NJCL 2008

Fall Planning Wrap-up

Posted by Brian at 11:17 am on Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Whew!  Fall Planning meeting is over.  It was the first time I’d ever sat in on one of these, and the amount of detail that goes into planning the schedule is amazing.  For example, we tried reorganizing the events of the last day, starting with GA and then doing Day in Old Rome (much like we used to).  We then ran into a snag with contests and awards- Certamen was too close to the start time of GA, and errors from the awards assembly in the morning would just be getting fixed, meaning that overall awards wouldn’t have been started yet.

But what was really neat was that this allowed us to do some creative problem solving.  We reimagined some ”boves sacrae” which were getting in the way of our overall plans, but still maintained the integrity of all our activities.  What did we do?  Well, now that would be telling .  But don’t worry, you’ll all get your White Booklets soon enough and see how we tinkered with the schedule.  In the end, all parties involved got what they wanted, just maybe not in the same way they’re used to having it. 

I have to give gratias magnas to the student officers.  All of them made significant contributions to the meeting and the overall planning of the event.  Yes, they came up with the spirit themes and dance ideas as usual.  But they did so much more, much of which you’ll be seeing on the NJCL site in the near future.  Grace, especially, came through in planning the final GA and Procession- her ideas are reflected in the schedule you’ll see in the next few months.  These officers are the real deal, and we are very lucky to have them.  They even lasted through my grand (walking) tour of Miami, hearing the little nuggets of history that happened around every corner.  Hearing them “ooh” and “aah” over different sites was music to this alum’s ears.

I’d also like to thank the different facility chiefs we worked with over the week.  These people really know their buildings inside and out, and we rarely heard them say “no” or “we can’t do that.” Even with our crazy schedule, no one really saw any major issues in dealing with different events happening within their facilities.  Now all we have to do is get an available classroom list so we can finish placing activities in buildings (this, BTW, is always a last minute detail as most schools don’t have their summer class schedule done until the April or May of that year).

This brings up a very important point- the convention belongs to the students, as represented by their officers.  The role of the local committee is to take the vision of the board and bring it to life.  Mr. Gentle and I each had ideas of things to do, but in the end what you see is a product of the students’ planning and creativity.  If they want to do something reasonable, there’s always some way to pull it off.  Again, it just requires some creativity and problem solving.  In a way then, the local committee is a multi-person Walt Disney- they make the officers’ dreams happen. 

But, sorry kids, we’re still not letting you in the Rec Center hot tub. 

Next post: what exactly DID we spend five hours discussing? 

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