EVENTS WHERE ALCOHOL IS BEING SERVED

When do I need to hire security at my event?

See the Albany Law School Student Handbook at pages 76-77 for the rules on events where alcohol is present. The Student Handbook may be found on your Albany Law School Portal.

“For events where alcohol will be present, the host organization must employ one uniformed security guard if it is estimated that there will be 75 or more persons in attendance. If it is estimated that the event will attract more than 250 persons at one time and that number will remain longer than one hour, two security guards must be employed.”

“Events with 250 or more persons in attendance, one security guard must be at the bar and one security guard must be at the door.”

Students must complete a Student Event Alcohol Form.

Please note that this FAQ response is not a complete depiction of Albany Law School Student Affairs policies. If you should require any further information, please consult the Student Handbook or reach out to Andrea Irizarry and/or Owen Collier.

1. Gather an e-board. You may determine the positions, however, you must have a President and Treasurer.
2. Recruit an advisor. Ask a faculty member to be an advisor for your club.
3. Create your bylaws/charter/constitution. Feel free to use the current bylaws on the SBA Canvas page as a template.
   1. Your charter must have:
      1. Statement of Non-Discriminatory Policy  
      2. Statement of Purpose 
      3. At a minimum, provisions for the positions of President and Treasurer  
   2. Your Bylaws or Constitution must have:
      1. Elections Procedure 
      2. Eligibility for Elections 
      3. Impeachment Procedure for Officer or Member 
      4. Causes for Impeachment of Officer or Member 
      5. Process in which a Member of the Group Becomes an Active Member 
4. Submit a New Organization Request. Submit all of the above information to SBA through the New Organization Request form on the website.
5. Attend the next SBA meeting. A representative for your new club must attend the next SBA meeting to present your club. You will give a small speech about the purpose and the events you hope to have, then you will field some questions for the SBA Senate. At the meeting, during the executive session, SBA Senate members will vote on whether to allow the creation of your club. Within 24 hours you will receive an email informing you whether your club was approved.

Mandatory Event Planning Meetings

What if my organization does not have two officers for the fall semester?

• Per Bylaw Eight Subsection (1)(c), for student organizations to continue to be recognized by the Student Bar Association, there must be at least a President and Treasurer, or their equivalents (i.e., Chair, Chief Justice), provided under your organization’s charter.  Failure to fill both these positions pursuant to your organization’s charter means you are in violation of your organization’s charter.  If your organization does not fill these positions, and continues to violate the charter, Bylaw Eight empowers the Student Bar Association Senate to revoke your organization’s recognition. 
• If you are concerned about your organization’s adherence to Student Bar Association policies, please reach out to Max Sevor (SBAPresident@albanylaw.edu) and/or Noah Jacobs (SBAvp@albanylaw.edu).

Which of my organization’s officers must/may attend this meeting?

• If there are at least two officers of your organization attending this meeting, you have met the requirement.  However, we HIGHLY ENCOURAGE your President, Treasurer, and other officers to attend this meeting.  There will be discussion of critical requirements your organization must meet to hold events for the fall and spring semesters.

What if none of my organization’s officers can attend the times listed on the Excel sheet?

• If none of the times listed on the Excel sheet work for at least two of your officers to attend via Zoom, please contact Andrea Irizarry (airiz@albanylaw.edu) and Owen Collier (ocoll@albanylaw.edu) in a separate email.

Adding Members to Official Organization Roster

Why should I give SBA my organization’s official membership?

• One of the many considerations during the SBA Senate’s budget process is the total amount of official members that are a part of a student organization.  It is one thing for an organization to claim they have X amount of recipients on an email list and an entirely different thing to say that the organization has an official roster of members.  In other words, an email list is not the same as the actual membership of a student organization.  Having an accurate, updated list of members shared with SBA is beneficial to any student organization.
• SBA is responding to student concerns about being included on student organization emails that they no longer wish to receive.  By keeping an updated roster of members, SBA can help coordinate the removal of members from student organization rosters.   

How do I add official members to my student organization?

• Under “Your Org’s Roster” on the SBA website, you may input the list of your organization’s official members.  Each time you use this form, please include your entire membership.

What if my organization wishes to host an event prior to February 4th?

The budget request will be considered one for reimbursement.  Please keep in mind the above list of limitations and items that SBA does not fund in spending money prior to budget approval.  It is not guaranteed that any event prior to this date will be reimbursed as the Senate has the discretionary ability to fund or not fund any event.   This also applies to holding events like past events; funding is not guaranteed.

Furthermore, if your organization does host an event prior to February 4th, and your organization is requesting reimbursement from SBA, you must supply the Executive Treasurer with updated expenditures following the event no later than twenty-four (24) hours prior to the February 4th budget meeting. See SBA Bylaw Ten § 7(a)(i).

What if my organization collects dues?

Per Bylaw Eight § 5, “[d]uring the budgeting process each semester, a group imposing special dues must place within its budget request a section containing the specific amount of dues to be collected from each member of the group, whether there has been an increase over the previous semester, and the reasons for the imposition of such dues.”

Now that the budget process has changed, what should I expect?

In November 2023, SBA amended Bylaw Ten to tweak the budget process. Many of the amendments centered around altering the budget process to create a more equitable budget for all SBA-Chartered Organizations.

Due to these amendments, the Finance Committee will be making initial cuts to SBA-Chartered Organizations’ requests to be either approved, amended, or denied by the SBA Senate at-large. Therefore, between the day the “proposed budget bill” is published and the day of the SBA Senate’s budget meeting, you might see that your organization’s request was amended from what was initially submitted. Please keep in mind that the amendments the Finance Committee may make before the budget meeting are NOT FINAL. The entire SBA Senate has the final say on the entire budget.

General Interest Meetings will now be funded at $60.00 per semester.

How do event reports factor into reimbursement or check requests, and how do I submit one?

Per Bylaw Nine §§ 6(d)–(e), event reports must accompany requests for reimbursement and must include information relating to the number of attendees, how the event went, if the event is held annually, if and how much food/beverage were leftover, what modifications the current board might recommend to a future board if the event were to be held again, and what the total budget allotted and used for the event was.

According to Bylaw Nine § 6(h)(i), if an SBA-Chartered Organization fails to submit an event report prior to the applicable deadline (see the body of the June email about end-of-week requests for reimbursements – meaning the “applicable deadline” is also the end of the week that the event was held during), the organization may be subject to sanctions.  These sanctions may include, but are not limited to, revocation of all or part of SBA funds, suspension of your organization’s charter, or revocation of your organization’s charter.  Therefore, IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT YOU SUBMIT EVENT REPORTS WITH YOUR REIMBURSEMENT REQUESTS.  Alternatively, if you requested an advance check for an event, the event report must still be submitted for your organization to continue to receive funding for future events and maintain its charter.

Event reports may be submitted on the events page.  These are automatically sent to us, similar to your budget requests.

Do I need to prepare a presentation with my organization’s requests for the Senate?

No, not necessary.  The Senate received your organization’s request in full and any amendments that have been made.  Requests have also been supplemented by past funding information where applicable.  The requests have been put into a PowerPoint format already and this will be on display while your organization presents.

What do I need to present if the Senate has my organization’s requests?

Because the SBA Finance Committee is making proposed funding allocations this weekend and these allocations will be sent out to the student body before the budget meeting on February 4th, the presentations serve as a time for each organization to advocate for events they feel should receive more funding, or for an organization to ask that some events be prioritized over another, if necessary, as we do not have the money to fund all events in full.  Additionally, presenters should be prepared to answer questions about events.  These questions might ask for more specific details, for more background, or whether your organization is prioritizing a certain event, for example.  The Senators will already be knowledgeable about what events each organization would like to have, but this allows the Senate a chance to further decide how to best allocate resources this semester.

Do I need to present my organization’s request for multicultural cabaret?

No.  Azad Kurd and the SBA Diversity Committee will be presenting the budget request during the meeting since they were filed under the committee.

You may submit your end-of-year report via this form.