The Government of the Student Body and the Ames City Council had their annual joint meeting Wednesday, Oct. 24, in the Memorial Union. Following discussions on how to better the Ames community, GSB moved on to vote on four bills.

The student publication Catalyst, which was represented by its president Alex Register, came to GSB looking for $2,025 in funding to cover its printing cost. Catalyst, which prints 2,500 copies for each issue, does not have any advertisements in any of its issues. Register said: “Our aim is educational, so we want to avoid running advertisements”.

The bill passed 26-0; members fron GSB financial committee said they funded this group because Catalyst fell under the formula GSB created last year that pertains to student publications.

The next group on the agenda, the Model United Nations, came looking for $1,262.48, but were funded $1,129.32 instead — parking for the group’s van was removed from the funding bill.

The Model United Nations is scheduled to attend a Model U.N. conference in Chicago, which is why the group needs funding. The problem Model U.N. faced was if its trip to Chicago was considered a conference or a competition. GSB does not fund conferences.

“There is some type of competitive nature to it,” said GSB Sen. Dan Rediske.

Senators such as Matt Dohrmann considered funding this group a “slippery slope” and looked at the future for what type of problems this could cause for funding processes down the road. In the end the trip was considered a competitive trip, and the funding was passed 20-0-7.

Election Commissioner Adam Guenther brought forward election commission bylaw updates he and his commission had made, which had to be approved by GSB.

One change lowered the number of signatures from 1,500 to 1,000 that are needed to get a person’s name on the GSB presidential ballot. One senator, David Bartholomew, who ran for vice president last spring and is a reporter for the Daily, encouraged this change.

“1,500 signatures is pretty hard to get in my opinion,” Bartholomew said. “In Minnesota, it takes 1,000 signatures to get your name on the state senate election ballot.”

The bill was passed 25-0-2.

WinterFest, which is to take place the week before Dead Week, came to GSB for funding for the festival. The group originally asked for $3,000, but the funding was cut down to $1,650 for ice skating, rental of the Memorial Union Underground and for a performance by Grandma Mojo’s.

The crafts such as snow globes and snowmen were removed from the funding bill because they were considered take-home items. After the removal of the craft funding, the bill was passed.