After the Government of the Student Body and Ames City Council joint meeting on Oct. 8, GSB brought the second readings of the Big XII Conference, the funding of the Cultural Ambassadors Program and also discussed the first reading of the Senate and Executive Collaboration on the Bike Share Program.

GSB voted to fund the transportation of student governments for the Big XII Student Government Conferences. The passing of the bill means that $2,064 will be allocated from GSB’s reserve account to fund transportation at the rate of $86 per hour for 24 hours. Student government members will be transported via CyRide.

GSB debated funding the Cultural Ambassadors Program during the second reading of a bill that will provide $2,540 from their Senate Discretionary account to the program. The budget is split so that $2,320 of the GSB’s funding would go to hourly student wages.

Positions for mentors and coordinators for the Cultural Ambassadors program would be created, and students would be paid $7.25 per hour to work 320 hours a year, or 10 hours a week for 32 weeks. $170 would go towards culture training, group pairing orientation, whole group event, final banquet material boards, name tags, markers, certificates and activity material. The remaining $50 would be for promotional materials split up at $25 per semester.

Adam Guenther, Assistant Director of LGBT Affairs, argued that the wages of $7.25 per hour wouldn’t attract students of high quality for the job. Senator Erick Dietz, junior in materials engineering, argued that the job would be a great addition to student resumés and that the secondary aspects justified the minimum wage.

In the end, the bill passed and the Cultural Ambassadors Program was funded.

First readings of three new bills came up regarding the funding of Circle K, a student group focused on volunteering, in which the GSB would fund $182.21 for the Circle K’s fall semester, and a rules adjustment that would see the GSB deny funding a political organization for the purposes of electing a candidate to office and reject funding from any political party or campaign.

The third bill of new business brought up was the bill of Senate and Executive collaboration on Bike Share and Campus Transportation. If passed, the bill will fund $2,800 from their capital projects account to the bike share studio to fund prototypes that are an integral link in the chain of a possible bike share program on campus.

The second readings, as well as guest speaker, Jamie Pollard, the Iowa State Athletic Director, will all be at next week’s meeting.