The Student Services Finance Committee elected representatives to three leadership positions, including Rep. David Vines as committee chair, in its first meeting of the twentieth session Thursday.
Vines was elected over Rep. Jeff Ehlers, both who served on SSFC in its nineteenth session.
Several members of Associated Students of Madison expressed that Vines is hard working and has reached out to both students and General Student Services Fund groups.
SFFC Rep. Elizabeth Olsen said Vines is very “approachable” and “caring.” She added that at first she was confused about some of the aspects of ASM, but Vines sat down with her and took the time to explain.
“David embodies everything about being a leader: compassionate, dedicated and experienced,” Olsen said. “But he also goes above and beyond that.”
Still, previous SSFC members, including Richard Rolland and Joe Vanden Avond, said they believed Ehlers would be more capable of taking on the position because of his knowledge of non-allocable funds.
“[Ehlers’] finance and accounting background will be important, especially with working with the [non-allocable funds],” Rolland said.
Vines said one of his main goals for SSFC is to gain control of non-allocable funds.
“The only way to [move forward] is to have a year-long concerted effort to work with the non-allocable advisory boards and work with administration to get the infrastructure in place that’s necessary to give students control,” Vines said.
SSFC also elected Ian Malmstadt to vice chair over Rep. German Larrain.
Vanden Avond said he thinks the biggest problems SSFC will address this session will deal with non-allocable funds. He added Malmstadt already has working relationships with directors of non-allocable funds including, Rec Sports Director John Horn and Wisconsin Union Director Mark Guthier.
Malmstadt also added he has previously worked with and maintained relationships with several directors of University Health Services.
Malmstadt said he believed he would be a “step ahead” of newer members because he has previous experience with SSFC and its processes.
“When I started this whole thing I never thought I’d care so much about student fees, but when you go through the process and see a lot of the frustration that evolves, you get frustrated ... and there’s a lot of things I want to change,” he said.
Dylan Fiedler, who was also elected as secretary, said he is very excited and ready to take on writing minutes in a fast-paced environment.
“I’m really glad for this kind of challenge and expanding beyond that after this position,” Fiedler said.
Also at the meeting, SSFC approved the recent change to their Standing Rules including a $100,000 budget cap for all GSSF groups, excluding costs for professional staff and project assistants.
