next year's race season would be elected and what responsibilities they will have.
The meeting greatly contributed to my experience as a university student. Although I had been a part of the crew team for the fall semester, I was completely unaware of where my money went, specifically. I understood that I had to pay funds to be on the team, yet did not know the complexity of keeping the budget straight and keeping the team out of debt. As a university student, and also as a student athlete, it's important to be exposed to all aspects of the university, both publicly and behind the scenes. The meeting opened my eyes to see how hard university faculty and volunteers work in order to keep an organization going. The language of the meeting was completely formal and informative. The audience was only those who were a part of the budget/executive committee, and therefore had to be knowledgeable about the way a budget works. It was an insider vs. insider dialogue.