The funding for local nonprofit agencies will come down to the recommendations of the Story County Analysis of Social Services Evaluation Team on Thursday.

ASSET includes one staff member and four volunteers from the Government of the Student Body, the city of Ames, Story County, the United Way of Story County, the State of Iowa and the Department of Human Services. They work together to make recommendations on the funding of nonprofit agencies in Story County.

The committee will meet at 4:30 p.m. in the Story County Community Life Building to discuss funding issues.

“This year we allocated $130,000,” said Ryan Myers, GSB treasurer, member of ASSET and senior in accounting.

The ASSET process is not a short one, Myers said. Meetings began in the first week of January, which were question-and-answer hearings.

Last week, ASSET split up into panels, each reviewing certain programs, and the panels came to initial recommendations on how the funds were going to be allocated. The recommendations will be finalized at Thursday’s meeting.

Myers said each individual group allocating the funds gets the final say on how to allocate its money, although the recommendations made by ASSET are usually followed.

“We’re going to take those initial subcommittee recommendations and then hopefully approve those the way they are,” Myers said. “Friday morning will be when the official recommendations will come out.”

Myers hopes Thursday’s meeting will go smoothly, but the debate varies in length each year.

“There doesn’t seem to be much controversy this year, so hopefully it is really clean and relatively quick,” he said.

According to Myers, volunteers are put on a panel, assigned to one or two agencies and then educate themselves on those agencies. They also report back and communicate any problems or questions the agencies may have.

Adam Krupicka, GSB senator, ASSET member and graduate student in biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology, said his job is basically to act as a liaison to the ASSET organization to which he is assigned. He visits with the group and evaluates the group, but his most important job is making funding recommendations.

The staff members, most of whom have served on ASSET for a number of years, basically just help the volunteers do their job, Myers said.

“The staff people are more to get some continuity and kind of direct the volunteers,” he said.

ASSET is very important to ISU students, Myers said.

“It’s just amazing to me how many programs are out there available to students and would be ridiculously high-priced if ASSET wasn’t funding them or GSB wasn’t funding them,” he said.

Myers said it is important to give back to these programs.

Krupicka said having the ability to have a say in the funding of other major contributors is an incredible benefit to students.

“I think we’re very lucky to have the ASSET organization [and] to have GSB be such a big part of their funding process,” he said.