Michigan Youth in Government

Political CompromiseProgram Outline

Rationale: “Democracy is Learned by Each Generation” is our motto. Democracy allows every citizen to have an equal voice and vote, but policy is determined by political discussion and compromise. The Political Compromise Program’s objective is to provide students a framework that requires cooperation and compromise to create a single policy based on a current state or national topic.

Definitions

Discussion Question: MYIG will provide the discussion question at the beginning of the program year in all mailings and on the website. Participating studentswill have time to research the Discussion Question prior to arriving at the conference (just as legislative students research their bills.) Each student will bring a minimum of onetyped policy idea to the conference.

Special Interest Groups: MYIG will designate three interest groups.A brief synopsis of the interest group’s position will be provided by MYIG. A student chairperson will lead the interest groups. Every student will be assigned to an interest group.

Compromise Committees: The committees will be formed of students who represent equal numbers of the special interest groups. Each committee will be led by a student committee chair that facilitates discussion using Parliamentary Procedure.

Compromise Forum: The Compromise Forum will be the final meeting of all the committees. The Forum will conclude with one policy agreed upon by all interest groups. A Presiding Officer will facilitate the Compromise Forum.

Expectation: The Compromise Forum will create one policy that provides a solution to the Discussion Question. This policy will be read before the entire conference during the final General Assembly.

Clerks: Each committee (6) and the Forum (1) will be assigned a student clerk for taking notes and writing policy ideas.

Chairs: Each special interest group/compromise committee (3 each) will be assigned a student chair.

Presiding Officer: The Presiding Officer will preside over the final Compromise Forum and will be an alumnus of MYIG.

Political Compromise Schedule

Sunday Evening (Hotel)

  • Guest Speaker –Will give a brief, non-partisan presentation about the Discussion Question, question and answer time
  • Special Interest Group meetings
  • Will begin with Policy Sharing from each delegate
  • Groups will identify key issues, clerk will write this list of issues and turn into the Nerve Center
  • Compromise Committee Meetings
  • Will begin with reading the Key Issues lists from the Special Interest Groups
  • Time for discussion and debate

Monday Morning (Hotel)

  • Compromise Committee Meetings
  • Reconvene to continue discussion and debate of Key Issues
  • Create one policy to present to the Special Interest Groups. Clerk will turn this into the Nerve Center.
  • Special Interest Group Meetings
  • Reconvene to read the policies written by the Compromise Committees.
  • Must create one policy to present to the Compromise Forum.

Monday Afternoon (Capitol Building)

  • Compromise Forum
  • Session led by the Presiding Officer
  • Special Interest Group Chairs will begin the forum by reading the policies they created in the last Special Interest Group Meeting.
  • Time for debate and discussion
  • Forum will conclude with the writing of one policy created/chosen through compromise by the entire forum.

Tuesday Morning (Hotel)

  • The new policy will be read before the entire conference.

Political Compromise Policy Template

Michigan Youth in Government

Author(s):

School/Committee:

Write your policy below:

______