Delegate & Extension Unit Information for Conference Preparation

Preparing for The Great 4-H Debate

House Dress

Delegates will be guests of the House of Representatives and appropriate conduct as well as appropriate dress will be expected. Blue jeans and tennis shoes are not allowed for the Saturday morning session in the IL House of Representatives chambers. Khakis, dress slacks, skirts or dresses, shirt with collar and a nice sweater or jacket would all be appropriate.

Running for the Speaker of the House and Clerk of the House

Participants interested in running for either position are to complete and turn in an application prior to the conference. He/she will be required to give a short speech the Friday night of the conference about why he/she is qualified and wants to do this job. Candidates may campaign for their chosen position. Posters, handouts, etc. are allowed. Delegates may assist candidates with their campaign before and during the conference. Candidates will be elected by a vote of the delegates.

Responsibilities of the Speaker of the House

• Open the session with a prayer and then leads the pledges
• Conducts parliamentary procedures (someone will be on hand to help the Speaker)
• Recognizes the members of the house who wish to speak
• Calls for the vote on the bills
• Adjourns the session
• May vote

Responsibilities of the House Clerk

• Reads each bill and the bill's sponsor
• Re-reads each bill when the vote is called for
• Takes attendance
• Cannot debate or vote

Sponsoring and Preparing to Debate a Bill

Each each person will be assigned a pro or con side of a certain bill based on his/her preferences designated on the registration form. The county 4-H Youth Development staff need to help delegates prepare for this conference in order make it successful (especially since this is the first time in several years that this type of conference has been held).

• Get together with all your 4-H Great Debate delegates several weeks prior to the conference. Face to face would be best, a telenet would work and having access to the Internet would also be helpful.
• Explain that all will have opportunities to speak on behalf of the assigned position/bill.
• Brainstorm and list some of the reasons why a person might vote for or against the bill you're working on. If you have access to the internet some of the group's research might be located during your meeting. Decide which reasons are the most compelling and that can be used for the opening and closing statements.
• Who will sponsor the bill during the debate? If you have been assigned a bill, you will be listed as a sponsor that bill or the sponsor of opposition to the bill. The sponsor usually gives the opting and closing statements, but all those assigned a specific bill will meet together at the conference the evening prior to the debate to determine who will give the opening, closing and other major arguments. Other delegates will research and provide additional statement about other facts that support our position during the debate.

• Prepare for your arguments. You can then allow each delegate to research and prepare his/her own arguments or work on this together. The committee hopes to place information about some bills on The Great 4-H Debate information website http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/mclean/greatdebate/, so check there before doing a lot of research or internet searching. Working together may allow for a more cohesive plan, one that doesn't leave out any of the important points nor unnecessarily repeats other points. It would also give delegates the opportunity to practice their part of the debate. Don't forget to think about the points the "other side will make" and how you'll rebut. Certain delegates may even be assigned this task of preparing rebuttal. A planning sheet can be found at: http://www.eduplace.com/math/mw/wr/pdf/debate.pdf

• Sponsors may solicit votes for the bill, lobby or "trade" votes. The name of the sponsors will be asked during the Friday evening session of the conference.

• For the sake of debate all delegates will want to have some knowledge of all the bills, which will allow them greater opportunity to express opinions and facts when debate is occurring. The more controversial, the more fun the bill is to debate. Delegates may be able to watch C-SPAN and watch legislators debate to get an idea of what to do. Local government, public officials and teachers are also sources of ideas and help.