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any Boys State Participants here EDIT: Im there now

B

BHeemsoth

Platinum Member
I just got selected to represent my school at Massachusetts' anual Boys State Conference, and I was just wondering if anyone here has participated in the program or will be participating this year.

If you have gone before, what was it like? Did you enjoy it?

For people who dont know, Boys State is held anually in all states except Hawaii, and it is sponsored by the American Legion.
 
I was involved with Boys' State at NJ. It's one of those things where if you get involved, you can have a good time, but if you just want to be "too cool" and sit on your ass the whole week, you'll hate it.

I had a good time while I was there. Dunno how they do it in MA, but in NJ, the state is divided into Wards (a floor in a dorm), Cities (1 dorm), Counties (A pair of dorms) and the entire state - the campus.
Rooms were assigned alphabetically, and roommates are always given opposing political parties. The parties do not have pre-defined agendas (i.e. the republican party does not necessarily mirror the real-life GOP).

I was elected to the City Council and the County Clerk. I acquired enough signatures to enter the gubernatorial race, but I was defeated in my party primary.

One thing I learned after the fact was that some schools play at "seeding" the gubernatorial race. Basically, of the constituency from their school, they chose one guy who was going to spend the entire week concentrating on the gubernatorial race while the remainder of their constituency spends the entire week pumping this one guy to be the governor. This went so far that they had given questions to recruits from other schools to ask during debates on which the candidate had clearly been coached.
In fact, he slipped up during the final debate when someone from the opposing party managed to get ahead of one of his supporters and ask a question from left field and he gave the most harebrained answer imagineable and lost the race.

Anyway, by the end of the week, this guy had widespread name recognition because he had people across all counties campaigning for him, while I was well-known in my county, no one else statewide had a clue who I was.

Therefore....depending on your aspirations, it may be a wise strategy to not waste 100% of your energy on the small-time races, but to get an early jump on the gubernatorial race.
OTOH, I probably would not have won that race anyway, so I'm glad that I was able to enjoy success at the lower levels. If I had spent all my time hedging on becoming the governor, I probably would not have had as much fun.

Anyway, it's a good time. Good luck with it.
 
Originally posted by: Jzero
I was involved with Boys' State at NJ. It's one of those things where if you get involved, you can have a good time, but if you just want to be "too cool" and sit on your ass the whole week, you'll hate it.

I had a good time while I was there. Dunno how they do it in MA, but in NJ, the state is divided into Wards (a floor in a dorm), Cities (1 dorm), Counties (A pair of dorms) and the entire state - the campus.
Rooms were assigned alphabetically, and roommates are always given opposing political parties. The parties do not have pre-defined agendas (i.e. the republican party does not necessarily mirror the real-life GOP).

I was elected to the City Council and the County Clerk. I acquired enough signatures to enter the gubernatorial race, but I was defeated in my party primary.

One thing I learned after the fact was that some schools play at "seeding" the gubernatorial race. Basically, of the constituency from their school, they chose one guy who was going to spend the entire week concentrating on the gubernatorial race while the remainder of their constituency spends the entire week pumping this one guy to be the governor. This went so far that they had given questions to recruits from other schools to ask during debates on which the candidate had clearly been coached.
In fact, he slipped up during the final debate when someone from the opposing party managed to get ahead of one of his supporters and ask a question from left field and he gave the most harebrained answer imagineable and lost the race.

Anyway, by the end of the week, this guy had widespread name recognition because he had people across all counties campaigning for him, while I was well-known in my county, no one else statewide had a clue who I was.

Therefore....depending on your aspirations, it may be a wise strategy to not waste 100% of your energy on the small-time races, but to get an early jump on the gubernatorial race.
OTOH, I probably would not have won that race anyway, so I'm glad that I was able to enjoy success at the lower levels. If I had spent all my time hedging on becoming the governor, I probably would not have had as much fun.

Anyway, it's a good time. Good luck with it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, anyone else?
 
NJ Boys State here...got the free shirts to prove it too!

You pretty much get what you put into it. If you want, you can do the whole government thing and the voting thing etc. Me, I decided that I didn't want to get caught up in the whole debacle and instead chilled out with friends I made. It was a good time had by all and you learn about a lot of stuff there in the meantime...plus, the occassional girl hangs out on campus and with hundreds of female starved boys on campus, it's usually fun to see what happens.
 
did it, hated it. couldn't stand anyone else who was there. if you're into that sort of thing, it should be fun. i guess i just didn't get what was so great about pretending to be a politican for a week. (well, having the REAL life of a corrupt politican might have been ok, but not the life of one who spends his nights in an all-male college dorm)
 
Originally posted by: mjquilly
did it, hated it. couldn't stand anyone else who was there. if you're into that sort of thing, it should be fun. i guess i just didn't get what was so great about pretending to be a politican for a week. (well, having the REAL life of a corrupt politican might have been ok, but not the life of one who spends his nights in an all-male college dorm)
Click to expand...

You did know that there were women on the campus in the other dorms right? At least for jersey there was.
 
Woo! Went to Montana's Boys State back in '95. It was pretty fun. I wanted to go just cuz we got out of the last week of school, but I did end up gettin elected for a lower end position. It's as fun as you want to make it. I met a lotta people and it wasn't all that bad. Unfortunately, the college girls were outta school already, so we all had to fight over the lunch ladies. Mmmm... lunch ladies... *droooool*
 
You did know that there were women on the campus in the other dorms right? At least for jersey there was.
Click to expand...

not at ohio's - ours was during the summer session and BGSU doesn't have students in dorms then

 
I'm there now, so far it has been decently fun.

I have won a few small time elections this week, and I am currently staffing on a number of major campaigns.

This has definitley turned out to be a great experience, and I reccomend that anyone who has the opportunity to go, to do so.

I will post more details later in the week, I have to go to a committee meeting.

-Brian
 
i did it for my school in NY and my brother did it 2 years after i did. honestly its a big fvcking joke. its a week of dicking around. they make you march everywhere. you are supposed to lear something. no idea what that was and neither did anyone else i know that went. it just looks good on your college apps
 
Originally posted by: Anubis
i did it for my school in NY and my brother did it 2 years after i did. honestly its a big fvcking joke. its a week of dicking around. they make you march everywhere. you are supposed to lear something. no idea what that was and neither did anyone else i know that went. it just looks good on your college apps
Click to expand...

what you just said goes against everything that has went on here thus far this week.

 
Man, I forgot all about Boy's State. I went in FL in 1980. I did get into it, but the only office I ran for was county Sheriff, which I won. I didn't really want to go any further than that. One thing I do remember that was really cool was going to see the State Senate and House chambers, as well as getting to meet the governor.

Pretty cool I thought...
 
went to NY boys state, we did more pushups and marching exercises with the marines than sleeping. There were some sports things and those were allright, but most people were too tired to have fun. The politics part was boring, just sat in a hot aduitorium the entire time.

I ran for county sherrif and lost by a few votes, that was the end of my politicking
 
I was selected to go in 1996 in Louisiana. I decided not to attend (btw, they were really pissed for some reason). From what I heard, I'm glad I didn't go...
 
Originally posted by: Glitchny
went to NY boys state, we did more pushups and marching exercises with the marines than sleeping. There were some sports things and those were allright, but most people were too tired to have fun. The politics part was boring, just sat in a hot aduitorium the entire time.

I ran for county sherrif and lost by a few votes, that was the end of my politicking
Click to expand...


Wow, I'm glad we have nothing like that here. That dosent represent the operation of a muncipality government at all.
 
Woot!

Things are going awesome. I am staffing for the Senator Candidate who is most likely to win the election, and when he does I will be appointed state treasurer.

WOOT!
 
Originally posted by: Glitchny
went to NY boys state, we did more pushups and marching exercises with the marines than sleeping. There were some sports things and those were allright, but most people were too tired to have fun. The politics part was boring, just sat in a hot aduitorium the entire time.

I ran for county sherrif and lost by a few votes, that was the end of my politicking
Click to expand...

i did the same thing. except my year was 2x as hot as your matt. remember? i ran for 2 things lost both then just had to sit around. it was really boaring. i dont know what the point was supposed to be.

all i know is that i was so damn tire from PT when i got home i slept for 23.5 hours
 
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