The Daily Delegate

California Investment Bank:

The California Investment Bank program area functions as Youth & Government’s own “Shark Tank” and introduces often unknown or misunderstood aspects of government to participants.

CIB delegate Daisy Sanders from the SVC/Palo Alto delegation said one of the biggest problems with CIB is that it’s not well known. 

“It’s one of, if not the least known program,” Sanders said. “I feel like people think it’s the same as the Department of Finance.”

According to Sanders, in CIB delegates are able to come up with solutions to problems and pitch them to different representatives.

“Eventually we’re gonna build our own companies for a problem,” Sanders said. “Then we’re gonna try to present them and see if we can get a ‘board of Sharks’ or California representatives to vote on them.”

Sanders said her favorite part of her program area is how innovative it lets delegates be.

“It lets me be very creative,” Sanders said. “They let me have small groups and give me the opportunity to speak and have my voice be heard.”

According to Sanders, while she enjoys her program area, she wishes it could be more competitive.

“We could have a prize or something for the winner,” Sanders said. “Or we could have a natural disaster and try to fix it.”

Department of Finance:

Delegates in the Department of Finance program area create a new California State Budget and compete with other DoF groups for the Youth Governor’s signature.

DoF delegate Amelia Sabatini from the Culver-Palms delegation said that the program area is split into groups, and each group has different topics but the same main theme.

“The main idea of what the DoF does is that we’re creating budgets based on what you think needs improvement within our state’s budget,” Sabatini said. 

“We did a few debates yesterday, and it was fun because we would talk in the groups we picked,” Sabatini said. “I enjoyed talking to the people there and speaking up about things that I felt strongly about. I liked seeing other people’s points of views.”

According to Sabatini, a couple of timing improvements should be made to increase productivity for propositions.

“All I could say is faster paced, because I feel like we spent a lot of time getting the gist of everything when it could have been shortened,” Sabatini said. “We could have had more time discussing and making our propositions.”

International Convention:

In International Convention, delegates vote on a broad issue theme to focus their resolutions around. They then make their resolutions specific to the country they’re assigned to, making sure to address different aspects of the issue theme.

ICon delegate William Thompson from the DaVinci delegation said his favorite part about ICon is the debates.

“It’s really interactive, and it gives you a chance to go up and talk with not as much pressure,” Thompson said.

Thompson said he felt an appreciation for the fun debates and opportunities to meet new people, but the large size of ICon often made it harder to connect. 

“I feel like one thing that could be a problem is the amount of people — because there’s so many people, I feel like there’s a lot of people that aren’t super interested in the discussions,” Thompson said. “A smaller group could get more interesting people and could have better discussions.”

ICon delegate Ryan Farr from the Foothills delegation said he prefers ICon over the Legislative Houses because of the freedom he has in ICon. 

“I actually like ICon a lot, and I feel like it’s refreshing, because I used to be in the legislative house and it was so strict and I didn’t have much freedom,” Farr said. “But when I’m in ICon, I can debate about topics that I really care about.”

Special Interest Committee:

The Special Interest Committee program area allows those who work better independently to excel. Delegates in SIC will identify an issue of national concern and compete with their fellow delegates to have their proposals chosen.

SIC delegate Ella Galachyan from the Berkeley delegation said SIC comprises a lot of debates, speeches, and writing bills.

“We wrote one about AI and if it should be implemented into schools or not,” Galachyan said. “We argued about if it should have been more strict on which students use AI and how it affects their day to day learning lives.”

Galachyan said she enjoys SIC because of the relaxed environment it has.

“My favorite part of SIC right now is probably just the casualty[sic] of it, and how I feel comfortable talking in front of other people,” Galachyan said. “I feel like it’s really giving and is a really outgoing community.”

According to Galachyan, a problem with SIC is that not enough people had knowledge of what SIC would be like prior to coming to Camp Roberts. 

“People should be having more discussions about SIC itself before they actually join the program area so they know what they’re getting themselves into,” Galachyan said. “I feel like having knowledge about your program area in advance is really important.”