Last week, club leaders participated in the Allocations Board Marathon to request funding for the spring semester. "The marathon process is a stretch of a few days in which the members of the A-board sit down and listen to all clubs that want to request funds for the coming semester," Allocations Board Member Mark Schlangel '05 said. "Only clubs that will need money should attend; if a club will not need any money they do not need to attend."

Club leaders were required to fill out an online marathon form and answer basic questions about their club, as well as include a detailed list of supplies and costs for the spring semester. They also had to sign up for and attend a 10 minute meeting during the Marathon session with the Allocations Board if they hoped to receive money.

The Marathon funding process was created to provide the Allocations Board with an idea of upcoming events and their costs, as well as to facilitate different clubs' needs.

"Marathon is the time when we get an accurate outline of what clubs plan for the coming semester so we can fairly distribute funds, so that each club has the best opportunity to thrive and accomplish their semester's goals," Schlangel said.

When a club applies for funding, the Allocation Board judges it on a pre-set list of criteria.

"We do look for certain aspects of an event during marathon, such as number of people that are expected to attend, whether it benefits as much of the Brandeis community as possible and whether the event plans have been finalized or are in the preliminary stage," Schlangel said.

Organizations like the Tae Kwon Do club request money for new and better equipment and instructor fees, club president David Silver '03 said. However, with hundreds of clubs on campus vying for funding, the process can become complicated.

"The process itself is very easy. The problem is that there are so many clubs competing for money," Silver said. "But, usually (the Allocations Board) is good at accommodating and doing the best they can."

Allocations Board Member Ari Kahan '04 said the ever-increasing number of clubs seeking money on campus is becoming a problem.

"We have a lot of silly and superfluous clubs, and a lot could be combined," Kahan said. "There are too many draws on finite resources."

According to Schlangel, the large number of clubs has led to an increase in both the number and amount of funding requests.

"We have to look at how much is requested versus how much we have to allocate," Schlangel said. "This year for example we have nearly 150 clubs requesting almost $400,000, while the A-Board only has about $150,000 for the entire semester." He added that at least 10 percent of the funding is being saved for the appeals process.

In comparison, last year's Marathon had about 110 clubs asking for about $315,000 to $330,000, Schlangel said.

Kahan said that another problem with the allocations process is that there is not enough selectivity involved.

"The senate's chartering process is terrible," Kahan said. "As I understand it, they only look for duplicity of purpose, and, if there is none, they charter the club."

The Allocations Board cannot unallocate money that has already been allocated, leading to additional criticism of the funding process.

"A lot of the A-Board money that was allocated is never spent," Kahan said. "So this semester, I hope that we push off a lot of stuff to appeals, to avoid that limbo status for the money."