Recently, there was an opportunity for a "teaching moment."
Something called a Mock Caucus was held at Washington High School here in Cedar Rapids.
If the aim of this event was to engage and educate our youth about what happens in an Iowa Caucus,
Well, let us just say that some of the organizers could not hit the broad side of a barn.
In the world of organized events, there is something called the 6 Ps.
Proper Planning Prevents P!$$ Poor Performance.
I am not sure that those who ran the event are aware of those concepts.
Let us first look at what usually occurs at a Caucus, and then we can compare it to the Mocked Event that has held.
A Person who holds the title "Temporary Chair" is sent by the political party to the location of a Caucus to open it.
They explain to the the Caucus what is expected to occur.
Then they will open the floor for nominations for a Chair to run the remainder of the evening.
Then the elected Chair will entertain nominations for a Secretary to keep a record.
After that, reprsentatives of the various Presidential candidates will make presentations explaining why THEIR candidate is the best one to get the nomination, therefore why you should vote for them.
For the Republicans, the vote is cast by secret ballot.
After this point there, will be nominations and elections of the Committeepersons who will represent the precinct on the county Central Committees until the next Caucus.
There will be names entered into nomination and voted on, and elections, if needed, for delegates to the County, District and State Conventions.
Lastly, those who desire will present platform planks.
That is roughly how a Iowa Caucus goes.
What happened at the Mocked Caucus?
There was a representative of the Republican Party--our County Chair, Cindy Golding--in attendance, but no nominations for an Elected Chair.
Nor were there any nominations or election of a Secretary, but of course, our County Secretary, Gary Ellis, was present.
There was a brief mention of video presentations made by the Republican candidates themselves.
These videos did play while the students were signing in, eating their pizza, and talking amongst themselves, but when it came time for actual candidate introductions at the Mocked Caucus,
The LCRCC Chair Cindy Golding said that the Republican Caucuses were run by Robert's Rules, and informed the students that a motion was needed to show the candidate videos.
Having no motion made from a group of students who likely had little to no understanding of what Robert's Rules even is,
NO Presentation of ANY KIND was given to the Mocked Caucus by ANY Presidential campaign.
Now, unlike almost all meetings that use Roberts Rules of Order, a Caucus never votes on an agenda.
The agenda is given as was outlined above.
It ALWAYS includes presentations by the campaigns.
If the Chair had wished, she COULD have handled this situation by saying:
"The Chair requests unanimous consent of the body to run a video of campaign presentations,"
Or,
"Are there any objections?"
Or,
"If there are no objections, then the proposal is accepted."
But the truth is that candidate presentations of some nature SHOULD have been included at this point.
Why?
Because that IS what happens at a Caucus.
Now, at LEAST there was a vote on the Presidential nominee.
But while the Chair, Cindy Golding, did inform the Caucus who won, she never told them the totals for the different candidates.
Now, this is rather important because no Caucus happens in isolation.
All totals are sent to the State Party so that the STATEWIDE winner can be determined, and other candidates will be allocated some of Iowa's delegates to the Republican conventions, depending on the distribution of the voting.
Remember the INTENT of this whole event was to show our youth how our Caucus system works.
No nominations or votes for committeepersons were held.
There was a request for volunteers for Convention delegates,
But no mention of the requirements of a precinct committeeperson, and consequences to the county for not meeting, for instance.
I understand that after the call for delegates,
Some mention of platform planks was made, and that after some nudging from the Chair, Cindy Golding, and Co-Chair, Brett Mason, two platform planks were hastily offered by the attendees of the Mocked Caucus.
Overall, I would give those who ran this Event a grade of D-.
It is most unfortunate to one who considers how FAR the Mocked Caucus strayed from a real caucus, and how many items of importance were left out.
To me, the most unsettling part of this whole thing is:
That the people who ran the Mocked Caucus?
Are the same ones who are in charge of the REAL Linn County Republican Precinct Caucuses.
We can only hope that maybe they learned a few things as a result of this experience.
The Gazette has an article on the event.
I have placed a link to it below:
Students got jazzed about politics during youth mock caucus at Cedar Rapids high school
Updated: Monday, 23 November 2015 1:29 PM CST
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