Programming Board printed and distributed its first-ever calendar of events a publication made possible in part by a reorganization of its leadership structure during Winter term earlier this week, according to Tashzna Jones '12, who served as Programming Board's public relations director last term.
Programming Board decided to restructure during a Fall 2010 retreat, and implemented the changes throughout the winter, Jones said.
Programming Board previously funded groups belonging to the Council on Student Organizations, according to executive director Margaret McCue '11. This past winter, however, the Undergraduate Finance Committee notified Programming Board that it would no longer fund such groups.
"They expanded the COSO budget," McCue said. "UFC decided that COSO groups would get funding just from COSO."
Programming Board's budget which is split between co-sponsorships, big weekends, concerts and general programming has not immediately changed in response to UFC's decision, according to budget chair Jalea Moses '12. Moses said she does not think Programming Board's budget will decrease during the coming year. Money that would have been allocated for COSO groups was instead transferred to the concert budget, resulting in "a lot more concerts" this spring, she said.
Leaders of COSO did not return requests for comment by press time.
Programming Board's executive board previously consisted of two programming chairs, two budget chairs, a historian, a secretary and a webmaster. Under the new structure, the executive board includes an executive director, two programming directors, two budget chairs, a public relations director, a concert chair, a secretary and a webmaster, Jones said.
A lack of internal organization spurred the decision to restructure Programming Board, according to McCue.
"Certain people ended up being in charge of the vast majority of the work," McCue said. "There was no one in charge of anything and the programming chairs didn't have anyone to help them."
Problems with member retention also contributed to the decision to restructure the organization, Jones said.
"We realized that in the beginning of a term people are really interested in Programming Board, but interest would dwindle because people weren't as involved as they would like to be," Jones said.
Under the new structure, there will be more opportunities for members of Programming Board to become involved in planning various events, she said.
The programming directors oversee the subcommittees that organize trips, recreation and Programming Board traditions like Bingo and Karaoke Nights, recreation, crafts, films and other social events. The public relations director oversees a historian and advertiser. The Programming and public relations director will appoint subcommittee chairs.
Programming Board will also have a public relations committee that includes an advertising subcommittee, both of which will be incorporated into Programming Board for the first time, Jones said.
The old structure did not allow for more than one event per week because it was not "physically possible" for the two programming chairs to plan more, McCue said.
"We can plan the greatest events in the world but if no one knows what's going on, no one will show up," Jones said. "We have to think of new ways of reaching students."
The new structure will allow Programming Board to plan events a term in advance, according to McCue. The majority of Spring term events were planned during the winter, and Programming Board is currently planning events for next fall. This "advance planning" facilitated the greater and more even distribution of the Spring term events calendar, McCue said.
Advance planning also allows for increased advertising, Jones said.
"Before we didn't have as many posters because you can't just do it overnight," she said. "Now our advertiser can create the posters in time to have them up and displayed all over campus."
Jones said the changes made to Programming Board will positively affect the entire student body.
"The great thing is that we can really reach people that we haven't reached before," she said. "We want to find out what's important to people."
