Winter 2021· Torch: U.S. · FALL PLANNING MEETING RECAP
by Emma Canga, NJCL Editor
As we rounded Year 2 of virtual meetings, conventions, and certamen, the National Committee and NJCL Officers were more than prepared to commence the official fall planning meeting on October 8, 2021. Although all of us were unable to be in-person due to the pandemic, several of the National Committee members had the opportunity to physically be at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, the host of the 2022 NJCL Convention, during the meeting.
Our first order of business was for each NJCL Officer to give a report on what they have done since the election. Following this, we coordinated to designate a weekend for the spring planning meeting, hopefully at ULL. After handling the preliminary measures, we jumped right into NJCL Officer proposals. This was an opportunity for your NJCL Officers to get feedback from their fellow officers and the National Committee on ideas they plan to pursue in the coming months. Discussions included a possible switch from Joomag to Canva Pro, Classicalia and National Classics Week, the admission of student representatives to the ACL DEI Committee, the introduction of need-based scholarships, a D.I.Y spirit prop day, social media campaigning, the removal of introductory speeches for candidates at GA, and the hosting of open meetings with the NJCL Officers.
With these ideas in mind and several individual committees formed, we began another review of the newly proposed Song & Creed. The ACL DEI Committee initiated this task last year and has continued to advance the
changes with the new NJCL Board and National Committee. Acknowledging that these alterations reflect and affect all JCLers, we hope to have an open town hall meeting via Zoom in order to receive input from the JCL at large. So far, the changes to the creed have been proposed and reviewed multiple times, and alterations to the JCL Song will be proposed in March 2022.
On the topic of revisions, this discussion was followed by Mr. Compton and NJCL Parliamentarian Talha Ali’s proposed revisions to the Constitution, Bylaws, and Chapter Handbook. Both the committee and the officers worked together to determine the most applicable language.
Since the past two conventions have been virtual, we are planning to have both an in-person and virtual option for the 2022 NJCL Convention. Ms. Bouis and several officers and committee members formed the Virtual Convention Committee to tackle this hybrid setup. Due to ULL’s wonderful Wifi, we hope to successfully host the virtual option and continue this opportunity in years to come.
After a long discussion on the virtual and in-person convention, the NJCL Officers and National Committee members split to discuss relevant matters amongst themselves. The NJCL Officers reviewed the 2022 NJCL Convention Spirit Days and Dance themes with the LJCL board and excitedly proposed them once we reconvened.
As we neared the end of this two-day Zoom meeting, the possibility of changing the rules of pre-campaigning arose and sparked an in depth
FALL PLANNING MEETING RECAP
Fall
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