El Dorado Youth and Government Delegation Bulletin #8

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Below is your weekly El Dorado Youth and Government Delegation Bulletin #8. 

This is what you need to know this week: 

"Honestly is the first chapter in the book of wisdom." 

Thomas Jefferson 

1). Payments and Financial Aid: Our next payment deadline is Oct 13th for $375. Please bring your checks to this week's meeting or pay online here. Don't be late on payments and miss out on free points! 

2). Bill Hearing Night: Bill hearing night is quickly approaching! This year's bill hearing night will be Nov. 2nd starting at 6pm in B3. We will be splitting up the delegation into two groups, one group will go from 6-7:30 and the second group will go from 7:30-9pm. The event is mandatory for all delegates and your parents won't want to miss this chance to see what delegates have been working on so far this year. Stay tuned for more information on this later this month.

3). Bill Work - Next 3 weeks critical!: You should come to this week's meeting with bill language sketched out if you have a bill idea you want considered. And your bill worksheet started, too. If not, be prepared to join a bill group on a topic that interest you (though they'll all be interesting!

• Check out the complete video tutorial library on the bill writing process. Watch videos 1-4 to help get you on the write track.  
• Here is a breakdown of the bill process in 10 easy steps. 
• Remember that short bills are good and simple ideas are great. You don't need to rewrite the entire education code and drown yourself in work!  
• There are many organizations that develop sample legislation for just about every topic under the sun.  Google can you help you find them. Also, chances are, if a topic interests you, it probably interested a legislator recently. Do some key word searches in the bills that were introduced in the real state legislature - perhaps you'll find a good starting point for your idea. Maybe you can fix a vetoed bill or one that died in committee. 
• Want to see some bills from last year? Check out this bill book.
• Use this online folder to hold your bill worksheet and bill language drafts. There are two documents for each bill idea. There is one set of documents for each family already set up. Use the bill template to help you work on setting up your statutory language. Click the picture below to enlarge for information on how to claim your template documents. 

For those who want to dive deep into bill details, you can check out this Common Bill Mistake and How to Avoid Them document.   

Bill work is tricky - but there are LOTS of resources available - including returning delegates/former bill sponsors and your advisors! You can do this - we promise.  

4). Family Groups - UPDATED: All delegates who are registered with our delegation have been sorted into family groups. We have made some recent changes to family groups, look at the attached PDF to double check which family group you are in. Please get to know everyone in your family group and make sure to communicate with both your family group leader and advisor if you have any questions. Attached is a PDF of all the families, link here. 

As always, thank you for reading and I will see you on Thursday!

Helpful Links:

Missed a bulletin?
Need to make a payment?  Mark your calendars for these key events!

October 13: $375 Payment Due

Bill Hearing Night: November 2nd at 6pm (Mandatory)

November 8: Pre-Conference Meeting (Mandatory for delegates and new-delegate parents)

November 10-12, 2017 (Fresno) Training and Election Conference I (19 pts)

December 3, 2017: Volunteer Opportunity: California International Marathon Aid Station

January 13-15, 2018 (Fresno) Training and Election Conference II

February 15-19, 2018 (Sacramento) Model Legislature & Court