“Clomp! Clomp! Clomp!” The Gavel silenced the chamber as it hit against the sound block. “I now call this meeting to order!” The head chairman turns on his microphone and everybody’s eyes are on him.“Today’s problem is, ‘Banning junk food and vending machines from schools in Westchester County,’” He reads off a piece of paper. You have thoughts bubbling in your brain and you can’t wait to share them with everybody else in the room. “Any ideas?” The Head chairman says again. Everybody’s hands shoot up, including yours. The Head Chairman calls on a couple of people around you and then, he calls on you. You begin to turn on your microphone. “Hello?” You say and your voice echoes in the large room. If you want to hear my opinion on the case of banning junk and unhealthy foods or not, keep reading this blog post. In this article you will learn about two things that I have learned from the field trip and my two favorite parts about it!

At the county board of legislators two things I learned was that in a committee discussion, as the chair woman you don’t state your opinion until all of the other legislators say theirs, and I learned about the order in which a chamber discussion takes place. To begin at the beginning of the field trip we went to the committee room. This was an office where the bill that was introduced is at its first step. I was a chairperson and I had to learn that I don’t vote on the topic we were introduced with until everybody else has made their point. This is necessary because as a chairperson you have a lot of power, and most people would be influenced by you, so if you did it wouldn’t be a fair vote. Moving on, another thing we learned was how you discuss and vote in the chamber. Starting from the beginning the clerks do a roll call to make sure that they have everyone so it’s a fair vote. Then the head chairman calls the discussion to order. You go around and everybody needs to get a turn to speak and share their opinion. We learned that you always have to discuss before you vote so that you can try to convince other people to vote on your opinion, or so maybe somebody else will change your opinion. After everybody has had a chance to share their ideas (not their vote) the clerks go around and everybody votes to either move the law to the next step or to get rid of it. For example I realized during the mock case that in the beginning of the trial and at the end the clerks (Kristen and Graydon) actually did the roll call and tallied the votes. In the end we did not move the law forward to the next step but even though it wasn’t a real case it made the whole thing feel very realistic. Once everybody has voted the head chairman closes the case and the meeting ends and everybody leaves.

The two things that I most enjoyed about taking the role of a legislator and a chairperson was learning the process of my job, and when in the chamber being able to share my ideas with the other legislators in the room. To start being the chairperson was super exciting and fun. The process of it was even more thrilling. First off I would call the discussion to order. I would introduce the case (the other legislators would also have it on their paper) and I would call on people to share their ideas and another part that made it real was we would call each other, “Legislator …” or, “Chair…”. Next I got to tally up the votes and everybody voted that the law did not go to the next step. If it didn’t the law would be gone but if it did it would go to the chambers, and that is where we went next. When you walk in the room there are two walls that are rows of chairs. If you keep going forward right after to the two platforms of chairs there are two stages with desks on them, that’s where the legislators sat. In the center there is a desk where the clerks sat that is elevated, and even above that was where the head chairman sat. The desks where the legislators sat all had microphones, it was so we could all hear each other and so we weren’t all shouting over each other.There are 4 jobs. The 4 jobs are, two clerks, a head chairperson, a public speaker, and a legislator. The Clerks tally up the votes at the end and they do the roll call, and the public speaker is somebody from the public, and they come in to share their opinion about the subject. In the beginning the head chairman spoke into his microphone, in a loud, clear voice. “Head chairman, Dean?” One of the clerks spoke into their microphone. “Present,” He responded. “Legislator Olek?” When the roll call is over the head chairman turns back on his microphone and everybody’s eyes are on him. Personally, I thought that they should not ban junk foods and vending machines at schools. I thought this because while other people’s arguments were very convincing I think that the school shouldn’t be worrying about or be able to control how much sugar the students consume. I think that should be up to their legal guardian, and the child, not the school. This is the part that I enjoyed the most, when we all shared our ideas my mind was going back and forth. I liked that I hopefully was able to convince other people about my ideas, and for a little while other people convinced me.

To conclude, I really enjoyed taking a field trip to the county board of legislators. Now you know two things I learned about there, and two of my favorite things we did. I love going on field trips and the fact that it was about our county government made it even cooler. What do you know about your county government?