Last semester, the Finance Board (formerly the Allocations Board) held its first "Mini-Marathon" to fund events planned for the beginning of this semester. Regular marathon sessions will now be held in the first two weeks of every semester. This semester, the Regular Marathon appointments are tomorrow and Wednesday.

Previously, clubs had to lay out all their financial plans for the following semester at the end of the current semester in order to participate in Marathon and receive Student Union funds.

"It was obviously difficult for [clubs] to plan that far ahead," Union President Josh Brandfon said.

The new system will allow clubs to delay those plans until the beginning of the next semester, when they are more easily finalized, Brandfon said.

When the regular Marathon was held at the end of the semester, "it occur[ed] at a time when club leaders are only freshly elected and at a very academically hectic time of the semester," Finance Board Chair Mark Schlangel said.

"With the regular Marathon being later, it allows more time for planning, hopefully resulting in a decrease in the total amount of requests and more accurate cost reporting in those requests received," Schlangel said.

"This system will also allow the Finance Board to better manage the budget, yielding better funding for clubs."

According to Schlangel, funding requests should fall into at least one of three categories to be considered in a Mini-Marathon:

l Category 1: An event occurring in or for which payment is due in the first two weeks of the upcoming semester.

l Category 2: An event occurring anytime in the upcoming semester for which a budget is needed over break for proper planning.

l Category 3: A request with firmly established details.