My Experience at Hoosier Boys State

[tmthforu94]

*Attention-Whoring, but I think I'm titled to one every now and then *

This past week, from June 12th to last night, I was a participant in Hoosier Boys State. Right off the bat, we assembled in our counties and politicking began. I personally lobbied for a spot at the party convention (I was a Federalist), and got it.

The convention was hell. The other party's lasted for about 2 1/2 hours...ours lasted for about 8 hours over the span of two days. (8-midnight;8-noon) A lot of backrooms deals were being made by the county chairman and delegates voices weren't being heard. So we turned on them, and passed an amendment requiring each delegate to cast their verbal vote (you can only imagine how long that took). I can personally say neither candidate I voted for Governor or Lieutenant Governor actually won.

I ended up winning the party nomination for State Representative, County Clerk, and County Commissioner. Since I could only take one of them, I campaigned mostly for State Rep, but also a little for County Clerk. I ended up defeating my opponent for County Clerk, but lost a close race in the State Rep race.

Probably the most exciting thing for me was the closing ceremony. It was there I learned that I had won the McHale Scholarship, an award given on a series of criteria which I can't remember right now. It's a one-time award for $1600. More than anything, it's motivation as I enter the stage of seeking out scholarships - If I can beat out hundreds of the top boys in Indiana for a scholarship, I should be in good shape to receive some others.

The experience, all in all, was amazing, and I wish I could do it all over again. Has anyone else here ever attended a Boys State program?

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Nice to hear you had fun, Isaac

[Holmes]

Boys, boys, boys!

What's a Boy's State program?

[tmthforu94]

Boys, boys, boys!

What's a Boy's State program?

49 states have a Boy's State Program, Hawaii being the exception (They have another time of program similar, but related to their state government). Basically, the American Legion and other community organizations send the top boys in their school to Boys State. It's a political mock government, where you hold elections and then run a government. It's actually a really fun experience, and I'm sure just about everyone on this forum would enjoy it.

There's also a Girl's State as well, fwiw.

[ilikeverin]

Yes.  It was awful, considering I was D-MN and the American Legion head gave a speech at the beginning telling us that we were in Iraq so that there wouldn't be IEDs exploding in the streets of Minnesota.  I also completely underestimated the overrepresentation of farm boys at Boys' State, and consequently made a complete fool of myself when I made fun of my "rich, white" hometown, only to have everyone interpret me as being for serious trying to be better than them or something.

Yeah.  Luckily, I was able to turn the experience into an okay essay on "diversity" for my Michigan State app, which I wouldn't've had a prayer to write if I hadn't had that experience

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I was at Palmetto Boys State, back when it was held at the Citadel.  I think it says something about the times that the most memorable event that I recall from my week there was a discovery that was made in one of the rooms of a stash of hard porno mags (stuff that would make Hustler seem tame) that one of the cadets had left hidden in the ceiling.

What's a Boy's State program?

Boys State is a program run by the American Legion. (Girls State is a parallel program of the American Legion Auxiliary). Select upcoming high school seniors get to spend a week together in early summer forming a mock government and selecting a couple people to attend Boys' Nation and Girls' Nation.  When you arrive at Boys' State you are randomly assigned a fictional place of residence and one of two parties (Federalist and Nationalist).  I was a Federalist from the "town" of Enoree.  (PBS names its towns after South Carolina rivers.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

That sounds like fun

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Interesting event. Glad you had fun and congrats on the scholarship.


Did they have a max time limit on how long the conventions could last?

[tmthforu94]

Interesting event. Glad you had fun and congrats on the scholarship.


Did they have a max time limit on how long the conventions could last?

Thank you.

There was no time limit. Officials said that it was the longest convention in Hoosier Boys State History, but there are no real records on that. We had a lot of delegates leave, and since we couldn't get 2/3 of the counties to vote for a roll call (who would want one when they were missing delegates?) we got the state chair to adjourn the Convention, and reconvene it 3 minutes later, which required a roll call.

Definitely got to see a lot of dirty politics, which was both fun and depressing.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Interesting event. Glad you had fun and congrats on the scholarship.


Did they have a max time limit on how long the conventions could last?

Thank you.

There was no time limit. Officials said that it was the longest convention in Hoosier Boys State History, but there are no real records on that. We had a lot of delegates leave, and since we couldn't get 2/3 of the counties to vote for a roll call (who would want one when they were missing delegates?) we got the state chair to adjourn the Convention, and reconvene it 3 minutes later, which required a roll call.

Definitely got to see a lot of dirty politics, which was both fun and depressing.

Yes thats true, very depressing indeed. It's also inspiring, because it fills people of courage with the outrage to ensure that they resist such nonsense. Thus it is often in response to the greatest outrage that one can see the greatest display of decency and integrity in politics.

Imagine for a second the 2012 GOP nomination occuring in such manner. Only have to go back about 70 years to when it actualy happened like that too.

[Meeker]

I did a similar program that the YMCA puts on called Youth and Government.

I was elected Governor my senior year of high school. My two best friends in the program got elected Lt. Governor and Speaker of the House the same year. It was a great time.

[homelycooking]

I went to Boys State. I gained a big reputation as "Webster" (after the dictionary) for explaining what a mill rate was. I got elected as a state representative from my city of Madison (and was later elected Clerk of the House) and as the Secretary of the Federalist Party (the left-leaning party opposed to the Nationalists), and I ran for the party's nomination for Secretary of the State but came in third out of eight. The second place candidate in that race was none other than Richard Blumenthal's son.

Our party convention dragged on as well, mainly because we couldn't decide on an efficient way to organize voting for platform planks or for nominations. Keeping order was a very intimidating black guy named Terell, who everyone seemed to defer to because he's loud, quick-witted and very, very muscular.

Our party lost the governor's race by four votes, but we smashed the Nationalists in just about every other race. I got an award at the end, can't remember what it means.

[Badger]

Congrats on the scholarship, Isaac!