The Associated Students Finance Board held a workshop yesterday to distribute $62,500 in Students’ Initiative funds among roughly 100 Office of Student Life organizations.

At the board’s Nov. 13 meeting, members voted to set aside $250 each for 250 OSL groups. To be eligible for the money, groups need to fill out two request forms and must follow the guidelines set down by A.S. Financial Policies and Procedures, said A.S. Finance Board Chair Nick Szamet. The board will notify the organizations on Monday if they are eligible for the funds.

Among other rules, A.S. Financial Policies and Procedures forbid groups from spending more than $100 on food, spending any money on student travel expenses, or spending funds on awards or award ceremonies. Additionally, groups are prohibited from purchasing items or making financial transactions with businesses that are currently boycotted by A.S., such as Conquest Student Housing.

When clubs decide to use their funds, the A.S. accounting staff will reimburse them with the provided money after receiving receipts, and will also be responsible for ensuring that the groups spend the money properly.

The meeting was held in the UCen at 4 p.m. yesterday with nearly 100 OSL organizations in attendance to claim their money. The funding comes from the A.S. base fee portion of the $100 per student, per quarter fee passed in late October. The Students’ Initiative provides funds to 29 student service organizations around campus.

If representatives from the 150 organizations that did not attend the meeting do not pick up their funds by the end of the school year, Szamet said, the money will cycle back into the A.S. account for reallocation.

“I think I might try to contact those clubs individually or delegate the responsibility to individual members of the board,” Szamet said. “That money will revert back to the unallocated account at the end of spring quarter.”

Organizations such as the UCSB Chapter of the National Organization for the Reformation of Marijuana Laws and Chilla Vista showed up to claim their money.

“It was flowing out the door; we didn’t have enough room,” Szamet said. “The good thing is this workshop serves a dual purpose. … They’re going to walk away with $250 and the knowledge to come back to Finance Board if they need more money.”

Szamet said he hopes the money will help jump-start the organizations, as it can be used for events, recruitment, uniforms and a myriad of other items.

“So it’s kind of a start-up fee. … I think it’s just to get people going with the beginning of the year,” Szamet said. “It’s still good to get the money out there this year because it was part of the campaign and it will help some of the clubs do some things.”

In addition to completing standard request forms that are necessary to obtain funds through Finance Board, Szamet said the OSL groups had to fill out an authorized signers form – a document that gives representatives of OSL clubs the right to later receive and use the funds.

“That’s why we have the authorized signers form,” Szamet said. “To make sure someone is in the club is responsible, like a treasurer almost.”