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Word Cloud of Erik's Leadership Speech

YAG 365 turns to YIG for the future

Recruitment Season

Interview on KDKA Radio, with photos

KDKA Radio Interview, slated for Saturday at 6:30 pm

Back from CONA, Erik Rauterkus, PA Youth Governor, is slated to be on the radio at KDKA, AM 1020, at 6:30 pm on Saturday, July 7, 2012. See pointers on the Facebook pages. A group photo of CONA 2012 at The Mountain. https://twitter.com/mnymcayig/status/219882195022655488/photo/1/large

Twitter Pointer to Erik Rauterkus

Erik's Twitter Feed is at http://www.Twitter.com/ErikRauterkus. 

#CONALOVE 


YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly
84 Blue Ridge Circle
Black Mountain, North Carolina 28711 
www.blueridgeassembly.org 828.669.8422

Nice Video Made by Valeria Ojeda, Youth Governor of New Mexico

The YIG Movement from Valeria Ojeda on Vimeo.

Politics and Sports Special Event (part 10 of many)

I'm an athlete. I've gone to the PIAA Swim Championships as a freshman, sophomore and junior. I also do Triathlons, have played on our Ultimate Frisbee Team, (with its captain, Daniel Goldstein, another YAG member) ran cross country, played water polo and do cycling races. Many races I get to finish. Some not so much.

Others in our Obama Delegation with state office in 2012-13 are athletes too.

Ben Junker, Lt. Governor for YAG, swims and plays on our water polo team and does volleyball and frisbee too.

Anna Vitti, Editor in Chief of YAG, is a superstar volleyball player.

In my school's delegation, we have plenty of other athletes.

• Tobias was a 3 sport city champion as a freshman (soccer, swimming and volleyball).
• Demetri swims and plays water polo, and never missed a practice last year.
• Rosa is a starter on the volleyball team as a freshman and plays lots of club tournaments.
• Angela, our club president, is a soccer player who leaps over opposing players in championship games.
• Daniel, a first year swimmer as a junior, plays water polo too and organizes the ultimate team and plays volleyball.
• Rohun, volleyball.
• Jonah, swimmer, water polo, ultimate.
• Than, swimmer.
• Sam, basketball.
• Sadik, volleyball.
• Dan, football.
• Renee, soccer, swimming.
• Yoka, swimmer.
• Matt, swimmer, water polo, ultimate.
• Sarah, volleyball.

Even within PA YAG, we have advisors who are football coaches (Derry High School, Knock High School), volleyball coaches (Obama Academy) and other sports coaches (swimming).

Face it, the Ys are known for being great places to develop minds and BODIES. The Ys are places for fitness, exercise, sports and athletes.

Sports is all about teamwork, while wearing athletic gear. Meanwhile, YAG is also about teamwork, but wearing business suits.

In real world politics there are hundreds of examples of men and women who are or have been in elected office who have had wonderful experiences in sports and athletics before getting political.

PA YAG can grow, with new clubs and with new members in all of our existing clubs, plus we can have a lot of fun, if we make a serious sports connection in our communities. And, I know just how it can be done.

I'm going to encourage every YAG club to host a large, community wide special event in the months to come. This will be a YAG recruitment event but advertised as a SPORTS MOVIE and DISCUSSION with the PA Youth Governor. Every athlete, coach, official and booster in your school and in your community, as well as in your neighboring communities should be invited. Get a projector, big screen and lots of popcorn. A sound system would be nice too. Under the stars is fine. Make a rain date as a back-up.

I have access to a FANTASTIC one hour film by a sports, media friend and celebrity, David Zirin. We can send you a copy of the DVD real cheap for advance screening by your club sponsors, advisers and club leaderships if you wish.

The movie, Not Just a Game, from the Media Education Foundation is a great motivator to get people to come out of their comfort zone and think about taking a political stand. Think of Muhammad Ali. He is in the movie. David Zirin's recent book was with an Olympian, John Carlos. He held his glove covered, raised fist in the air when on the medal podium as the national anthem played in the Mexico Olympics in 1968. This year, 2012, is an Olympic year. We can make it a sports and political year with YAG as well.

We need to get the athletes in your town aware of YAG, invite them to your clubs, or challenge them to form their own clubs right away. These events be the kickoff to making it happen. I think you'll find that this movie will get people thinking and help to drive conversations for weeks to come.

Went to Pittsburgh City Council

Who is headed to CONA? CONA is the YMCA Youth Conference on National Affairs.

Where in the Capital is ...

 Who is who. What is what. Where is where.

 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.