Candidates who prefile must print the above form, complete all questions,  and give it to their sponsor, who must email a picture to kjclparliamentarian@gmail.com

Failure to do so will disqualify your prefiling 

​THE STATE BOARD AND WHAT WE DO: Our state board consists of 6 people, plus our two amazing state chairs, Mrs. Clements and Mr. Divine. The state board plans and leads state-wide events, such as Fall Forum and State Convention, leads the Kentucky delegation at National Convention, and keeps the Kentucky JCL in working order. Here is each member of the State Board and what they do:

  • President:
    • The president’s job can be summarized as being a coordinator and a figurehead. The president coordinates and plans meetings of the board, makes sure that all of the state officers are doing their jobs, and ensures that everything runs smoothly.  The president is a figurehead of the board itself in the JCL, since they run all KYJCL events, and represent the Kentucky delegation on the national level.
    • If you want to find out more, please contact our current President.
  • First Vice President (1st VP)
    • The 1st VP’s job can be summarized as publicity and membership. The 1st VP, as well as taking the president’s place in the case of their absence, promotes the JCL to schools with Latin programs and works with them to start their JCL chapters. The 1st VP is in charge of keeping track of the membership of the entire KYJCL delegation.
    • If you want to find out more, you can talk to our current 1st VP.
  • Second Vice President (2nd VP)
    • The 2nd VP is in charge of Spirit and Service. The 2nd VP coordinates spirit judging and prizes at State Convention and leads Spirit at National Convention. The  2nd VP also coordinates statewide service projects both during and outside of State Convention.
    • If you want to find out more, you can talk to our current 2nd VP.
  • Communications Coordinator (CoCo)
    • The Communications Coordinator combines two previous roles, Secretary and Technology Coordinator. The CoCo takes notes at all meetings of the board and throughout State Convention. The CoCo is also in charge of the state website and social media accounts.
    • If you want to find out more, you can talk to our current CoCo.
  • Parliamentarian
    • The Parliamentarian’s job is mainly to manage elections and maintain the State Constitution. The parliamentarian oversees any matter that involves voting, with the most prominent being State and National Elections. The Parliamentarian also ensures that the State Constitution remains up-to-date and effective, and is able to propose amendments to the Board to be voted on by the delegations at the next State Convention.
    • If you want to find out more, please contact the current Parliamentarian.
  • Historian
    • The Historian’s main job is to take photographs at all JCL events and creates a State Scrapbook, which can be submitted to competitions on the national level. They also compile articles for and publish editions of the Torch, Kentucky JCL's newsletter.
    • If you want to find out more, you may talk to our current Historian.



Qualifications to Run for Office:

  • In order to run for office, you will need to have several things:
    • Parental permission
    • Permission from your chapter sponsor (the adult that is in charge of your JCL chapter).
    • You must have attended at least 1 state convention previously
    • You must be a member of a delegation in good standing with the JCL
    • You must have that JCLove (not an official one but still highly recommended)


Prefiling:

  • Sometime after the turn of the year, the parliamentarian will send out a form to all delegations that you will use to prefile as a candidate. You will need to get your parent’s and your chapter sponsor’s signatures, and you will need to fill out some questions about yourself, why you want to run, and why you think you will be the best for this position. You do not NEED to prefile, but prefiling allows you to automatically have a spot on the ballot as long as there are no more than 2 people prefiled for a single office. 


Speeches:

  • You will make a total of 2 speeches during convention. You might give a two-minute speech to the Nominations Committee. A NomCom speech is needed if 1. more than 2 people are prefiled for an office, or if 2. you did not prefile and were nominated from the floor. A three-minute speech to the entire convention during the second General Assembly (GA) is required for all candidates. Note the difference in length. Be sure to have a NomCom speech just in case. 
  • I personally found that the best way to prepare your speeches was to make the two-minute speech first, just saying what you wrote down for the prefiling form and not much more. The purpose of the first speech is to convince the nominations committee that you should be a candidate, so keep that in mind.
  • The three-minute speech is given to the whole convention during the second GA. You have a whole extra minute than the previous speech, so you have time to cover more about yourself. All the information from the two-minute speech should be in the three-minute speech too.
  • When you make your speech at the second GA, you will have the option to have a fellow delegate introduce you. This is uncommon, but not unheard of. The person who introduces you should be able to say something about you that they know from experience, like that you have a good work ethic because you helped them with something, for example. While most of the time the person who introduces you is from your school, it looks better if a friend from another school introduces you, because it shows that you are able to make friends with others in JCL quite easily.


Meet the Candidates and Candidate Open Forum:

  • Throughout the course of the convention, you will be required to attend Meet the Candidates and Candidate Open Forum. Both events are designed for prospective voters to get to know you better, as a person and as a candidate, through a combination of fun and serious questions. Be prepared to talk about yourself, your campaign, and whatever other random things the officers think of.


Other Important Things to Know:

  • You will be expected to be dressed professionally as a candidate. If you even have the slightest notion of running for office, bring business formal clothes with you. You will want to wear them for your two speeches on Saturday morning.
  • Be prepared to talk to a lot of people during convention. If you want people to vote for you, you will want to meet people from a lot of different schools in order to give yourself the best possible representation during voting.
  • At the first General Assembly of convention, I will make an announcement regarding the number of candidates that are running for each position. If there are no candidates running for a position, there is a state of emergency for that position. During a state of emergency, any attendee of convention is able to be nominated by the voting attendees of a school delegation at the Nominations Committee. The nominated candidates will then make their speech to the nominations committee as the rest of the candidates do. If you decide to become a candidate during a state of emergency, be ready to spend Friday night up late writing a speech, as many of our previous officers have found out from experience.
  • Campaign advertising is allowed (ONLY after the Nominations Committee has met, mind you). Many previous candidates have made signs and posters, given out stickers and candy, and even made their own campaign team within their delegation. Just be sure that signs are posted in places that removing them will not cause damage to the hotel.

Campaign Corner

Kentucky Junior Classical League