Area youth among those attending Jefferson City conference

The House was in session recently as dozens of high school students took to their microphones to hold a mock-debate about legislation they had drafted.

The students were attending the Cooperative Youth Conference and Leadership Experience, or CYCLE program, sponsored by the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives. The Cycle Conference is a leadership conference that began 21 years ago and stretches over a few summer days filled with tours, competitions, barbecues, group activities and speakers. Students  from the Intercounty Electric Cooperative Association service area were among those attending.

Students were chosen for the program based on their performance in an essay and speech contest, said Chris Massman, vice president of member services from the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives.

“The goal of this was to start educating the youth in our service territories, our co-op-powered areas on state government, education on electric cooperatives, but more than anything help them find leadership qualities that are within them, work on personal development, and really kind of start their kind of co-op journey,” Massman said.

As part of the event, the students tour the state prison and local electric cooperatives. They also get to dip their toes into lawmaking — state Rep. Rudy Veit reserved the Missouri House Chamber for the 80 students to have a mock debate on some legislation they put together.

Students broke into 10 groups to discuss things they want to change locally or statewide, then worked together to write some legislation. The students are split into a majority and minority parties known as the Volts, the Amps and the Watts.

The parties caucused, presented their legislation, and then voted on which to debate.

A member of the Volts party proposed a bill to make the adoption process easier and more affordable.

Like in a legislative session, students were called on by the “speaker” (Massman) and addressed their questions to the bill handler.

Students quickly learned the difficulty of the legislative process as they spotted language loopholes in the bill that needed closing, concerns about the requirements for potential adoptive families in the interests of children’s safety, and questions about where the money would come from if the costs were to be lowered.

They also showed their experiences in the CYCLE program had got them thinking, when, as they debated whether a felony should disqualify someone from adopting, they brought up the experience of a formerly incarcerated person they’d heard from earlier in the day during a prison tour.

They also got a chance to tour the Capitol building and do some other group activities during their remaining time in the program.

“These kids are super talented, and so there are four days where they can kind of just relax, make some friends, have some fun, but yet kind of learn and take something away to help improve themselves,” Massman said.

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