How Student Congress Works
JV Student Congress, much like mock trial or moot court, is an excellent hands-on learning experience where students debate as real life federal and state congress women and men. Our JV Student Congress will function as a real congress session with some perimeters for convenience.
Students debate a calendar of bills, written by themselves, other students, and alumni students. The entire round is directed and kept organized by the Presiding Officer.
Serving in the role of Presiding Officer for this tournament is Stoa and Ambassador Club alumni, Cyler Crandall. Cyler is very knowledgable and experienced as he has participated in numerous Congress events as well as serving as the Student Congress Presiding Officer at our Congress events in our state Capitol's Senate Chamber.
Speeches in Student Congress are timed with a 3 minute Sponsorship Speech by the author of the Bill, followed by 1 minute of questioning and 2 minutes for all other Pro or Con speeches focusing on the current bill being debted. Speeches are timed by the Presiding Officer.
For this Congress session, Margaret Myhre, will receive, review, and vet all student Bills & Resolutions. Margaret has lots of experience in this role having coached and directed JV Student Congress for a number of years.
The deadline for your Bills & Resolutions to be submitted to Mrs. Myhre at <margarettant@gmail.com> is 1:00 PM on Friday, November 1st.
Check back on the JR/JV Student Congress Bills & Resolutions TAB at 6:00 PM on Monday, November 4, for all the JR/JV Student Congress Bills to be debated in Student Congress.
Our Student Congress Manual shares sample Bills & Resolutions & a template for writing your own bills. We recommend that you download the Manual, print it out (double-sided) so you can study it to be well-informed and ready for Student Congress!
Here is a step-by-step guide to how a round works:
- The Presiding Officer calls the session to order.
- The Presiding Officer gives or requests someone to give the Invocation (Opening Prayer).
- Roll call is taken by the Presiding Officer.
- All student legislators stand to take the Oath of Office (linked below).
- Debate starts with the first bill/resolution on the calendar (see list of bills on separate tab Nov. 2nd).
- The first speech on a bill, called the Sponsorship Speech, is automatically given by the author of the bill if they are present. Otherwise, like with every other speech, any student interested in speaking can rise to be recognized by the Presiding Officer who will call on a student legislator based on who has spoken the least amount of times thus far.
- Speeches by the student legislators continue back and forth, speaking for or against each bill, until a student calls for a vote.
- After a vote is taken, students move on to the next bill.
- The round is an hour and a half to two hours in length.
Oath of Office
Click on this link to view the Oath of Office
A JR/JV Student Congress Manual and other helpful materials
Here again is a link to our JV Student Congress Manual for you to use as you prepare for the Student Congress.
We recommend that you download the Manual, print it out (possibly double-sided) so you can study it to be better informed and ready for Student Congress and then bring it with your to the tournament to refer to during Student Congress!
Here are the links to two charts on Parliamentary motions and procedures.
Table of Most Frequently Used Parliamentary Motions
The table above is included in the Student Congress Manual.
Easy Chart of Parliamentary Procedures
Helpful Terms
Representative or Senator - Refers to student competitors. They are members of a Student Congress, a mock legislature, functioning as the Congress men and women who represent us in our state and federal legislatures.
Presiding Officer (PO) - The Presiding Officer is usually an experienced student competitor, an alumni who competed in Student Congress, who facilitates the round using parliamentary procedure according to Robert's Rules of Order.
House or Senate - The group of people with whom students are competing. Usually each House is given a name, i.e. the Polk House and the Jackson House.
Bill - Legislation that is being voted on to become law. Bills can be either federal or state level legislation. See the "Bill & Resolution Structure & Form" TAB for instructions on how to write one.
Resolution - An idea that a representative wants the house to adopt. It's not a law that makes something clearly legal or illegal. A Resolution might be used for something like declaring a new national or state holiday.
Calendar - The list of bills that will be debated each session.
Well - The podium at which representatives/senators stand to give speeches.
Floor - when a member has the full attention of the assembly to speak (also refers to the area where the assembly meets, where its members speak, and where it conducts its business).
Amendment - a specific change to an item of legislation, explaining exactly which words it modifies, and not changing the intent of the legislation itself.
Precedence - standard rule in most debate leagues which requires the presiding officer to choose speakers who have spoken least (or not at all). The only exception to precedence is when a speaker has authorship privileges to legislation when it is introduced for debate. In those cases, the presiding officer must recognize the author first. If no author is present, selecting a sponsor is based on precedence.
Recency - is where the presiding officer not only employs precedence, but also selects speakers based on who has spoken least recently or earliest.