A little bit of Tradition Our last Student Government Day was held December 1 st and 2 nd This was our 19 th Student Government Day. It has been beneficial for all parties involved. Our next Student Government Day which is the 2004 edition will be our 20 th year which is really amazing.

A Small Introduction Student Government Day actually encompasses a nighttime City Council meeting followed the next day by a mock City Council session led by the students. All student government day participates attend the City Council meeting on the first Monday in December.

How does Monday Help? After attending the meeting Government Day participants gain an understanding of issues facing the city. This helps everyone understand what issues they will be facing the next day.

The next day- Tuesday Tuesday starts off bright and early. Students are assigned to a specific City Government position days before, but today they shadow them in the morning. The various positions range from City Council Member to City Attorney to City Finance Director to the City Engineer. There are various positions for students to shadow the city government staff.

So what happens next After shadowing staff in the morning students then sit in Committee meetings to discuss the issues facing the city. For instance, this year one of the Committee meetings was about the City’s Mosquito Control Program to deal with West Nile. Certain students are required to attend the meetings to provide information about the problem learned in their shadowing experience earlier that morning.

So what happens next, Cont. Also the students that are shadowing councilmen or women are required to attend one if not all the meetings to provide a recommendation to the council in the mock meeting later on. During these committee meetings students are pushed to think creatively to meet the problems the city is facing and to develop a workable plan to council in the mock meeting.

Why the committee meetings rock Committee meetings let the students think outside the box. Most of the time they are entirely student led. Students can take a completely different approach to an issue facing the city and write up a completely different solution they believe will work compared to the one the council is considering

After all this hard work it’s time for lunch Now that the students have a grasp of the situation, it’s time for them to take a well deserved lunch break and to prepare for the mock meeting. Now students are ready to tackle the mock meeting.

The Mock Meeting The Mock Council Meeting is broadcast on the local TV Channel 19. Students run through a real meeting that involves presenting the proposals created in the committee meetings to solve the issues. Then the Students acting as City Council members hash out the issues and determine the overall feasibility of the solution.

The Mock Meeting, Cont. Then the Students acting as Council members present a budget request to either ax a program to keep a program up and running. With budget cuts this year actual programs that stood a chance of facing the ax were debated. Each student is given a statement of that councilman’s or woman’s actual stance; however, the student can take any stance he or she would like and argue it any way they would like as well.

Analyzing the Meeting The Mock Meeting actually serves a purpose. The real council has taken ideas from the students and put them into action. One example of this involved TABOR. Facing continued negative votes from the people the City was going to leave it off the ballot; however, students strong support to put it on the ballot the next November caused the city to do so.

Analyzing the Experience Students gain an understanding of the city, how it works, what issues are at stake, and how the situation must be handled. It is a great real life experience for all the students to see government in action. From a city staff position, it is interesting to see the students try to tackle the problems presented everyday.

It’s a great experience Thanks for tuning in to this Power Point Presentation about Student Government Day.