William & Mary Model Congress Blog
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
James Blair Model Congress: Day 2
So we had our second full day of the James Blair Middle School Model Congress today. There were four people in attendance due to a bout of sickness that had spread throughout the school. However, lucky for the four people, they now have a step up on parliamentary procedure and bill writing.
We first broke into committee session as we introduced for the first time the duties of the chairman, basic points and motions, and the process that a bill takes to get passed in committee. Isshin was the presiding chair for this particular committee session.
It was most definitely a lot of information to take in at one time, but as we went on and started actually doing a committee session, I think it became a little more clearer how exactly the process worked.
It took us the greater part of the hour-hour and a half we had to go over basic parliamentary procedure, things, such as the points and motions section in particular was a bunch of text on a piece of paper, which I think kind of intimidated the students. However, in the end, as we debated a bill on tobacco usage, I think they got a better feel for how points and motions are used in the process.
Next meeting, we will go more in-depth on parliamentary procedure, and start to actively use points and motions in active debate. Also, we will definitely start to have students produce their bills for presentation into the committee.
Hopefully, the sickness currently infecting a good majority of the school won't last for too much longer.
Isshin Teshima
Vice President
William & Mary Model Congress
We first broke into committee session as we introduced for the first time the duties of the chairman, basic points and motions, and the process that a bill takes to get passed in committee. Isshin was the presiding chair for this particular committee session.
It was most definitely a lot of information to take in at one time, but as we went on and started actually doing a committee session, I think it became a little more clearer how exactly the process worked.
It took us the greater part of the hour-hour and a half we had to go over basic parliamentary procedure, things, such as the points and motions section in particular was a bunch of text on a piece of paper, which I think kind of intimidated the students. However, in the end, as we debated a bill on tobacco usage, I think they got a better feel for how points and motions are used in the process.
Next meeting, we will go more in-depth on parliamentary procedure, and start to actively use points and motions in active debate. Also, we will definitely start to have students produce their bills for presentation into the committee.
Hopefully, the sickness currently infecting a good majority of the school won't last for too much longer.
Isshin Teshima
Vice President
William & Mary Model Congress
Labels: James Blair Middle School
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
James Blair Model Congress: Day 1
Today, Tom, Daniel, I and 4 others were introduced for the first time to the middle schoolers of James Blair Middle School to teach some kids from another generation some civics. This was Day 1 of a series of after-school meetings for the James Blair Middle School Model Congress Conference (JBMCC).
JBMC had been one of the many schools that we had contacted last year for our first conference in the 'burg. After a little research, they decided that they would love for someone from our club to teach a group of students how model congress works in the form of an after-school activity.
When Jessica Taylor and I first started this club in 2008, we decided to make one of the mission statements of the club to teach civics to those who may not know much about the governmental processes in D.C., thus, I felt like this activity was one that was both appropriate and useful for this club as a whole.
In addition, it was a win-win situation, as we had some new members that also still needed to get acquainted with parliamentary procedure and how to act as a chair.
Today's meeting was fairly self-explanatory. Since it was our first, we did not want to overwhelm our students with too many words. For some reason, some of us thought that going into a middle school armed with terms such as "nuclear proliferation" and "foreign policy" and "economic/monetary stability" would be a little much. We'll get there eventually. Instead, we started them out by teaching some basic terms and basically showing how a bill becomes a law and why Model Congress exists.
We had about a group of 7 today, which is a little bit less than what we usually deal with in a committee, but certainly not to the extent that this cannot work. Perhaps by the end of these sessions, these seven will have more experience in Congressional procedure and processes than some college students I know.
Also, I'd like to give a special kudos to Matt Donohue and Jackie Goldschmidt who handled most of the speaking during today's meeting and kept the presentation rolling. Good job guys.
Next week, we'll have another meeting in which we will start talking about the types of bills that students might like to take upon themselves to research and write. It'll be interesting to see what sorts of ideas for bills these kids can come up with.
JBMC had been one of the many schools that we had contacted last year for our first conference in the 'burg. After a little research, they decided that they would love for someone from our club to teach a group of students how model congress works in the form of an after-school activity.
When Jessica Taylor and I first started this club in 2008, we decided to make one of the mission statements of the club to teach civics to those who may not know much about the governmental processes in D.C., thus, I felt like this activity was one that was both appropriate and useful for this club as a whole.
In addition, it was a win-win situation, as we had some new members that also still needed to get acquainted with parliamentary procedure and how to act as a chair.
Today's meeting was fairly self-explanatory. Since it was our first, we did not want to overwhelm our students with too many words. For some reason, some of us thought that going into a middle school armed with terms such as "nuclear proliferation" and "foreign policy" and "economic/monetary stability" would be a little much. We'll get there eventually. Instead, we started them out by teaching some basic terms and basically showing how a bill becomes a law and why Model Congress exists.
We had about a group of 7 today, which is a little bit less than what we usually deal with in a committee, but certainly not to the extent that this cannot work. Perhaps by the end of these sessions, these seven will have more experience in Congressional procedure and processes than some college students I know.
Also, I'd like to give a special kudos to Matt Donohue and Jackie Goldschmidt who handled most of the speaking during today's meeting and kept the presentation rolling. Good job guys.
Next week, we'll have another meeting in which we will start talking about the types of bills that students might like to take upon themselves to research and write. It'll be interesting to see what sorts of ideas for bills these kids can come up with.
Labels: Daniel Thorpe, Jackie Goldschmidt, James Blair Middle School, Jessica Taylor, Matt Donohue, Tom Fisher
Monday, October 19, 2009
Club Meeting
Hey guys,
Isshin here, blogging again, this time about the recent club meeting we had.
In terms of the agenda, some of the more important items included getting organized for the upcoming James Blair Middle School Model Congress conference and training our volunteers for this particular event in the art of chairing a committee.
Stef took a bit of a lead here. Being the Head Chair, we had a small approximately 8 person committee debate out some bills that we had in our conference from last year.
Even though parliamentary procedure is a bit of a hassel and complicated to go through, I think we got the general gist of how to be a chair completed at least for this session. Some of the more main key points included:
1. The responsibility of a chair is to moderate debate
2. The chair has the ability to rule things dillatory for the sake of moderating debate and keeping the floor open.
3. The chair has the role of being the "information seeker" during a conference, and making sure that bills introduced are as accurate as can be in preparation for full committee.
If there is anyone that missed this particular chair training, please let either Daniel Thorpe or Kelsi Weissgold know so that we can get the proper chair packet out to you.
After a lengthy debate about whether openly recognizing Taiwan as a nation was worth it or not for the US, we decided to call it a day.
In terms of big news in the Club Exec Board, I would also like to announce that Stef and I have decided to change our positions to better serve the club.
The James Blair program starts this Tuesday from 3-4:30. Expect some new developments and definately a blog post then!
Isshin Teshima
Vice-President
William and Mary Model Congress Club
Isshin here, blogging again, this time about the recent club meeting we had.
In terms of the agenda, some of the more important items included getting organized for the upcoming James Blair Middle School Model Congress conference and training our volunteers for this particular event in the art of chairing a committee.
Stef took a bit of a lead here. Being the Head Chair, we had a small approximately 8 person committee debate out some bills that we had in our conference from last year.
Even though parliamentary procedure is a bit of a hassel and complicated to go through, I think we got the general gist of how to be a chair completed at least for this session. Some of the more main key points included:
1. The responsibility of a chair is to moderate debate
2. The chair has the ability to rule things dillatory for the sake of moderating debate and keeping the floor open.
3. The chair has the role of being the "information seeker" during a conference, and making sure that bills introduced are as accurate as can be in preparation for full committee.
If there is anyone that missed this particular chair training, please let either Daniel Thorpe or Kelsi Weissgold know so that we can get the proper chair packet out to you.
After a lengthy debate about whether openly recognizing Taiwan as a nation was worth it or not for the US, we decided to call it a day.
In terms of big news in the Club Exec Board, I would also like to announce that Stef and I have decided to change our positions to better serve the club.
The James Blair program starts this Tuesday from 3-4:30. Expect some new developments and definately a blog post then!
Isshin Teshima
Vice-President
William and Mary Model Congress Club
Labels: chair training, chairs, Daniel Thorpe, Exec Board, Head Chair, James Blair Middle School, Kelsey Weissgold, Stef Felitto
