Funds and Restrictions - VTAstrobotics/Documentation GitHub Wiki

Contents

Prerequisites

To understand the content on this page, you should be on admin and thus have access to the private Resources folder.

Overview

Name Direct Spend Expires Robot Materials Tools Manufacturing Outreach Supplies Merch Plane Tickets Rental Cars Lodging Gas Food Registration Fees
EOF ❌ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ βœ“ βœ”οΈ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌
LNF ❌ βœ”οΈ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ ❌ ❌ βœ”οΈ
Foundation ❌ ❌ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ βœ“ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ
EF βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ ❔ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌
LMT βœ”οΈ ❌ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ βœ“ βœ“ ❌ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ βœ“ βœ“ βœ”οΈ
AstroBank βœ”οΈ ❌ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ βœ”οΈ

Legend

  • βœ”οΈ Definitely yes
  • ❌ Definitely no
  • βœ“ Probably yes
  • β˜“ Probably no
  • ❔ No idea

Notes

  • If ❌ Direct Spend, it's via reimbursement only
    • LMT can only direct spend engineering costs (not most travel costs, see below)
  • Tools includes software
  • Manufacturing is like sending to a machine shop or paying for shop time

Student Engineers' Council (SEC)

The SEC is a group of VT engineering students who get an absurd amount of money donated by companies. They tell companies that they will do the hard work of finding out how to allocate funds to various design teams on campus. After all, they are students, so they would know best. Companies can donate large sums to them, getting what they wantβ€”a large tax write-offβ€”quickly and easily.

Interestingly, students in the SEC are almost always part of other organizations that request SEC funding themselves, which creates an obvious (but ignored) conflict of interest.

To be eligible for SEC funding, you must

  • attend their GAMs (General Assembly Meetings)
    • these are always an excellent example of a meeting that should've been an email. It's good practice for corporate life.
  • volunteer for at least 3 hours
    • just check people in at Expo
    • can volunteer at other SEC events
  • have used at least 75% of the funding awarded from the previous year
    • i.e. to receive funding for Spring 2024 EOF, you need to have spent 75% of Spring 2023 EOF

Submit a request for funding using the links they send to you via email. Join their mailing list here. Expect one early Fall and another early Spring. Like August and January. Be careful: if you request it, they can be very picky about not approving a different item. It varies by who the DOP (Director Of Philanthropy) is. Some are chill, some aren't.

Historically, they had a funding packet, a brief PDF filled with all the need-to-know information about their funds. I was a big fan of it. It seems, though, they have decided to remove it from their website. I have the 2022 packet saved here, which you may choose to reference lacking alternatives.

Engineering Organization Fund (EOF)

Can reimburse directly to an individual or to the team's Foundation account. For some dumb reason that I don't understand they can only reimburse via check. No direct deposit. They can now reimburse via direct deposit!! Directions on how to set that up will be provided when we learn how.

Does not fund any promotional items.

Reimbursements are submitted via the form on the SEC's website.

I recommend purchasing the item, reimbursing yourself via the Foundation account, and reimbursing the Foundation with the SEC money. It's fastest this way. Hopefully, they will be able to directly deposit to Foundation accounts in the near future.

Lynn Nystrom Fund (LNF)

It can only be reimbursed through the Foundation account. I think this is directly deposited.

Does not fund gas, food, or promotional items.

Aerospace and Ocean Engineering (AOE) Department

The AOE Financial Services Coordinator (FSC), Erin, is your main point of contact with the AOE department funds. She is your biggest advocate! Her email address is on this document in the Resources folder.

Foundation account

Virginia Tech Foundation is a nonprofit organization that is not VT. They basically help VT manage investments from donations. They

  • take 5% from each donation
  • are tax-exempt
  • occasionally nitpick
  • currently hold most of Astrobotics' money

We interact with the Foundation through the AOE FSC, Erin. She handles a lot of back-and-forth with them so we don't have to. To spend, see this document.

While the Foundation mostly operates off of reimbursement, it can pre-pay Fleet rental cars or Enterprise in Christiansburg, competition registration fees, and airfare. The treasurer should schedule a meeting a few months in advance of any travel with the AOE FSC.

Note: We aren't even supposed to have a Foundation account. Since we are an RSO, we should just have an off-campus bank account.

For travel, get a complete list of all students' names in a given AirBnB. Reimbursements can only be submitted AFTER travel is done.

Engineering Fund (EF)

The Engineering Fund is a use-it-or-lose-it annually awarded sponsorship for AOE design teams. We are in the AOE because of our faculty advisor, Dr. Shinpaugh. We usually get a few thousand.

Please note, if you use the EF for reimbursement, it

  • explicitly banned Amazon purchases
  • has a $10 order minimum

To directly spend, use the AOE order form linked in this document.

Lockheed Martin (LMT) account

I'm pretty sure this is exactly like the Foundation account except we can also direct spend using the aforementioned AOE order form, which can be found here. Note that the direct spend for travel is the same (i.e. it can only prepay registration, airfare, and some specific rental cars).

Off-campus bank account (AstroBank)

In the summer of 2023, Student Affairs informed the team of pending donations. To receive, we needed to open a bank account for our organization. We registered an EIN number and opened an account with Wells Fargo in October. By December, the funds had been transferred.

The beauty of the AstroBank account is that we can buy things today without reimbursement, so team members never need to front the money. There are no restrictions, so there is no holdup for squabbling over the minutiae. You can order at midday or midnight, weekday or weekend.

To spend, you either need a debit or credit card. It will be in your name. To gain access, you must go to the Wells Fargo branch in Blacksburg with another person whose name is on the account. Then you can get a card. So, before you graduate, you must ensure someone else has access to the account!

To receive more donations, you should instruct sponsors to donate via the Student Affairs online giving page and then selecting Astrobotics at Virginia Tech. Though this adds delays over receiving directly to the bank account, I'm not sure if that would let corporations get their tax write-offs, so I've always just gone through Student Affairs.

See more information here.