Recruitment of Directors
(October 20, 2023)
The Recruitment Committee will be established during the Board of Directors' Beginning of Term meeting, comprising the On-Term Executive Director and three other Directors appointed by the Board. The Recruitment Committee will be responsible for overseeing the complete recruitment process for all Board positions. This includes, but is not restricted to, activities such as marketing, evaluation, interviewing, and appointing Directors for the upcoming term(s).
DISBURSEMENT OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FUNDING
(June 12, 2023; replaces previous)
This funding will be awarded at the discretion of the Director, based on the guidelines set below, who will consult with the Board of Directors when appropriate. The Director shall report the disbursements of these funds to the Board of Directors at the next meeting. An Applicant can only receive funding once each academic term and the total Funding awarded to individual applicants cannot exceed $750 each Academic year (September – August). Any exception to these guidelines need to be approved by the Board of Directors.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FUND
(June 12, 2023; replaces previous)
Each term, the maximum of $750 or 6.25% of the termly income shall be made available to fund professional development activities for individual undergraduate mathematics students (Also check Stale-Dating of Funds standing resolution for additional sources of funding). Further, the on-stream Director may request a temporary increase from Funding Council if they deem it necessary.
ADMINISTRATION EXPENSE ALLOCATION
(December 5, 2022; replaces previous)
Each term, the maximum of $2750 or 3.75% of the income shall be made available to fund Administration expenses.
STALE-DATING OF FUNDS
(December 5, 2022; replaces previous)
All funds awarded must be disbursed within one year following the end of the term in which they were awarded. Funds not disbursed by this time will return to the pool of unallocated income. 6.25% of the undisbursed funding will be allocated to the PDF. Exceptions to this policy will be infrequent and must be approved by the on-stream Director.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT POLICY RESOLUTION
(April 5, 2021)
In recognition of the contributions by the undergraduate Mathematics students of the University of Waterloo to the University of Waterloo Mathematics Endowment Fund (MEF) and the principle of transparency and accountability, all organizations and initiatives receiving project funding grants are expected to acknowledge the contribution by MEF in a reasonable, accessible, and verifiable manner. Examples include, but are not limited to: the acknowledgement of MEF in a social media post and the visible placement of MEF’s current logo.
Subsequently, as a condition for granting funding, MEF requires proof of such acknowledgement at the time from the individual or organization requesting reimbursement. The on-stream Executive Director may exercise discretion to waive this condition in extremely limited circumstances, where this condition would cause undue hardship.
EXECUTIVE REPORT
(April 2, 2020)
An Executive Director of the Mathematics Endowment Fund (MEF) is to write a one or two-page report about their impact and activities as the Executive Director for their term of responsibility.
The report shall be presented to the Board of Directors, the Faculty of Mathematics Financial Officer, the website of the fund, and preferably, at the fund’s General Meeting.
Any information that is deemed to be sensitive in the Executive Report shall be redacted for posting to the fund’s website.
The report should consist of, but not limited to: number and amount of Professional Funding Development proposals that were approved and requested, number and amount of Project Funding proposals received and approved, marketing initiatives for the term with their outcomes, new initiatives implemented by the fund this term, and any notable activities and events impacting the fund.
The Executive Report shall be considered by the Board of Directors in the evaluation of the performance of the Executive Director and their eligibility for the Outstanding Executive Director scholarship.
MATHEMATICS ENDOWMENT FUND OUTSTANDING EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR SCHOLARSHIP
(April 2, 2020)
The following policy should be invoked when determining if the Executive Director of the Mathematics Endowment Fund (MEF) performed an outstanding job that would entitle them worthy of the Outstanding Director Scholarship.
The scholarship shall be divided into four sections: clerical performance, marketing, and financial performance, and improvements of the current endowment fund.
Each section shall be governed by different bodies within the Mathematics Endowment Fund.
Clerical performance shall amount for $1000, marketing performance shall amount for $500, financial performance shall amount for $1000, and improvements shall be awarded $250. The maximum amount that can be awarded to the director is $2750. All amounts stated in this document are to be in Canadian dollars (CAD).
The total of the award without the improvement sections is $2500, and $2750 with the improvement section.
Clerical Performance:
The Director is to have a constant stream of communication with the Board of Directors, Funding Council, and the Mathematics undergraduate students at the University of Waterloo about the status of the fund. This includes but not limited to: replying to emails in a timely manner, organizing meetings such as the: Funding Presentations, Beginning of Term, and End of Term meetings, create the Funding Book, and setting the deadlines for accepting funding proposals, and recruiting funding council members, and ensuring that necessary announcements are being communicated to the public. This section shall be graded by the Board of Directors with support of the Executive Report. If they believed that the Director performed according to their tasks, a $1000 scholarship shall be awarded to the Director.
Marketing Performance:
The Director is to create marketing strategies to inform the students about the activities of the fund such as: funding council, project proposals, and Professional Development Fund. This includes but is not limited to: updating the website on a regular basis, managing whoever is designated to perform marketing tasks, if they decide to recruit such an individual, managing the fund's social media presence, and promoting the initiatives undertaken by the fund. This section shall be evaluated by the Board of Directors with support of the Executive Report. If they believe that the Director is satisfied with their Marketing activities, a $500 scholarship shall be awarded to the Director.
Financial Performance:
The Director is to process, record, and organize reimbursements in a timely manner, which includes ensuring that relevant paperwork and records can be located in the event of a university audit. The Director is to determine the funding available for next term and compile current opt-out percentages for the knowledge of the Board of Directors and any relevant persons. The Director is also to ensure that reimbursement procedures and documents are being followed by the requestor. This section shall be evaluated by the Faculty of Mathematics Financial Officer and the Dean or their Delegate with support of the Executive Report. If they believed that the Director performed according to their tasks a $1000 scholarship shall be awarded to the Director.
Growth Performance:
This section should only be awarded if the Director did tasks that would improve the future of the Mathematics Endowment Fund. The Director should be able to explain the improvements and its benefits to the Board of Directors and also describe such in the Executive Report. This section should be evaluated by the Board of Directors with support of the Executive Report. If they believed that the Director performed according to their tasks a $250 scholarship shall be awarded to the Director. An unanimous agreement by the Board of Directors that are present at the End of Term meeting and the next Beginning of Term is required for this portion of the scholarship to be awarded.
The scholarship shall be determined during the End of Term meeting of the Board of Directors. However, if the Board of Directors believes that there is insufficient information presented, they are able to delay the awarding of the scholarship to push it to the Beginning of Term meeting of the Board of Directors that occurs in the next term.
There shall be only one Scholarship awarded at the end totaling the sum of all the different sections.
TRANSITION POLICY
(April 2, 2020)
This policy should be invoked at the end of the term when the outgoing Executive Director is onboarding the incoming Executive Director of the Mathematics Endowment Fund (MEF).
The incoming director shall spend a day with the outgoing director and shadow them to learn their tasks by doing hands-on work. This meeting may involve: reviewing the transition documentation and any outstanding items or concerns that a director may face while performing their duties. It is recommended that the meeting should be done in person if the incoming director is under 150 km away from Waterloo. The meeting should be mandatory unless there are extraneous circumstances.
Any potential travel expenses that are expected to be incurred that are to be reimbursed by MEF should be reviewed and deemed appropriate by the Dean or their Delegate and the Executive Director.
If the incoming director cannot meet the outgoing director in person, there shall be an online meeting in which the incoming director will be performing the outgoing director's tasks.
The outgoing director shall notify the Board of Directors in advance about the date of the shadowing day, the allocation of funding for the meeting, and the activities that will be performed.
Aside from the shadowing day, the outgoing director shall prepare transition documentation for the incoming director.
OLD FORMS POLICY
(April 2, 2020)
This policy should be invoked when the Executive Director has outstanding reimbursement forms that are approaching their expiry date of the funding and when the requestor is non-responsive to the director’s attempts to contact them in regards to their reimbursement request.
The director should inform the requestor of any impairments within the control of the requestor resulting from the reimbursement process, this may include: detailing any missing documentation required for the processing of the reimbursement.
Within the last month of availability of the funding, the director will send a final reminder email outlining any outstanding issues with the reimbursement request requesting the documentation that is missing. This email should refer to the original reimbursement request, missing documentation, and a final reminder of the deadline to rectify the outstanding issues and a warning that the funding granted may be withdrawn by the deadline.
This policy may be applied at the discretion of the term’s Executive Director. It is advised that this policy should not be applied if the requestor responds in a timely and reasonable manner to the Director’s messages.
The purpose of this policy is for the requestors to obtain reimbursements in a timely manner and reduce the outstanding funding between terms.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
(April 27, 2017)
There shall be an Executive Director of the Mathematics Endowment Fund, who shall be the current Endowment Director.
The Executive Director shall manage the daily operations of the Mathematics Endowment Fund including processing any claims for funding, communicating with applicants, and notifying the Board of Directors of any potential liabilities.
RATE OF EXPENDITURE
(January 9, 2022; replaces previous)
MEF will continue to allocate funds for expenditure at a rate
of the principal each year that is determined by the University
