Dive in.
Let's see some comments on the blog postings. Do you know how to make a blog comment? 

Tip from a college volunteer: Market YAG as fun

She says YAG is fun. The ones that go realize it and tell their friends who are then high school juniors and seniors. But get the word out to those who are younger and then they'll be hooked into the program for more years into the future.

Attorney's talk about the case of 2012

See Renee and Annie walk in the background too! Another video shows a bit of the two candidates for the Supreme Court's Chief Justice from a candidate forum. That election was won by Rachel Brosius of East Shore YMCA.

YAG 365 Underway! (overview) Part 1 of many.

Only three days into the new year Ben Junker and I (Erik Rauterkus) have already visited the Mon Valley Delegation. We had a great time Wednesday evening seeing how they run their meetings and talking to them about ideas for the future of YAG.

Before the end of May 2012, Ben Junker (Lt. Governor) and I (Governor) plan to visit as many clubs and delegations as possible. It will be a great chance to get to know everyone better and tap all the ideas that everyone has for YAG!

These are some of the original ideas I talked about throughout Model. Feel free to comment on them and message me with any other ideas! Remember this is only a first draft and much more will come!

Housekeeping: This blog posting has the topic areas for YAG 365 Underway. Each specific area has its own blog post so we can better organize comments and suggestions according to topic area. Feel free to post your ideas by clicking the button and typing your thoughts.

Topics for the Gubernatorial Starting YAG Change Ideas (1st Draft)

(In no specific order)

• Streamlining the Bill Process
• Three Party System
• More Productive Press Corps
• YAG Wiki
• Lobbyist Fair
• Tech Change
• Judicial Review
• Double the Size of YAG
1. Mock Trial added to YAG 
2. Model UN Involvement
3. Pennsylvania School Press Association
• The PA Governor is an athlete, as are many others in YAG
- - pending.

More to come, with your help.

Streamlining the Bill Process (part 2 of many)

First things first, Election Convention.

• Bill submission can happen, day 1, as soon as Election Convention. Call this Bill Submission Day 1.

Delegates who believe they have strong bills have the option of turning them in about two weeks before Pre Ledg.

Those bills will be read by the the Administration (Governor and others). If we believe they have the potential to be a unanimous bill, they will then go to a judiciary preview committee.

Next event: Pre Ledg.

• Normal Pre Ledg.

A new Judiciary Preview Committee will meet and be led by a former committee chair. The members on that committee will then pretend that they are just legislative delegates. They will debate the unanimous bill (so it should not take a lot of time) and vote on them. If the bill passes with a 2/3 majority, it is then assigned to the docket for Model as part of the first floor session in the House chamber.

• Bill Submission Day 2 

All bills must be into the system in the regular bill submission manners by the deadlines.
Authors whose bills are found to be a potential "unanimous bill" are encouraged to write a second bill that will go through the committee process at Model.

Third step: Model. 

1. The very first session at Model for the House members will BE IN THE HOUSE.
2. The 10 to 15 bills that made it through the prior Judiciary Preview Committee will only require two rounds of debate, unless a motion to extend debate is brought up on the floor. Hopefully many, if not all the bills will get through that House session within an hour and a half.  
3. While those potential unanimous bills are in the House debate, the Senators will be meeting in their committees.
4. Then as the first Senate session takes place, the unanimous bills get attention.
5. The party leaders will meet with Lt. Governor, (Ben Junker) and review the bills passed by the House.
6. They will then decide in their caucus which bills can go through and have support by each party. They will crank those out and then debate the rest.
7. Hopefully this will all end quickly and then they will move on to the bills passed in the first session of committee.



Streamline the bill process.

8. Hopefully the Governor (that's me) will then sign all the bills that were passed.

Three Party System (part 3 of many)

• Each year the majority has grown larger and the minority has shrunk. Quality of debate has decreased because of this super party.
o Three Party System would ensure better debate.
 Remember that youth and government does not have to look like the corrupt and dysfunctional government of PA. We can be a three party system that leads to great bills and even better debate.
 Adding a third party would make the two parties on each side fighting for the more moderate party.

 Beta – Liberal
 Gamma – Moderate
 Alpha – Conservative

Side Note: I want delegates to fill out a political questioner so that their answer determine their party not just their arbitrary choice at the last minute.

• New Debate Format

o Each party gets 3 min.
o Therefore 1 round takes 9 min instead of 8. So really the time to get through bills really does not change much.
o Second round can ensue if the majority leader so wishes.
 Total time is only increased by a short time. However, more engaging debate is guaranteed and more people get a chance to talk.

More Productive Press (part 4 of many)

Members of the Press sit in a box
at the side of the podium
at a Joint Session in the
PA House Chambers. 

Every club should have a liaison to the press corps. It is that person’s job to write at least one article before Pre Ledg and another article before Model.

These advance articles make an opportunity for each club to share information about itself. Others want to know what has been going on all year at your club.

With the advance articles, it is then possible that upon arrival to Preledg and Model a newspaper can already be printed and then distributed to everyone.

Of course, this paper will also be filled with articles written by the real journalists.

YAG wiki (part 5 of many)

Create a wiki at Wikia.com dedicated to PA Youth and Government.

• Have each club create a page about their club. Pages can include:
• Members names, how they run their club, when they meet, and contact information.
• Have it as a place for bill ideas and bill discussion.
• Have a place for YAG ideas and YAG discussion.

The Press, as of 2012, created another wiki too. http://PAYAG.wikispaces.com. That wiki is used for the creation of the newspaper articles and is for draft articles, internal editing and rewrite purposes. To use that wiki, one needs a username and password. The content there is private.

Lobbyist Fair (part 6 of many)

My general impression is that no one really cares what lobbyists have to say at model and seldom do people even pay attention to what side they are on. Therefore, we should have a lobbyist fair!

• This is a low key thing.
• On Thursday when the lobbyist come up early, they will have the time to make the event. 
• They create posters and signs about the issues they are supporting or opposing.
• The Lobbyist Fair will be set up at the hotel. 
• Delegates will be able to causally walk through this area and find out info on issues and get an idea on what lobbyists will support and oppose in the coming weekend.

Tech Change (part 7 of many)

• Make apps for iPhone, Droid, and Blackberry. 
• At first app will just be a thing that opens a browser and redirects you to the bill page. We will build upon that.
• Also we need a LIVE BILL CALENDER.
• Meaning that any amendments should be electronically added to the online bills.

Judicial Review (part 8 of many)

• Lawyers are assigned to different bill topics.
• Example; education, health, youth, etc.
• Once a bill passes through and is signed it then goes to the different lawyer topic areas and signed off on. 

But we will work on this idea more.

Double the Size of YAG (part 9 of many)

Mock Trial added to YAG

To expand YAG we are going to have to go out beyond what YAG has been known to be. Things need
to be fundamentally different in order to better YAG. One way of accomplishing this is to bring already
established programs and find a way to incorporate them into YAG. One established program that goes
along with the ideas of YAG is mock trial.

1. We would work with the already existing body of Mock Trial within the state and set it up through them.
2. We would get access to more court rooms in order to have an effective mock trial competition.
3. We would require as a condition of attending, every mock trial team attended must send at least three of their members to participate in the legislative branch of youth and government, two in the house and one in the senate.
4. At election conventions we would elect presiding judges for mock trial.
5. This would not affect the judicial branch of YAG. Rather, it would just add another aspect of YAG.

Model UN Involvement

Let's create a way for members of our YAG clubs to visit nearby model UN clubs and convince them that they should also participate in YAG.

1. Create a list of model UN clubs near Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and Philly.
2. Create a calendar of people from around those areas to visit their local Model UN clubs and talk about how YAG is just another great thing to do!
3. Make sure they understand that they do not have to start their own club the first year and can attach onto an already existing club.

This is a great way to see growth because of how similar the two programs are.

Pennsylvania School Press Association

This is an organization within the State of Pennsylvania. That organization works with all the statewide students and recognized high school journalism programs.

1. We need to get into contact with them.
2. They have a thing called Techstravaganza in Harrisburg.
3. If we could look at the top ranked schools for journalism in the state and make them our primary targets of journalism recruitment, it would be a great start.
4. Have each newly formed club of journalist send one member to the house of representative in YAG.
5. This could bring our press corps to a whole new level.

These are very tech savvy kids who only focus on journalism, so if we could get them to YAG, the
quality of the paper, I think, increases. Regardless, the new people help grow the YAG efforts.

Great Visit to Mon Valley

Extra reading: Philadelphia School District Announces Its Dissolution.

http://www.citypaper.net/blogs/nakedcity/Philadelphia-School-District-announces-its-dissolution-.html?ref=facebook.com Say what? Leadership void. Students who can't fight back.

Everyone had better come back next year.

If you know of anyone who isn't going to return to YAG next year, tell us why? Post below. Is there anything that can be done to get him or her to return and be a part of the program.

Bills and Chairs and Photos

Check out the photos in Photobucket site thanks to Corinne Coulson, Program Coordinator for the Butler County Family YMCA and adviser to the Video Press Corps.

Lt. Gov Candidates

Did you see this video?

Plans were hatched to visit the Mon Valley at 7 pm on Wednesday

YAG 365, set apart in the tag #YAG365, is starting to hatch as plans for visiting the various delegations around Pennsylvania begins this week. On Monday, a meeting was confirmed among the Governor, Erik Rauterkus, the Lt. Governor, Ben Junker, and the Mon Valley YAG delegation. The road trips begin.

The envelope please.....

Tip: The first 1:40 seconds has poor audio. Sorry. Skip those parts. At 4 minutes, the anticipation builds. The envelope is passed around 4:30 mark.

Day 364 and a half. Trip home from Harrisburg

Also see:

• http://sopghreporter.com/pittsburgh-students-bus-in-accident-while-returning-from-yag-convention-p11282-65.htm from May 1, 2012.

Harrisburg and Pittsburgh Crashes with Youth Elections in Pennsylvania

by Angela Perfetti, senior at Pittsburgh's Obama Academy

(Sunday, April 22, 2012)

Twenty five high school students from Obama Academy of International Studies, an I.B. school within Pittsburgh Public Schools, were in a charter bus that was hit on the PA Turnpike while on travels home from Harrisburg after the conclusion of the YMCA Youth and Government model convention in the state capital today. None of the students nor the teacher nor two other adult volunteers were injured in the Sunday evening accident, westbound around Murrysville, mile marker 65. The bus driver as well as the driver of the semi-truck were both unhurt.

The bus and the semi truck carrying new Mercedes sedans bumped sides and scraped together while heading in the same direction. All of the exterior windows along the right side of the bus were broken and shattered, but the glass never reached the interior by the passengers.

“Wind seemed to push the truck into the bus through a turn and the driver did a great job to avert a more catastrophic accident,” said Tobias Rather, a junior within the school club. “State police were called and no arrest nor citations were made to our knowledge.”

Traveling on the bus were the Governor, Lieutenant Governor and the Editor in Chief of Pennsylvania's Youth Government. All had been just been voted upon and sworn into office just hours prior in the PA State House Chambers. The student delegation had been to a four-day, model-government convention directed by the Pennsylvania YMCA (YAG). YAG brought together more than 400 students from across the state to participate in government events.

Students at YAG run their own government, electing a student Governor, presently Erik Rauterkus (junior from Pittsburgh's South Side); Lieutenant Governor, Ben Junker (junior from Bloomfield); and Editor in Chief, Anna Vitti (junior from Highland Park). Two other elected officials come from elsewhere in the state: The Speaker of the House is from Hershey and the Chief Justice is from East Shore Y in Harrisburg.

These leaders facilitate YAG members in a year-long quest to write, debate, amend and vote for bills with committee and floor sessions. Bills are signed or vetoed by the Governor. Others win or lose court cases, report on top stories, and lobby for new PA laws. Some YAG legislation has been introduced and passed into real law within Pennsylvania.

“YAG has been a well-respected state program for many decades,” said Erik Rauterkus, now the 66th Youth Governor in PA.

“The YAG program clearly demonstrated various perceptions among citizens from suburban and rural delegations who have notoriously dominated the events in Harrisburg,” said Matt Lampl, Obama junior, Squirrel Hill.

“Only two out of 24 delegations come from within Philadelphia or Pittsburgh city limits. Naturally, the leadership tended to sway toward delegates from rural, rather than urban, areas, as they represented the majority. But the Obama delegation of 2012 made unprecedented impact this year.”

“Ours was an amazing feat, sweeping three out of the five main leadership positions,” said Annie Widom, junior, Squirrel Hill. Widom held a lobby position this week at YAG.

Rauterkus claimed the top spot in the election for Governor by besting a veteran YAG member, Erin Agnew, from Springfield, which is also the largest delegation.

The bus crash was the second major crash for Rauterkus this week. Just two days prior to the trip to Harrisburg, Rauterkus, one of the areas top junior competitive cyclists and captain of the school's swim team, was rushed to Presbyterian Hospital after experiencing a major tumble within a sprint in a race at the Bud Harris Cycling Oval. Suffering from plenty of road rash and soreness, he persevered and still attended the youth leadership event.

Ben Junker, a swimming and waterpolo teammate of Rauterkus, pulled off a similar victory, narrowly beating five other peer members for the role of Lieutenant Governor. One of his duties is to preside over the Senate. Junker also was awarded the Outstanding Senate Committee Chair in the final joint session.

The new Editor-in-chief for YAG, Anna Vitti, was elected to that position by her peers and moved from her role as reporter.

Obama freshman, Rohun Joseph, was the fourth member of the squad who got put onto the YMCA invite list to attend CONA, the USA version for Youth Government. Adult advisers evaluate the students throughout the year and select an all-star cadre of youth leaders to meet for a week in North Carolina in July. Only 26 students in Pennsylvania get that opportunity.

This was the first year of the Obama delegation, as it replaced the recently closed Schenley High School. “The students made a great impression with their skills and leadership abilities, said YMCA Program Director, Adoree DeLuca-Johnson. “They brought the Obama Academy and Pittsburgh names to the state.”

The YAG members were reminded in an opening speech by Governor Tom Corbett, “Youth are the future of this world.” In the closing session, the Lieutenant Governor, Jim Cawley spoke about voting and duties as citizens.

“The key role we play in the YAG program may indicate the beginning of better relationship among the urban, suburban and rural areas of our Commonwealth in both policy and politics” said Demetri Lardas, Obama junior, from the Oakland area of Pittsburgh.

James Hill, 2011 Schenley graduate, from Stanton Heights and a former YAG participant said, “I'm thankful that no one was hurt in the bus crash. It must have been in exciting end to an exciting weekend. I'm immensely proud of Erik, Ben, and Anna for making a smash this year. Working with them in the past, I know that they are great kids and that they are going to work hard to make YAG even better next year. I'm very proud that they're making there own legacy and proving inner city schools have what it takes.”

###



For more information:
Angela Perfetti, senior, Obama Delegation's President for 2011-12 and YAG Reporter, 
Mark Rauterkus, PA YAG volunteer, Mark@Rauterkus.com, 412-298-3432
Daniel Goldstein, junior, Obama Delegation Historian



Photos available.



Also see:

The PA YMCA site: http://www.ymcapa.org/index.html

PA YAG blog: http://payagpress.tumblr.com/

PA YAG YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/PaYouthandGov

Bus Wreck

Governors: Foxx and Rauterkus

Two front pages for the YAG Newspaper are developed.

Yagazette coverage: Lead article from April 22, 2012 -- Congratulations Erik Rauterkus!

by Anna Vitti

We would all like to send out our congratulations to Erik Rauterkus our 2012-2013 Youth Governor.

"Thank you all so much for your support," says Erik. "A big thanks goes out to our local western delegations, and all the support I receive from the east was incredible as well.

My own Obama Academy delegation was amazing with their complete support this weekend. They did so much to help me with this election and definitely made the difference."

The 2012 Obama Academy delegation had 25 students and four adults (only two in the photo).

After battling through these past few days of constant campaigning, introductions, and networking, our new governor has succeeded and can finally relax - but not for long! Erik is excited to fulfill his duties as governor and he promises one hundred per cent dedication to the program. The Governor adds, "I would like to thank all of the other candidates. It was great to get to know you guys." Erik feels that this years race was full of fantastic candidates and considered it an honor to run with them. He also gives special thanks to Alexa Reynolds for supporting him after the primary elections. "I think we'll have a great time next year incorporating our ideas," says Erik on this topic.

Three years ago, Erik started out as a first year member of the Schenley/Obama delegation. He immediately loved Youth and Government. Through out his time in the program, first as a delegate, then as a Committee Chair, Erik has enjoyed getting to know as many delegates as he possibly can from all around the state. As Governor, he can not wait to give back to the program that gave so much to him.

In his platform, Erik quotes, "We grow as individuals with YAG," but during his term as governor he is excited to create an environment where every delegate can come together regardless of delegation affiliation or position.

As governor, Erik is looking forward an incredible 2012-2013 year for Youth and Government. Our new governor can not wait to visit clubs all around the state and make exciting new changes to enrich to the program. As a servant leader, Youth Governor Erik Rauterkus thanks every single delegate for their support and for giving him the chance to be in this amazing position.

As your Youth Governor, Erik strongly encourages anybody and everybody who has an idea to contact him at any time. Erik quotes, "Thanks for the vote and consideration. I hope to see you on Facebook, and at your school in the months to come."

Gov Candidate Town Hall, 15 minutes of Q&A with Erik Rauterkus

Part 1:

Part 2: Talks about Erin as a great friend after this weekend.

Part 3:

Part 4: Short and thanks.

Primary speech by Erik Rauterkus

 Presented as the third of fourth candidate in the primary at a Joint Session in the PA House Chamber.

Reporters and video press at leadership training at PA YAG.

After our Mega Bus trip, we visited the fish at the mall's mega sports store.