Picking up the tab for SCONA
By Stacey Roberts
StaffWriter
Financing for the Student
Conference on National Affairs
is a year-long process involving
many hours of personal inter
views, phone calls and some
travel.
Biyan Tantzen, finance sub
chairman for SCONA, says all
75 members are involved in the
fund-raising process and are
encouraged to participate in at
least two fund drive activities.
Tantzen, a sophomore eco
nomics major, says there is no
university funding for SCONA
and all funds are raised
through the efforts of the com
mittee members.
Tantzen says there are three
main fund-raising efforts.
The largest and most
sucessfiil effort is SCONA’s use
of fund drives.
c<1 We begin the fund drives
during the spring semester by
conducting personal interviews
and making phone calls to top
businesses around the state,”
Tantzen says. “It’s a great op
portunity for students to inter
act with bank executives and
other top entrepreneurs.”
Tantzen says students are
able to open doors and make
contacts normally not estab
lished for another 10 to 15
years.
“The first people contacted
are previous donors, many of
which are past SCONA partici
pants and are very prominent
in the business world,” Tantzen
says. “Next we contact referrals
of our previous donors and then
past SCONA executives.”
Students also travel to all ma
jor cities in the state and some
have traveled as far as New
York, Canada and Mexico to so
licit donations.
“The students travel not only
to raise funds but also to get a
better geographical representa
tion of delegates to the confer
ence,” Tantzen says.
Theresa Chiang, program di
rector of the Memorial Student
Center and advisor to SCONA,
says last year’s conference was
focused on China and four
committee members were able
to travel to China to get dis
cussion ideas, recruit delegates
and, inevitably, raise money.
“The MSC was sponsoring a
trip to China and SCONA
loaned money to the four stu
dents to go,” Chiang says.
Putting on a conference as
large as SCONA, which has 150
delegates registered so far this
year, is not cheap.
Tantzen says SCONA costs
approximatly $100,0D0 per year
to finance, over half of which is
raised from fund drives alone.
SCONA’s next largest source
of funds is provided by founda
tions and corporations. Tant
zen says grant proposals are
sent yearly to businesses re
questing donations. Although
approximately $35,000 or one-
third of SCONA’s budget is
raised this way, this sort of
fund raising is affected by eco
nomic ups and downs. SCONA
was hurt by the decline in the
oil industry, Tantzen says, and
the conference lost some of its
normal contributors.
Other types of donations are
more stable, including a 31-
year-old $3,000 Houston En
dowment, a $5,000 endowment
from an anonymous donor and
a newly created $5,000 RKG En
dowment, all received yearly..
Tantzen says a favorite
SCONA story involves the Hous
ton Endowment which, in ad
dition to its normal contribu
tion, gladly sent an extra $3,000
a few years ago to help bail the
financially troubled conference
out. It turned out that SCONA
raised enough money to cover
expenses so the conference re
turned the money to the Hous
ton Endowment.
“The Houston Endowment
was so surprised at the honesty
and integrity of SCONA they
have been with us ever since,”
Tantzen says. “They had never
had anyone be so honest befo
re.”
SCONA’s third way of raising
money is through delegate fees
and miscelleneous sales such as
t-shirts and other parapherna
lia. Registration fees are $95,
and along with the miscelle
neous sales, these sources con
tribute approximately $15,000
to SCONA.
Chiang says this year’s con
ference is close to achieving the
full financing needed and is
sure there will not be a deficit.
A few times in the past, this
wasn’t always so, she says. One
way SCONA is trying to ensure
financial solvency is by setting
up permanent endowment
fund, a possibility the confer
ence is investigating.
“As SCONA continues to
grow,” Chiang says, “students
won’t have the time or energy
to contend with fund raising.
The endowment would serve as
extra security.”
Tantzen says the idea for the
endowment was conceived last
year at SCONA’s 30th anniver
sary, where 27 of the past 30
SCONA chairmen were gath
ered for a celebration.
“So many of our past chair
men have benefitted from their
experiences with SCONA,” Tan
tzen says, “and they are willing
to put something back into the
organization. They also under
stand how important it is for us
to stay completely student run,
without outside interference
from individuals and university
funding. We didn’t want the en
dowment to come from an in
dividual because that some
times brings negative
connotations.”
The goal for the endowment
is to raise approximately
$20,000 to use as a buffer, not
as a yearly source of income.
“SCONA’s budget is so large
that if we’re off a mere 3 per
cent that means we have a
$3,000 deficit,” Tantzen says.
“If we have this buffer zone, we
won’t have to worry as much
and if we have a surplus we can
put it back into the endow
ment.”
An advisory board has only
met once to establish goals, pol
icies and member requirements
but will meet officially for the
first time during this year’s con
ference.
Tantzen says there are 12
voting members on the advisory
board, including previous
SCONA chairmen, SCONA’s ad
visor, and the MSC director.
There are also three non-vot
ing members which include the
finance subchairman, the plan
ning subchairman and the vice-
chairman of fund drives.
“Estimates show that SCONA
wall make its $110,000 budget
this year,” Tantzen says. “That
includes the purchase of a com
puter to help with our fund
raising efforts.”