Advising 101

Concept stolen from California Y&G Program

Recruiting

If you are new to YIG and are attempting to recruit students to join the program, you may feel yourself to be at a serious disadvantage. How can you ask people to participate in something you have never attended? There are actually a number of resources available to help you:

• Read this manual. You'll be much better able to explain the program.
• Use your returning delegates both to help you understand the program and to make recruiting visits with you.
• Call other YMCAs or High Schools in your area that have YIG programs. Their advisors can help you develop a good recruitment strategy.
• Call the YIG office at 207-377-9686.

Many students in the school will follow in the steps of their own student leadership. If you have any returning delegates who are attending the school at which you are recruiting, have them do the presentation along with you. Teenagers will often be more responsive to what an adult is pitching to them if they are also hearing the pitch from one of their peers.

When talking to the students, sell the program first and then you can answer questions of cost. It is much easier to talk money when they are excited about the concept.

If you do have returning delegates, you may find that they are your best recruiters. If they had a good experience the year before, they will usually be willing to bring many of their friends into the program. Set up a meeting with them before you begin recruiting, to organize their efforts and to ensure that they recruit from all grades.

Parents

Why Parents?

As an advisor, you will want to develop and maintain good relationships with your delegates' parents. You may find that these parents become some of your most valuable resources for the growth and development of your program. Getting to know the parents can help you...

• When it's time to recruit new delegates. Parents are great in spreading the word among their peers.
• When it's time to collect program fees.

Getting to know the parents also affords you another opportunity to praise the good efforts and successes of your delegates. When you return from a conference, don't pass up the chance to walk a delegate, to her/his parent's car and tell the parents, in front of the delegate, what a wonderful job the delegate did. Parents love to hear great things about their kids, and kids (even if they don't always admit it) like to be praised in front of their parents.

• YIG from a Parent's Point of View
  One of the best ways to get across to the parents the value of YIG is for them to hear about it from their peers. This is one of the reasons it is helpful to get to know the parents. If you have parents with delegates who are returning for a second or third year, or have delegates who have had siblings in the program, contact them in advance and ask them if they would be willing to share with the group why they like the program, and why they are willing to let their children continue to do it. Ask them to focus on what their child has gotten from the program, how they have charged, how they have grown. Hearing parents of returning delegates talk about what YIG has done for their child helps new parents feel comfortable sending their own children. Be prepared for a few tears as some parents, and advisors, may get a bit emotional about the effect the program has had on their child's life

• Ground Rules
  If you accomplish nothing else at your Parent's Night, you want to do this. It is critical that parents understand ground rules and the ramifications of breaking these rules. 3:00 on a Sunday morning should never be the first time a parent hears that they are responsible for paying for the transportation of their child home for breaking a ground rule. This is also a good time to go over the Code of Conduct for the program. The parents will appreciate the fact that the program is enforcing the kind of behavior that they would expect at home and also very much appreciate the fact that the adults in the program abide by the same rules.

Meetings

The greatest opportunities that you will have with your delegates as a group will take place at your club’s meetings. Between November and April, you will have the chance to take them through a whole range of experiences, challenging them to grow, offering them opportunities to think about new ideas and possibilities, supporting them as they take new risks.

Opening Meeting

The first meeting that you hold will help to set the tone for the year. It may also determine the number of teens you have interested in participating. Your opening; meeting need not be too complex, as the idea is to get the attendees excited about the programs and send them home with enough information that their parent's can get an understanding as well. The important things for you to get by the time they leave are some basic information about them (name, grade, phone number) and a sense of whether they'll come back the following week. Here is a sample outline for the first meeting:

• Welcome
• Introductions (whole group activity)
  Have them give their name, grade, school and how they came to be at the meeting (who invited them, etc.)
• Introduction of the Advisors
• Program Overview (whole group activity)
  This is often best done by a combination of advisors and returning delegates, Prep your delegates in advance to ensure that their presentation is somewhat linear.
• Ground Rules (whole group)
  This is where you cover the YIG rules (No alcohol, drugs, double standards, or smoking) and the proximity rule plus any other delegation rules that you have.
• Q&A (whole group)
• Closing (whole group)
  Ask for a show of hands at the end to see who thinks they are going to participate in the program.

Role Selection Meeting

Prior to attending the regional training session, your delegation will go through a process of role selection.  A main reason for doing this meeting is so that they may make an educated choice on what role they would like to play in Youth in Government. Oh, that it would be that easy. You must be prepared to answer questions from your delegates about what various roles do. There are a few things to keep in mind as you go into the role selection process:

• The Youth in Government web site has the offices that are assigned to your region. (Link to website page on roles for Training Sessions)
• Job Descriptions for each role are on the YIG Website (Link to Job desciptions)
• It is best if your delegation only has 1 candidate for any particular role, that way you will not split your votes.

Have you delegation run like a Training Session election session.

Delegates interested in running for a position, would take the time to give a brief 1 to 3 minute speech about their qualifications.

After the candidates speak hold an election to get your nomination for that position.

Continue the process until you have your slate of officers.

Bill Writing Meeting #1

This is an important part of the program.  This is a chance to come up with ideas for bills.

In drafting your idea answer the following questions. (Link to Website Bill Drafting Guidelines)

These questions are on the State of Maine web site in the section where Legislators go to submit new bills. They are told they must be able to answer these questions in order to submit a bill. To look up existing bills or get other information about drafting a bill checkout:    Maine's Government Website--look for Legislature

• What is the problem you are seeking to address?
• What is your proposed solution?
• How will it be enforced? Are there any penalties?
• Do you have any background material that would help staff draft your proposal?
• Are you aware of any other states that have tried your proposed solution? If so, which states?
• Has this solution been proposed to the Maine Legislature in the past? If so, when?

The best way to draft a bill is to find an issue that you, your school, or your community have a passion about.  Then you will be able to take some time to research the issue and develop a proposed law.

If several delegates want to work together on a bill one must be the lead sponsor and the others will be co-sponsors.

After this meeting delegates should have a plan and can go and work on the development of their bills.  They should plan on coming to the next meeting with their bill in a rough draft.

Bills must be submitted by October 4th, help make sure each bill is submitted ontime.

• To submit a bill visit our Online Bill Submission Page and follow the guidelines.
• Bill should be submitted only after you give approval and endorsement of the bill. 
• To help make sure this happens once a bill is submitted it will be emailed back to the advisor. 
• If you haven’t approved of a bill you may let the Youth in Government Office know the bill isn’t endorsed and will not be submitted.

Bill Writing Meeting #2

This meeting delegates should be held after the bills have been returned after Advisor Review Period. 

Take the time to allow others to look over each bill, and give critique of it looking to make sure that all elements of the bill are included, especially references, and fiscal impact.

Make sure that Statement of Fact, is really a fact, not a statement of opinion.

Give each others input to make adjustments to the bill.

Then at the end of this session delegates can now go and make final drafts of their bills.

Make sure that all bills are submitted in final form by November 4th

Online Caucus Session

This session is the kick off to the program, it is a time to:

• Hear about program updates.
• This is a chance to campaign your candidates for offices, allow them to show their qualifications.
• Elect the officers
• Talk about the procedures tha will be followed

Students that can’t attend training can attend Augusta session, but will not be able to run for office.

Log In online at 15-30 minutes early to make sure we can have everyone ready.

Leadership Training Session in Augusta

Although the Augusta conference officially starts on Friday, some of your delegates may be required to arrive on Thursday for additional training. There is no additional charge to your delegates for the extra night in the hotel. The YIG office will assign rooms in advance. The delegates will be in these rooms for this night only. Delegates will receive a letter notifying them of their expected arrival time, Delegates will pick up their keys from the Youth in Government Director at the hotel. Once at the hotel, the delegates will be under the supervision of the YIG program. All of the YIG rules and codes of conduct apply on this training day. Delegates will need to be in dress code by 5:30 p.m.

Advisors are welcome at this session but are not required to attend this session.

Delegates from the South and Central Region are responsible for getting to Augusta. Please help them in making plans to arrive by 5:00pm so the session may begin at 5:30pm.

Those that are responsible for attending this session are:
All 6 Senate Committee Chairs

All 6 House Committee Chairs
All 6 Lobbyists
All 6 Members of the Governor’s Cabinet
Youth Governor
Chief of State
President of the Senate
Secretary of the Senate
Speaker of the House
Clerk of the House
Newspaper Editors

The agenda for the evening session will be as follows:
5:30---Welcome and Ice Breaking
6:00—Break out sessions
           Committee Chairs on running of Public Hearings and Work Sessions
           Lobbyists on basics of lobbying
           Governor and Cabinet on developing Governor’s bill agenda
           Newspaper Editors develop basics of the newspapers
           Presiding Officers speak about the basics of running House and Senate

8:30---Time to Relax
           Pizza and Bowling

10:00—Back to Hotel

11:00—In room and quiet

Augusta WeekeNd

This is the end of the program with a weekend in the State House.  This weekend is designed for the students, and we intentionally don’t have a lot of events requiring advisors to be there, but we do need your help in a few specific areas.  For these we do need you there.  Exact details of these roles are spelled out in “Advisors Roles” section
It is important to the entire process that every advisor do at least one of the following roles during the weekend.  We don’t want to have to assign advisors, rather hoping that everyone will help make the program work and be a good experience for everyone.

During the weekend we need a each advisors to provide leadership to one of the following:

1 Advisor for Newspaper                               

1 Advisor for Governor and Cabinet                             

3 Advisors for President of the Senate (1 for each Session Saturday AM, Saturday PM, Sunday)
3 Advisors for Speaker of the House (1 for each Session Saturday AM, Saturday PM, Sunday)

3 Advisors for Elections                               

1 Advisor for Lobbyists                                  

6 Advisors for Committee Advisors

Friday Afternoon:

2:00-7:45pm             Governor's Cabinet Advisor

2:00-7:45pm             Newspaper Advisor

3:00-7:45pm             Committee Advisor: 

                                      We must have an adult in each of the 9 committees

Saturday morning:
Delegation meeting—you select a location to meet with your group, simply check in with them.
           Host Family situations
           Dress Code (make sure your group all are in compliance.)
           Program issues or questions they have thus far in the program

House / Senate Leadership Advisor---we will have 3 times to have advisors we will sign up on Friday

         10:00am to Lunch

         Lunch to Group Photo Time

         Group Photo Time to Joint Session Time

Saturday Evening:
           Chaperone of Dance and Recreation

Sunday Morning
Delegation meeting—you select a location to meet with your group, simply check in with them.
           Setting up meeting at the end of the program to ready to go home.
           Dress Code (make sure your group all are in compliance.)
           Program issues or questions they have thus far in the program

Advisors Meeting—10:00am we meet in the Program Office to evaluate the program for the entire year and weekend, and also to select the BEST BILL AWARD.

What The Youth in government Office Can Do For You

The YIG office is here to be a resource for you, and the staff is always willing to take your questions via calls, faxes and emails to help you in any way they can. An advisor should never feel that they don't have somewhere to go for assistance and answers. You can call Lonney at the Youth in Government Office at 377-9686 or email him at winymca@aol.com

Delegation Size (What's The Big Deal?)

In the course of the YIG program year, you may encounter questions or statements expressed about delegation size:

• What's the right size?

• Why do some delegations have 1 and some have 25?

• We'll only be powerful if we are a large delegation.

• The large delegations dominate in the elections.

• Etc.

Delegation sizes have varied over the years, depending upon a number of factors, including advisor retention, continuity of branch staff and support, and the experiences the returning delegates relate to new recruits. The issue of" what is the right size for a delegation has been debated for years without any consensus achieved. In reality, that is because the focus has been in the wrong place. The focus should not be on the size of the delegation, but rather on the experience of the delegates. That is really all that matters. Advisors should base the size of their delegation on their ability to facilitate a quality experience for their delegates. It is easy to get caught up in the fallacy that the quality of the experience is dependent upon having a large delegation. This is where good advising skills are called upon. Helping your delegates understand tile dynamics Of Size, power and their own feelings a value may help diffuse their concerns.