Winter State
Winter Cabinet
The primary goal of Winter Cabinet should be to provide involvement opportunities to those who didn't join JSA Cabinet at the beginning of the year. Many people don't apply due to the time commitment, or missing the deadline. Not all of these people lack experience in JSA, and few of them lack leadership experience.
There is no reason that party whips should be members of cabinet. I know that many non-cabinet delegates applied, some of whom had attended Winter State more than once before. Cabinet members already have had the opportunity to feel included in JSA, especially elected officials and department directors. The morning of the convention, party whips are given instructions on their responsibilities, so even someone who was new to JSA would be able to take the roll. Although party and committee chairs may need some more experience in JSA, that doesn't necessarily mean more experience in cabinet. One of the committee chairs at Winter had never before attended a Winter State. But she was likely given preference due to her role as a Senator. |
Logistics
Many of the logistical changes in Winter State this year were popular, at least among the delegates I spoke to. The process of choosing bills to debate allowed many to feel more included, and allowing amendments on the second day livened up what can be long blocks of debate.
However, since all bill sponsors were placed in their committees first block while their bill could be debated either block, there was a lot of dead tme in the second block while sponsors were be summoned. This could be solved by having all sponsors stay in their bill's committee both blocks, unless two of their bills have been chosen. In addition, the ratio of senators to representatives could've been slightly higher, as many house committees were over crowded while senate committees had under ten delegates, scrambling for volunteers to speak. Finally, the amendments process could be streamlined to a thirty second speech by the sponsor of the bill and the sponsor of the amendment followed by a voice vote for the first two amendments, and then immediate voice votes after that in order to maintain focus on the bill. |