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May 10, 2010
Paige Castren
ASB elections committee decided to do something different this year for ASB elections: record speeches and interviews instead of having an assembly.
“It [the assembly] was totally useless. Nobody could hear,” elections committee member junior Tessa Thym said.
The week before spring break, Thym and juniors Sophia Harrison and Erin Enguero wrote up questions and made a video schedule. When the candidates came in, they were told the procedures and got to read the questions for a couple of minutes. They got the chance to introduce themselves and say a short speech. After that either Thym or ASB president senior Seth Neumann asked the questions, which they edited out and put on the bottom of the screen.
According to Thym, there were no big technical problems. One thing they want to change is they want one DVD with a menu for the different grades. Since this year, they did most things last minute, next year they want to do more planning in class.
The juniors had to watch 19 interviews this year, so in classes that had all three grade levels, the juniors had to go to the cafeteria with the juniors who had P.E. The sound quality was pretty good, but there were more distractions. They hope less run next year, so everybody can stay in class. This would help students to be more focused, and keep them from talking so much and listen to the speeches.
According to Thym, the videos made the elections less of a popularity contest and made students able to see if people were suited for the position. They were able to see how they thought on the spot.
“It took the campaign up a notch,” Thym said.
According to Enguero, the videos saved time. Live speeches call for applause, which can slow down the process. There also wasn’t the time of waiting for the next candidate to speak. Since most students were in class, they got to vote while the candidates were fresh in their heads.
“Even though there was lots of preplanning, the day of [elections] went a lot smoother,” Enguero said.
The candidates had mixed emotions about the videos.
“I would say overall the videos were better but sometimes the speeches can show your personality more,” ASB president-elect junior Justin Woo said.
While Woo prefers the videos, ASB secretary-elect sophomore Emma Johnston would rather speak in front of her peers to inform them about herself and her credentials.
“But I know that it’s much more effective to do the interviews,” Johnston said.
English teacher Deborah Pavlecic was hesitant at first about the videos, fearing that there could be many technological problems. However, her freshmen class watched intently and took the voting seriously.
“I was very happy,” Pavlecic said.
Students were as equally impressed.
“The new system allows the student body to actually vote on the qualities of the candidates instead of just their name or how many posters are put up,” junior John Lund said.
However, Lund would like to see the unneeded questions taken out, such as the candidate “special talents,” and have more of a debate about school issues.
