Practical Guide to Student Government Operations Article #2: Reduce Transaction Costs at all Cost

Reduce transaction costs at all cost

Needless to say, every single day the office of the Central Student Government conducts transactions. In the ordinary course of business, the observable transactions that happen in the office are project proposal submissions, calls from different units and offices of the university, questions from students, delivery of letters, and buying and selling at the student service center across the corridor.

Every time these transactions happen, there is always an associated cost to them aside from monetary. These are time and energy costs. Example: when a letter from the administration addressed to a particular person is delivered to the office, how much time does it take for it to be read by that person and the person’s response? Upon the submission of the project proposal to the signatories, how much time and energy is consumed for it to be processed and the money delivered? These are everyday situations that define the bureaucratic nature of the CSG. As we’ve observed, these threads of processes inside the CSG office can be categorized, controlled, and streamlined to bring about a more efficient flow of information and output. For simplicity, we categorized the major transactions in the office into 2 “threads”. There are more threads that exist in an office but for focus, we shall stick tackle these 2.

1. The Project/Program thread. This thread is the flow of the project proposal which starts from printing to the money disbursement and from the evaluation to the liquidation report. This complex paper trail if not given serious attention may compromise the efficiency of the entire Central Student Government. What we can do is to design a one-stop station where a single filer sorts out the documents by signatories in a chronological order. To make this work, the Executive secretary should be the one to contact the people whose approval is required and update the project head on the status of the project proposal in a daily basis.

2. The Communication thread. Conveying information from point A to multiple points or to a single point is as complex as trying to hit the center of dart board in room filled with people. Information can easily be lost, misinterpreted, or junked if it is not stored or transmitted on time. It is quite obvious that communication lags are very costly especially when it is an emergency requiring immediate attention. The office should set up a communication desk where all forms of information are received and given to their intended respondents. All units then should be provided a simple area where all information can easily be seen and for confidential information to be stored. For information that requires immediate attention, it should be brought to their attention through text or other means.

The fun thing about the CSG is that we can engineer systems that facilitate efficient services for the students. It requires not just a clear and concise system but an equally dedicated and critical man power to make the system work.