<p>How many of you guys participate in it (during the academic year, not the summer programs)? What do you do on a weekly basis? Is it worth joining?</p>
<p>I might be looking into starting a chapter at my school, but I need to know more about it to make sure that it's something I'll be interested in. :</p>
<p>Hey theoneo I'm starting a charter next year also!!! I'm also a little unsure on what you do weekly. Any veteran JSA's on CC? Any advice on what to do or how to run the program?</p>
<p>Bump .</p>
<p>It's hard to start and hard to maintain (interest). You can hold debates, invite guest speakers, and whatever non-partisan political event you can think of. But you can only hold so many debates before they get old and it's hard to get speakers that will interest students. It's worth a shot to try if you can find other people who are interested in politics.</p>
<p>What are most of the weekly meetings like? Are they mostly debates? If so, I think I could just make my Debate Club a JSA chapter...</p>
<p>No.. haha I find that though they would seem similar, debate is far different from JSA. I do both, and I personally prefer debate (policy!) over JSA. Most of JSA's activity centers around the three annual conventions - Fall State, Winter Congress, and Spring State. At Fall/Spring, people sign up for debates on various current topics, such as:</p>
<p>Resolved, that medicinal marijuana be made legal.
Resolved, that all embryonic stem cell research be banned.
Resolved, that state legislatures be required to balance the budget each year.</p>
<p>and the debates are usually structured with one main speaker for each side, then subsequents can speak (members picked from the audience). It's different from debate in that almost anyone can just show up and talk, but there are rules, time limits, etc. For Winter Congress, members write bills and submit them, and the members who go to conventions sit in committees and decide to pass various bills.</p>
<p>During the school year between conventions, chapters have debates, etc. but in my chapter, even though we're one of the biggest in NorCal, most people skip meetings and show up only around convention time :.</p>
<p>I think JSA can be pretty fun sometimes, but even though you get people who really know their stuff, a lot of people who speak can just say random crap that sounds good to get voted as "Best Speakers." And of course, a lot of the people who go, go to party, cause there's a dance at every convention (2 at Spring).</p>
<p>So, alwaysTHISclose, what you're saying is that JSA is pretty much just three season conventions with practice debates (and maybe some politics) in between? What else "makes" a club a JSA chapter?</p>
<p>How long is each convention and how much do they cost?</p>
<p>By the way, my Debate Club is nothing like the competitive NFL national circuit ones. We do some policy stuff with nearby high schools in the fall and a Constitutional Law tournament in the early spring. All we do in between is mainly just practice debates, so it wouldn't doesn't differ from JSA too much. Plus, we could adopt the JSA style of debating in between competitions in Debate Club.</p>
<p>"JSA is pretty much just three season conventions with practice debates (and maybe some politics) in between"</p>
<p>Yeah, well basically at my chapter that's what it is. However, to run the chapter and stuff, of course there's the tax collecting, budget balancing, raising money, etc. and if you want to be Chapter of the Year, there's more work for that too. Also, once your chapter gets bigger, you can host one-day conventions at your school; other local schools might host them, and these "minicons" are like smaller ones in btwn big conventions.</p>
<p>Conventions are usually a weekend - get there Sat morning and leave Sun afternoon. Spring State (in NorCal at least) is Fri night - Sun afternoon. They cost around 80-100 bucks each member, depending on your state (there are 7 JSA states).</p>
<p>I think with your format of debate club, it could work if you converted it to a JSA club. Basically, at JSA you have lots of diff topics instead of one focused theme year-round. However, if your school wants to keep a debate club, then I think you should make JSA separate, since as a chapter, you have to report numbers, etc. and it's just a hassle if debaters, JSAers overlap.</p>
<p>I see. At this point I think the only two advantages to adding JSA as a part of Debate Club would be 1) funds available/fundraising opportunities and 2) an already-established membership base. However, I'm sure our advisor would have 103 reasons not to do JSA at all and management could get messy.</p>
<p>So I think I'm going to get some people together and start it as a new club. Since some activities overlap, we can just combine meetings once in a while. And I know a teacher who would probably be very interested in JSA.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your help, alwaysTHISclose.</p>
<p>When do you normally pay taxes? If we start the club soon and only have a few meetings, should we pay taxes for this year? Do we get any additional materials or anything?</p>
<p>I think you can probably contact someone from your state, and they will send you stuff for starting a chapter. Since it's near the end of the year, you can start collecting taxes but they won't be necessary unless you plan on attending Spring State (around April 22). Taxes are 3 dollars, and they basically allow you to vote in elections at Spring State (for state positions, etc.). If you are just planning on getting started this year and having a few meetings, then I don't think taxes are necessary until next year.</p>