GSB to allocate $10,000 at fall specials meeting Thursday

Archana Chandrupatla

New student groups will have a chance to acquire some new financing at the Government of the Student Body fall special funding meeting Thursday.

At the meeting, GSB will seek to distribute $10,000 to newly formed student groups and student groups with emergency expenses, said GSB Finance Director Jeremy Williams.

“When we do allocations in the spring, we set aside $10,000 for the fall semester so that in fall we can allocate funds to either new student groups that haven’t existed before, or to groups with emergency expenses,” he said.

“By emergency expenses, I mean like when a group’s equipment accidentally breaks or something, and they need a new one right away,” Williams said.

There is a process by which each group can apply for the funding, and each group has certain criteria they have to meet, Williams said.

“They come to the mandatory meeting, which is tomorrow, and they get a form they have to fill out. Then we run through the fall specials and tell them all about it and what it is,” he said.

After that, the groups have to come up with a budget, Williams said.

“We have them come in and pick up a packet. With that, they get the name of a finance committee member, who will then act as their adviser,” Williams said. “Then that person will help them come up with a budget.”

There also are conditions the groups have to meet to apply, Williams said.

“We have certain criteria for groups to apply for funding. For example, they can’t be pre-professional groups, and they can’t be political organizations,” he said.

Although there is no limit to the amount of money the groups can apply for, GSB still must be careful about how the money is distributed, Williams said.

“There’s no limit that each can ask for, but you have to remember that we only have $10,000 to spread out among all the groups,” he said.

Williams said fall specials is done annually for the special groups, and a separate process is done in the spring for student groups requesting regular funding.

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday in the South Ballroom of the Memorial Union.