It’s common practice for clubs and school organizations to fund their activities with money they obtain themselves. However, relying on the accuracy of the funding they have can be a struggle.

Due to the way money is received and handled at Manhattan High, club sponsors and department heads are sometimes unaware how much money they actually have in their accounts. While they have access to that information through the school, the process for getting it becomes a hassle when it’s unsure as to what their cash flow looks like.

For example, as junior Student Council members are planning prom they are divided into six individual committees for prom. According to junior sponsor Dustin Duntz, each committee has a $1,000 budget making the total $6,000. However, the soft budget is only set based on what the class knows they have; they know their account has has more than $6,000 but they have no idea what their account total is.

Because of their unawareness, they can’t accurately set a more specific budget for each committee, further creating potential issues for the rest of their spending habits.  

The main issue is that the prom committee, like most of us, is uninformed about financial issues related to organizations like StuCo. Better communication between clubs and the school’s accounting office would be a place to start.

It is the agreement of The Mentor editorial board that club finances should be easily justified with the help of a better budget tracking system. In addition, students, faculty and accounting representatives should find ways of providing all members and stakeholders with accurate communication about club finances.

A better budget tracking system, for StuCo and other clubs, would make sure each club knows their financial status at all times. If each club received regular documents showing their financial records, it would be easier to justify their financial decisions in case they’re asked. With these changes, club members and the school community would know which clubs are struggling and which clubs have excess funds that could be used for more beneficial school purposes.

Without better financial management for the prom committee and other clubs, this issue could keep recurring. How will they know the limitations on what they choose to spend their money on? How will these organizations know which methods of fundraising they still need to execute? These questions and more can all be answered if their budgetary needs were shared in an organized way.

In conclusion, the most beneficial way to avoid a situation like this between our accounting finance department staff and the clubs at MHS would be to communicate more about the clubs’ financial status. Along with communication, separate documents to explicitly provide specific financial records would also be of assistance to avoiding inactive money that could be better spent elsewhere. If these tactics are put into place, our school would most likely be in a better financial state right now.