Jesse, a friend and fellow former Imprinter, e-mailed the Imprint board and others opposing the proposed policy to pay section editors $2,000.

Imprint president e-mailed Jesse back and then later e-mailed the Imprint mailing list to say that the board had rejected the changes.
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Update: Imprint president e-mail out that night that the board had rejected the changes to the honoraria policy.

The official student newspaper at Waterloo, Imprint, is holding its annual general meeting Monday and is proposing a policy of paying editorial staff large sums of money for “volunteering.”

The honoraria would range from $2,500 per term for the assistant editor and $2,000 for section editors to 500 for positions like photo editor, $250 for their assistants. The policy proposal also suggests $20 per >300 word contributions by senior staff and $10 for junior staff contributions.

I estimate the total cost per year would be about $56,000. I can’t be certain because at least one position isn’t listed and may have been left out in error.

Changing the policy is a worthwhile; the current version of the policy set no levels and left it up to the board of directors of Imprint Publications, Waterloo. Under that version, the board could have set honoraria at high levels with no restriction from the policy. The amounts proposed, however, are far too high.
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We gathered to remember Jeffrey Stephen Aho on Monday.

Friends, brothers, classmates, teachers, and family gathered in the Festival Room on the Waterloo campus for an event that, if it were for merely social reasons, Jeff would have loved.

There were wine, cheese, crackers, fruit, vegetables and hors d’oeuvres, but people didn’t really eat or drink. I estimated about 180 people there.
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I remember all the phone calls I have ever received and learned that a friend or family member had died. When we were told our mother was gone, when my grandma passed, after my uncle had died on my birthday, or my best friend’s sister had died the next day on what would have been my mother’s birthday. Then there were others like when I found out that two close friends had been killed by the trauma of an avalanche.

I got another such phone call last Thursday — actually 0:21 on Friday. I had just gotten back from a late indoor soccer match and was eating some cheese and salamini. Then my mobile phone buzzed. I answered it and my whole perspective changed. Allan told me that Jeff was dead. I was shocked. I didn’t expect to hear that. I told him I would be by the house.

It seemed like the longest drive focused on the road and each light as my mind wandered and wondered how everyone was and what was happening. I got there and there were plenty of people at the Sigma Chi house somber and calling others to give them the news.
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Being aware of behaviour and being able to measure it is necessary to affect or control it. With personal finances it is important to know what you are spending and know what you are earning to be able to spend according to your priorities.

I tracked my spending and matched it against a budget in an Excel spreadsheet years ago, but stopped when my computer failed. Last month I returned to the practice using Google Docs. It worked out great.

I saved more than a thousand dollars and put money away for future capital purchases. It helped that I had three bi-weekly pay cheques in January, but I was paid less because of taking time off at Christmas and I had some irregular expenses that either won’t be there in future months or will be paid from my “capital” account.

I’m not just doing it for my own benefit, but I intend part of the mission of Waterloo Banking Project to be education in financial management, so this is good exploration of the possibilities.

Below is a cropped screenshot of my spreadsheet with obviously fake numbers (click on it to see the full version of my expense tracking and budgeting spreadsheet).

Basically, I estimate my income and regular expenses to set my budget then every time I pay for anything, I enter the data into the spreadsheet.

For each expense, I type in what part of the budget it is applies to and the equation shown adds it up.

I expect I am going to change the different budget accounts to include philanthropy (for charitable donations) and to change the scope of some of the other sections.

I know there are other tools out there for personal finances, but this one is working out okay for now.

Let me know what you think, or give me suggestions.