Author Spotlight
Kennedy Burgess
Public Relations Co-chair Joe Simmons
What changes do you think still need to be made?
I think a main problem StuCo has had forever is getting people to show up for events and I think we need to strive for that, getting people to show up for stuff. We did really well with that at the Bachelor Auction this year, but the Lancer-Q this year had some issues with attendance. So, attendance is always a big StuCo issue and it’s always something we try to focus on.
In your opinion, what is a strong misconception about StuCo?
We have no power. If we stretch something enough, we can get something done. I mean, everything we do and everything you enjoy here like dances, that’s us. We have the power to stop that. I mean, we’re obviously not going to do that. I don’t want students to think that we’re power hungry people sitting inside of a little room every Wednesday morning. We don’t always crave power, but it’s not as if we don’t have any power at all. We just don’t flex it a lot. We do what’s necessary and we do what we need to do.
What are your thoughts on the success or lack of success of the Can-Drive this year?
Well, I guess it was sort of like we won a lot of “battles”, but we lost the “war”. The huge battle we won was the Bachelor Auction. I mean, wow. I was the auctioneer, and just standing up there and seeing how many people were there and watching Will Cray and Nick Kraskie go for 500 cans, I was astounded. That is a lot. Last year’s Bachelor Auction was really successful for a first time thing and then we quickly realized that this is the one event that goes on here that StuCo created that doesn’t need a lot of people, it just needs people that are there to bid. Having tons of people there doesn’t matter, but it makes it so much more fun when there are a lot of people there. This year was amazing because there were so many people there. That was the single biggest fundraiser this year. We received the most cans from that. So that alone was a huge success, but overall I admit the Can-Drive was not as good as last year. I mean, last year the fourth floor near the counseling hallway, you literally couldn’t recognize it because there were so many cans. Yoda mentioned in previous years, they had to worry about the load on the fourth floor and that it might collapse. That wasn’t the story this year. There’s always the competition between Drill Team vs. Cheerleaders, but you know this was sort of a re-building year, getting traditions back in place for next year, which hopefully will be a better year. So, in a lot of ways it was a success and in a lot of ways, it was a failure.
Executive Board Treasurer Jack Kovarik
What has been topic of discussion lately during meetings?
The Can-Drive. Right now, and we’re still counting, we have 6,000 cans and we’ve also raised at least 3,000 dollars, but probably more. We’re wrapping that up now. I think we’re about the same as we were last year with the Can-Drive, but I know we wanted to go higher. I don’t know if it’s because of the economy or just because people don’t care as much as they used to, it just seems like it was hard to get students to participate. It was hard to get every body involved as opposed to 10 years ago when they were probably raising close to 15,000 cans.
What is one thing you want the student body of East to know about StuCo?
I don’t think people realize enough about everything we actually do for the school as well as charity. We donate a lot to the Johnson County Christmas Bureau as well as other charities and we put on all of the dances and fundraisers. I just think people overlook all of the work we put into those events. I think if they realized all of that work then we would have a lot more participation.
Can you give a brief preview of second semester, since we’re at the halfway point in the year?
Second semester, we’re doing StuCo Ball which is an inner ball with all the Stucos around the districts and everyone asks a date outside of their school’s StuCo to the dance. This year we’re having it at West, and then next year we’ll have it at a different school. The money goes towards the Johnson County Christmas Bureau and it’s in January, but we haven’t decided on a date yet.
Executive Board President Carolyn Welter
Describe a typical StuCo meeting.
Well, it usually starts around 7:10 AM with the joke of the day just to lighten everybody’s mood and gets them excited to be there. Then, we just go through the agenda. We have an agenda board or we just make sure everyone is up to date on things and we have sign ups for different things. We also do class and committee reports where all of the different classes and committees have to share what’s going on. It’s just time for us to regroup and make sure everything is on the right track.
What changes do you still think need to be made?
I think within student council, there’s a lack of effort with things and then they don’t follow through sometimes. There’s just sometimes a lack of enthusiasm, or wanting to be a part of StuCo. We’re trying to enforce the idea that you need to follow through with things and that there will be consequences if they don’t. We have a demerit system set up right now, so we can and will kick people off of StuCo if they aren’t being proactive, or aren’t doing what they are supposed to be doing. They signed up for it, so it’s something they should be willing to do. We’ve had problems with that a little bit, but for the most part everyone does a good job at what they are supposed to be doing.
What has been a topic of discussion lately at meetings?
We’ve been talking about the Can-Drive a lot. I think this year was more challenging compared to past years. I feel like the execs tried and we put a lot of effort into trying to raise awareness. I mean, we went into seminars and tried to spread the word on the announcements just to try to get people to bring cans in. For some reason, people didn’t. They were just lazy. Compared to past years, I feel like we really tried to get people to participate and care. We just want to help and do as best as we can. It’s about the same as it has been in past years. We got a lot more money donations this year rather than cans. For the most part it’s about the same.
How have you tried to keep the student body’s voice in mind while still trying to voice your own opinions?
We really don’t do anything without the consent of all of StuCo, and for me, that is a pretty acurate representation of the student body because we have such a diverse group of people on StuCo who are passionate about the school and so we keep that in mind, doing what all of student council wants to do.
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