I have prepared an instructional manual with lots of information for you. In the past I have printed this out and put it in a binder for the Girl State girls. Due to the expense of printing that many pages I've decided to post all the sections online and allow you to browse them and print the pages that you feel are the most important for you. This manual represents hours of research and preparation so I hope you'll use it for your benefit.
Parliamentary Procedure
Parliamentary procedure is the body of rules, ethics, and customs governing meetings and other operations of clubs, organizations, legislative bodies, and other deliberative assemblies.
Many of you didn't know or completely understand Parliamentary Procedure. It will be used extensively at Girls State and we encourage you to know and practice this before you go. The first document I prepared for you is a section of parliamentary terms and their definitions or explanations. The last two pages of this document are the terms and definitions for easy reference. The next parliamentary procedure document has two pages of motions with what you say, if it can interrupt the current discussion or debate, whether or not it needs to be seconded, if debate is allowed and what vote is needed to make the motion pass.
Parliamentary Procedure terms and definitions document
Parliamentary Motion Guide document
Parliamentary Motion Guide document
Branches of Government
At Girls State you will be organized into cities of about 30 girls. You'll stay in the dorms with your city and go everywhere with them. There are certain times that you will be split up (i.e. party conventions etc). You will also meet as a whole Girls State. It's important to know how city and state government runs. In your city you will run for offices your first day there. You will also have opportunities to run for county and state offices. I encourage you to understand more about city, state and national government. I've uploaded a document that I put together from different Internet resources. The first page has a quick picture of the branches of government. This section also includes a brief history of US government and the Constitution.
Branches of Government document
So, before you go to Girls State I would ask you to do the following:
1. Know your city, county, state and national representatives!! I am mostly concerned that you know (remember) your state and national leaders. I've listed the links below for your city, county and state.
State of Utah
United States of America
Find your voting Precinct
Find your House District and Representative, Senate District and Senator
Find your Congressional District (upper left there is a box for putting in your zipcode+4 digits)
National Senators
Utah Judges (Utah County is District 4)
2. Know a state and national issue very well (well enough you can explain it easily to someone who doesn't know or understand it). There will be a lot of opposing views at Girls State so be prepared.
State Legislature
2011 State Legislature Highlights
HB: house bill
SB: senate bill
Special Session regarding HB 477
This is in the news and being debated now. For an opinionated explanation you may go here. I found the link here. I don't believe in influencing someone's personal political views so I do not share my stand on this. I found these links and thought it might help you understand HB 477. I do not openly support or oppose this bill.
National Legislature: House, Senate
White House Website and list of issues
You may want to print all this information or keep it in a notebook for easy reference. You can take that with you to Girls State. The only time you won't be able to have this information is if you choose to run for a Girls Nation Senator and you take the test for that.
| My voting precinct |
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| My Senate District |
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| My State Senator |
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| My House District |
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| My House Representative |
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| My Congressional District |
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| My US Congressman |
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| My US Senators |
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