J.P. Ralston has a bold plan for the SA budget process. It could be risky, but it’s a good plan.

Conference fund requests take up a lot of time in SA meetings; just look at our reports about the weekly SA meetings recently. Ralston thinks this is a waste of SA’s time because they have such a limited fund and can only grant the groups a small fraction of their requests. He wants to end the fund all together and put that money into the Cngress’ overall budget.

He believes SA is not a handout club and, if elected, he plans to encourage and help with fundraising, as well as provide instruction and make sure people know who to talk to about fundraising.

Ralston also has experience that makes him qualified to take on the responsibilities of treasurer. He has served in SA for two years as the COBA representative. He has also been on the finance committee and the internal affairs committee. He has considered running for the position for the past two years, and now he thinks he’s ready. So do we.

Eidson has experience handling money, but has never been involved with SA before and is unfamiliar with conference fund requests or how time consuming they are. He needs a year, possibly working with the executive treasurer as chief financial officer, to get familiar with how to run the SA budget. He will be a good candidate in a year.

Goodman is experienced handling money; he’s worked as a bank teller for nearly two years. But, like Eidson, he has no experience in SA and is running for a position that relies on experience in SA.