University Bureaucracy.

[RollingCamel]

While things are looking positive lately and getting our first sponsor and 2 more in progress, we face a problem.

The check is written with the projects name on it under attention of the faculty adviser and is sent to the university. Then to buy something we must get them several offers and these offers should be from companies in Egypt. If we want to buy something internationally we have to sign the receipt or quote from the department's head then the Dean then it goes to the "Department of purchases" then it is sent to the university management either to accept or not.

I asked how much time it would take and they say at least 10 days. I know one shouldn't deal under the table but if there is a possibility to or not to accept is quite worrying.

How things are done at your university?

[kapps]

We have an account at the on-campus bank that the president, treasurer, and faculty advisor of our SAE club have control over. Sponsorship money goes into this account and we can purchase things without the school even knowing/caring about it. Since we only have checks (no debit card), we normally purchase something ourselves and then get reimbursed for it via check.

We also get money from the student government, it's actually the main body of our budget. This process is more like you describe. We fill out a purchase request form, have two of our authorized members sign it along with the faculty advisor, and bring it to the purchasing department. We have a good relationship with the purchasing people so we can usually order it with them. Normally, we're the only one's who know anything about the parts that we're ordering so we've never been denied. We don't have to get multiple quotes to purchase this way, though.

[TorqueWrench]

SAE has had a bit of wiggle room in the past with this on our campus. We are in a bit of a unique situation as we are not affiliated directly with any academic department on campus, but rather an engineering club under the student government. In the past, we were able to simply purchase items on our credit cards and submit for reimbursement afterwards. This year, we have to put in requests two days ahead of buying it simply to get approval.

[RollingCamel]

The thing is that official transactions in Egypt are very slow and there was an incident before that the University management didn't accept a purchase which destroyed a project.

About getting stuff inside Egypt, we are trying to whenever possible, but lots of stuff can't be get here.

[Bemo]

We founded a non-profit organisation, were money we get from our sponsors goes to. That organisation is completely under student control and we can use that money as we like. The alternative would also be similar as you described it. Bringing offers to uni and so on.

Another advantage is that also when it comes to purchasing things from abroad, we are an own organisation with an own tax number and so on. I don't know which possibilities to found similar organisations exist in other contries, but I can say, that it works pretty well for us. It gives us a lot of independence and keeps us out of a lot of bureaucracy, although it is some additional effort.

[RollingCamel]

Stuttgart....hmm FSAE's Ferrari. We guys drool here when we see your work.

The problem is that this is a graduation project. However, i have the goal based on our work to reactivate our SAE Chapter for other students to join and create other cars after us. I could manage to make the team under the umbrella of Student Union and in fact I'm a member of Al-Safwa club which is an extension of Bibliotheca Alexandrina so we can have its blessings too.

But until we finish our work successfully we have to deal with the university.

[Æssahættr]

At Auckland we have both our own bank account that is under student control and an account at University.

Most of the sponsorship goes into our account at University. We can use this money in two ways - by getting Uni to buy stuff for us, and by buying something and then getting reimbursed from the account. The reimbursements go into the team account and in then distributed to the people who spent the money. The second way is much faster, and we only use the first when we have to (such as AP racing, Aurora, Goodyear)

Assuming your faculty advisor is compassionate, see if your faculty will accept reimbursements. This might give you a little bit more freedom, though is a bit of paperwork (for us at least).

[Malcolm Thomson]

We are a first year team also. Our budget so far is entirely from the University. We have a budget allocated and the head of department is responsible for signing off any purchase orders, then we just buy the parts.

The way it works, we write up the purchase order, take it to him to sign, and then go to the workshop storeman and purchase the parts on the department credit card. The suppliers and sponsors we have dealt with so far have preferred to give us parts/services/discounts rather than money, so we have no need for another bank account this year.

This works well for us so far, the only thing that could kill us is if the Uni decides to cut our budget because we havent spent it all at the time it is reviewed!

[RollingCamel]

Our University is not willing to put a dime into any project. It is a public university and has suffered so much from "free education" causing it to be overcrowded, understaffed and under-equipped. So the result is that not a single Egyptian University is listed in the top 500. Although, we have the the world's oldest university 'Al-Azhar" and University of Alexandria and Cairo was top notch in the mid 20th century. All that thanks to Gammal Abd El-Nasser.

So from other graduates they say that if a request goes to the University administration it never comes back..

[Adambomb]

FWIW I don't ever like to count on the university when it comes to money. Ours at least acts like they like our project (most of the time), and what we get from them amounts to something like 2% of our budget. And even that money comes from student activity fees. We have also had problems where private sponsors have sent us checks addressed to the university, and we never see or even hear about them. Since then we've had to be very explicit that all checks get sent directly to us, and that there are no indications from outside of the envelope that it is a check. Those bastards will skim off the top any way they can. They even tried to make it so any donation to a university entity had to go through a central funding office on campus, luckily we stopped that from getting passed.

Luckily once it gets to that level the only stumbling block left is campus accounting, and getting money refunded is surprisingly not hard as long as you comply with their rigorous process that would make many professional accountants wring their hands. They have also given us a credit card a couple years ago, with the caveat that it is given to one team leader, and any overdrafts or "unofficial activity" gets charged directly to that team leader's university bill.

[RollingCamel]

So how would the sponsor gets his tax cut?

[t21jj]

Originally posted by RollingCamel:
So how would the sponsor gets his tax cut?

We're an official student organization with the University and our account is with campus accounting with a University approved student treasurer. We can provide any necessary tax documents required as a student group affiliated with the University(the University gives us the required tax documents). Just like any other student group we can do our own fund raising.

[RollingCamel]

I'm planning to reactivate the SAE Chapter we have but i want to do so after we finish our car in order to have something to build upon and time. However, if thats the case i would start working on it after i finish my exams.

[RollingCamel]

Okay, we have started ordering some purchase last week. The stuff was signed by several ppl and the dean in the faculty then sent to the university to be signed by the University Head and is left to rot 3-4 days then will be sent back to the faculty where a committee will check the orders and see if the products aren't made in Egypt and has no other alternatives. If passed, it will then be sent to Cairo so the purchase will be made from the central bank......

WTF!! For a differential and Power Commander!! There are still lot of stuff to be purchased; steering rack, spherical joints, tripods and etc...

[Adambomb]

Yeah, that's a mess. What are the odds the committee will find something THEY deem to be a "reasonable" in-country substitute, like say a differential for a light duty truck? We run into similar problems when getting allocations from the college for stuff. Of course they're just student committees, so we can just tell them they're dumb.

[BuckeyeEngines]

Is it your university that stipulates that you must buy from your country or the government? We have a credit card through the university and they pay the bill through our account and review purchases and track receipts to make sure they are things we should be buying.

Im thinking you could get alot of things from the same place, like a large racing supplier, thus only needing one approval.

[Zac]

Is it possible to establish one of your team members as the "part supplier?"

I've found that one of the best ways around university bureaucracy is smoke, mirrors, and your own fake bureaucracy.

[Adambomb]

Originally posted by Zac:
I've found that one of the best ways around university bureaucracy is smoke, mirrors, and your own fake bureaucracy.

I am somewhat hesitant to respond to this (in the event it could be later used as incriminating evidence), but I do consider myself an honest man, so I should just come out with it:

Y E S !!!!

[RollingCamel]

Originally posted by Zac:
Is it possible to establish one of your team members as the "part supplier?"

I've found that one of the best ways around university bureaucracy is smoke, mirrors, and your own fake bureaucracy.

I'm not sure how would it be possible.

[RollingCamel]

For nearly a month the differential and braking components are bring left to rot in the customs. The university should pay around $500 for customs from our sponsorship money, however the person to get the approval from isn't around. And the customs now wants us to pay $200 more as a penalty for taking so long. 'F'ing awesome!!

[Adambomb]

Typical university fashion. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif