| Junior State of America | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | JSA |
| Motto | Be the People |
| Formation | 1934 |
| Type | high school club |
| Legal status | non-profit |
| Purpose/focus | non-partisan civics education program |
| Headquarters | San Mateo, California |
| Location | 800 S. Claremont St., Suite 202 |
| Region served | United States |
| Parent organization | The Junior Statesmen Foundation |
| Staff | 15 |
| Website | http://www.jsa.org |
The Junior State of America (formerly, the Junior Statesmen of America, or alternatively as the JSA) is an American non-partisan student-run youth organization. It is also the largest high school student-run organization in the country. The purpose of the JSA is to help high school students acquire leadership skills and the knowledge necessary to be effective debaters and political members. The JSA is sponsored by the Junior Statesmen Foundation Inc. (“JSF,” a 501c(3) non-profit corporation), which also operates the JSA Summer Schools.[1]
Students organize every aspect of the organization, from the local chapter level to the multi-state level. The members elect leaders to organize JSA conventions, conferences, and political awareness events.
JSA is both a local and a national organization. The JSA is organized by regions, somewhat congruous with the real geographic United States regions. At the high school chapter level, chapter presidents organize local activities and meetings. On the state level, "governors" and "lieutenant governors" organize overnight conventions and other activities. On the national level, governors are in communication with each other planning convention themes and steering the direction of the organization. This national power has no judicial or legislative checks and balances.
The JSA program includes debates, “thought talks”, problem solving, and a variety of simulations designed to provide members with an informed viewpoint and the ability to analyse important issues. Simulations include, for example, model United Nations, model Congress (with a Senate and House of Representatives), crisis simulations, and other activities. JSA provides an opportunity to meet other students from outside their home communities who share similar interests; furthermore, debate conventions usually include various evening activities like dining downtown or impromptu debate.
In addition to sponsoring the JSA, the JSF sponsors three- and four-week Summer School sessions for JSA members and other high school students. These are held at Princeton, Stanford, and Georgetown and week-long symposium on state and local politics are held in several states.[2] (In years past, JSF has held Summer School sessions at Yale, Northwestern University, University of Texas at Austin, University of California, Davis and University of California, Santa Cruz). Sessions include college-level courses on political science, economics, history and public speaking. Students from all over the world, (most notably England, France, Turkey, Micronesia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Hong Kong) attend Summer School.[3] The revenue from these programs help fund the school-year JSA program.
JSA was founded in 1934 by Professor E.A. Rogers at the Montezuma Mountain School in Los Gatos, California, as an experiment in self-government.[4] Students at the Montezuma Mountain School set up their own tree-branch government, complete with a student court, police force, executive officer, and legislative branch. The students would draft, pass, and enforce their own rules.[5]
The JSA has had liaisons with other similar organizations outside of the United States. For example, throughout the 1980s the Pacific-Northwest State developed close ties with the British Columbia Youth Parliament (BCYP). "Ambassadors" were invited from the Pacific-Northwest State to attend the December BCYP legislative session in Victoria, British Columbia, as well a number of BCYP sponsored events, including the "Vernon Conference" held in 1985, a project to celebrate the U.N. International Year of the Youth, involving the BCYP, the TUXIS Parliament of Alberta, and the JSA. In turn, the BCYP would send delegates to attend Pacific-Northwest Spring and Fall State. The Southern California state also added the American School in Honduras as a chapter in 2006 and the school's chapter attended the annual Congress convention. There are two active chapters in St. Kitts and St. Thomas, USVI. Puerto Rico has traditionally one or two chapters. All Caribbean chapters attend either the Northeast State or Mid-Atlantic State conventions. After 2008 Georgetown Summer School, it has been strongly rumored that a chapter will be started at the American School in Hong Kong.
Since its inception in 1934, more than 500,000 student members have participated in the JSA. Former members include Mike McCurry (press secretary under Bill Clinton), Edwin Meese (Attorney General under Reagan), and businessman Charles Schwab.
For practical purposes, the JSA is broken down into 10 different tree-level branches. Most of these top-level branches are called States, others are Territories, and more are Regions. States are the most advanced and contain the most members, then territories, and then regions. When a region contains a pre-specified number of chapters and members, it may petition the Council of Governors (composed of the Governors from all States) to become a territory. When a territory attains a certain number of members and chapters, it may petition the Council of Governors for statehood.
The current top-level branches of JSA are:
When a state becomes too large, the Council of Governors (the national executive branch, consisting of the governor from every state) as well as the legislative branch of the state-at-hand can break the state into two or more parts. The parts that break off of the state are known as territories, and gain statehood upon reaching a certain number of constituents and approval of the Council of Governors. JSA also includes an international chapter in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and the United States Virgin Islands.
In addition, substructures of states are regions, such as in the Mid-Atlantic State with the New Jersey Region (NJR) and South Atlantic Region (SAR).
The sponsoring JSF is a non-profit organization with an adult board of directors, trustees and paid staff. The JSA receives administrative and programming support from the JSF.
Fall and Spring State are state-wide overnight conventions at regional hotels and convention centers. Both consist of debates, thought talks, and special activities, including political fairs and a casual dance. Fall State is one night, students typically arrive at the hotel on a Saturday and return home the following day. Spring State, by comparison, usually takes place over three days, students arriving at the hotel on a Friday and returning on Sunday. At this longer spring convention JSA members in attendance elect regional leaders for the upcoming year. Both Fall and Spring State conventions are highlighted by prestigious keynote speakers. Past speakers at the Northern California State's Conventions include Stanley "Tookie" Williams (in attendance by telephone), Snoop Dogg, and William J. Perry, former Secretary of Defense under Bill Clinton (94-97). Speakers at Mid-Atlantic, and more recently the Pacific Coast, Region Conventions include Ralph Nader.
Winter Congress is structured more like an actual Congress: students are divided into Senate and House of Representative committees. Past speakers have included Joe Trippi, former Congressman Bob Barr, Senator Orrin Hatch, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England, His Excellency Imad Moustapha (Syrian Ambassador to the United States), and Qubad Talabani (Son of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani)
There are also smaller, regional conferences and mini-conferences ("minicons") which occur on a local level. Regionals are run by the Mayors and Vice-Mayors of Regions along with the Regional Cabinet members that they appoint. Minicons are usually hosted by chapters at individual schools and are not officially JSA-sponsored events.
The most local level of the JSA structure is the individual chapter. A chapter is defined by the Junior State of America as a school with eight or more high-school students that are tax paid ($10 tax), and have had a chapter constitution approved by JSA. A chapter will have meetings at their school in between conventions during the year that can include everything from debates, thought talks, chapter quiz bowl, and other political activities.
As a student-run organization, the JSA leadership consists of students elected to the various JSA offices. Elections occur each year at the Spring State convention and are major events. Races are regulated by a Fair Elections Committee (FEC) that sets spending limits and regulates campaigning.
Once elected, elected officials will need to appoint a "Cabinet" to help run the organization. Prospective cabinet members must complete an application to be considered for a position. In some states, cabinet members need to be approved by the Senate or State Assembly. These appointments range from Convention Coordinator, Director of Debate, CIA Director and other varying positions such as Debate officers, CIA and FEC agents who facilitate communication with individual JSA chapters.
The State elected officials (Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Speaker) lead the top-level branches of JSA.
The position of governor is the highest elected position in JSA. The governor has the job of appointing and managing a state cabinet that gets work done at the JSA state level.
The Council of Governors (COG) is an assembly of all Governors to run JSA at the national level. The COG has the authority to determine if territories can become states. One serves on the JSF as a trustee. Unlike individual JSA states, there is no legislative check on the Council's powers.
The Lieutenant Governor is second-in-command to the Governor, and generally runs the Fair Elections Committee (FEC). In Southern California, the Lieutenant Governor has the option of appointing an FEC head. In some states, the Lieutenant Governor is also in charge of the Senate, State Assembly, and/or the Regional Expansion Committee.
The position of Speaker exists only in the states of Northern California, Southern California, and Texas. In those states, the Speaker is the third statewide elected executive. The Speaker presides over the State Assembly. In other states, that job defaults to the Lieutenant Governor who, in some states, appoints a President Pro-Tempore from the Assembly Representatives to jointly run the body.
The Convention Coordinator (CC) controls all three annual conventions and is responsible for planning events and logistical organization that ensure overall success of conventions. The CC is also in charge of making sure that convention staff are up-to-date and is getting their job done. The CC also must write the agenda for the conventions with limited oversight from the JSA paid staff.
The Liaison serves as both the supervisor and the primary resource for the state's regional officials in regards to conferences/conventions and mediates/advocates on behalf of both state and regional officials.
The Treasurer's responsibility is threefold. First and foremost, the Treasurer is personally responsible for ensuring that all dues are paid by all chapters attending conferences. Because JSA is non-profit, it is absolutely crucial that every dollar be paid on time. Next, the Treasurer works with the Director of Expansion to recruit new chapters and revive old chapters. Finally, the Treasurer is responsible for fundraising, either individually or with the Director of Fundraising. It is important to note that the Treasurer is not allowed to directly handle students' money; he or she only has access to financial records of who has paid and who has not.
In some states the Director of Debate (DoD) works in conjunction with the CC. The DoD drafts debate resolutions, thought talks, and other activities with oversight from Cabinet. The DoD is also responsible for signing up speakers for the conventions. In some states however, the DoD is totally independent of the Convention Department and, thus, serves as an equal peer of the CC, such as in the Ohio River Valley, Texas, Northern California, Southern California, or Pacific Northwest states. In such states such as Texas, Northern California, and Pacific Northwest the DoD may have their own cabinet, consisting of deputy directors, debate officers, etc.
The Director of Moderating (DoM)—also called the parliamentarian—works closely with the DoD and the DoTT. The DoM chooses moderators for debates based on that moderator's previous abilities. They are responsible for the quality of moderators portrayed at any convention where they chooses the moderators. . In some states such as Texas, the DoM works under the DoD and is only responsible for the training of moderators chosen by the DoD. Yet again, in other states such as the Mid Atlantic (MAS), the position of parliamentarian has been eliminated.
The DoL's responsibility is to ensure that people get where they need to go efficiently, safely, and quickly. Often, they are responsible for moving around up to 1200 delegates within the confines of a large convention center or hotel. The DoL (for those States that have Winter Congress in Washington, DC) is also responsible for moving all of the delegates from hotels in Crystal City to the Dirkson and Hart Senate Office Buildings, and afterwards, must often move the masses of delegates to the Capitol Building to hear more speakers.
The DoT's job is to maintain the state website and help improve and maintain the technological infrastructure at both state council meetings and at conventions. They take on the task of creating a new layout for the site each new year and serve as an essential component of PR. Each DoT is also part of a National Council of Technologists. This is the only other national level JSA cabinet other than Council of Governors.
The DoF's job is to gather ideas and organize fundraising events. This whole purpose is to help others schools that are in need of money and ideas. It is also the DoF that gathers the money made in the process, and uses the money to help schools who do not have the financial needs to be able to attend one of the large JSA conventions.
The DoMC works closely with the expansion portion of the cabinet in order to help raise awareness of a powerful form of fundraising. Mini Conventions bring in large revenue, and it is the DoMC's job to organize, plan, and execute the Mini Conventions. It is also the DoMC's job to answer questions upon decisions, and to make sure that the event is most profitable for the schools hosting a Mini Convention.
The Quiz Master is in charge of putting on a Quiz Bowl at the state conventions and usually works autonomously within the Convention Department. In Texas for example, the Quiz Bowl is split into two parts, the preliminaries which are given in a paper test format. The top three teams move on to a Jeopardy-Style final to determine a winner.
The COCP is group of chapter presidents that go to one meeting at every convention to discuss the on goings of their chapter and problems that they face.In the New Jersey Region of the Mid Atlantic State, the Secretary of the COCP is responsible for cohosting the 5 meetings with the Vice Mayor and creates the rules for Chapter Challenge, a game for chapters to try and outperform each other in terms of convention delegations, speakers and moderators, activism activities, and other things that enhance the JSA experience.
The Director of Public Relations has the primary responsibility of finding speakers for conventions along with many other public relations jobs. Further subdivisions can also include Director of Publicity and Director of Communications.
In the MAS, they are on the Vice Mayoral Cabinets, and in the NES, they are in the Gubernatorial Cabinet. CIAs or DCIAs are responsible for making calls to chapter presidents to prepare them for conventions. They also have to handle any "crises" that are going on such as teacher-advisor retirement and lack of transportation.
Most states and regions may have a Newspaper editor who is responsible for creating and editing a newspaper for updates in JSA and local politics. They come up with a list of articles that have to be written and have members in the state/region write most of them.
Most elected officials appoint their own chief of staff who is responsible for overseeing their cabinet. They need to have an understanding of the workings for the cabinet that they are in charge of.
The Chief Justice is appointed by the Executive (Either Governor/Mayor) and is responsible for all Mock Trials at the various convention. Additionally, the Chief Justice is charged with ensuring all Bills that are passed are constitutional.
The DoSNA is responsible for night events such as the dance, and other events and nighttime activities that can differ state by state.
Expansion Directors are responsible for spreading JSA to new schools. Some may focus on new frontiers while others may search in an area where many current JSA schools are.
The Director of Activism tries to get JSAers involved with local politics such as community days and political candidate campaigns. They also may help get involved with other community activities to raise money and give that money to a cause.
Every top-level JSA branch is divided into a few parts, called "Regions". Every Region has a Mayor and a Vice-Mayor and/or a Senator.
The Mayor is an important and critical part of a state, leading the entire region, which ranges from a large city area to a combination of parts of several states. They are responsible for the well-being of their region, as well as planning and executing one-day regional conferences and helping with over-night conventions.
This officer assists the Mayor, and takes their place in case of absence or resignation. A primary role of the Vice Mayor is to keep up on the status of all chapters within the region, and make sure the Chapter Presidents have everything they need to succeed.
In some regions, a Senator is appointed by each state in a region instead of a Mayor and Vice Mayor, and the Senator is in charge of chapter relations. In some states each senator does a Personal Outreach Project, or a POP, which the senator has their project to assist the average JSA member become more involved. In certain states, the Senate serves as the legislative check to the Governor's powers. Also, they are in charge with maintaining accountability in Cabinet and are responsible for confirming Cabinet at the beginning of every new year.
After the school year is over, JSA and JSF offer numerous summer programs. The biggest programs, which are held at major universities, are Summer Schools, which are conducted by the Junior Statesmen Foundation and offer students an opportunity to study local, state, or national government at an advanced level. These programs are meant to prepare young leaders for active participation in public affairs.
These programs, at which students take a full semester of two courses over three or four weeks, for which they can receive high school credit, take place at Stanford, Georgetown, Princeton, and Beijing. Along with debate and regular classes (including Advanced Placement and Law Classes), students participate in a vigorous Speaker's Program in which notable speakers talk about current issues to the students. Past speakers have included Mike McCurry, Andy Card, Lee H. Hamilton, Norman Mineta, Joe Trippi, Dennis Kucinich, Chuck Hagel, Katie Couric, Brian Williams, Geraldine Ferraro, John Kerry, Harry Reid, Barack Obama, Ted Rall, George H.W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Ed Meese, William Perry, Brian Williams and Karl Rove.
Summer Institutes are also held in different regions, such as the summer symposium of Arizona State, Stanford, UCLA, Princeton University and University of Texas. These events are four- to five-days long and venture into politics, world studies, history, national security and discussions of current events. Princeton's event is nicknamed "Princetitute." These events are formerly known as symposia.
Every summer, the newly elected governors each choose a select few from their states or territories to attend the Montezuma National Leadership Summit (affectionately known as "Zuma"). The summit is held in early-to-mid August at Presentation Center in Los Gatos, California, the former site of the Montezuma Mountain School where JSA was founded in 1934. Students who are selected to attend this summit learn more about the history and national dynamics of JSA. Being selected for attendance is considered one of the ultimate JSA honors, and many of the students that attend lead future years of the Junior State. Subsequently, two or three students are selected out of class to become a National Montezuma Foundation Student Advisor, working with the Junior State Foundation to preside over budget and funding allocations for the National Montezuma Summit.