Audrey Gyolai

 

Study Skills: My team used the website Trello to copy a to-do list from our teachers and to assign parts of the project to each person. Each team member had a color associated with their name. Tasks were then tagged with the colors. Each member was responsible for completing the tasks tagged with their color. Trello also features a column system that keeps group members accountable and allows others to easily check in on a task’s progress. In our Trello board, we had three columns: Committee task list, Started or In Progress, and Completed. Trello facilitates sharing the workload. Each team member can see everything that has been done, everything that is in progress, and everything that hasn’t been started yet. If one team member has extra time, they have the ability to quickly reference the team Trello to see what tasks still need to be completed. Colorful tags allow work to be delegated quickly and easily. In addition, a team leader can quickly see which team members are struggling to complete their tasks.

 

We used Google Docs to create and collaborate on bills and to create our meeting agenda. I was able to copy a document from Mr. Morelock that showed me how the agenda should look and to modify it before sharing it with our secretary. Each subcommittee also shared a Google Doc to work on part of the bill simultaneously. We also utilized Google Docs to allow each team member to read the bill individually before opening the floor to discussion. This allowed team members to read the bill at their own pace. By automatically synchronizing work throughout the group, Google docs allows groups to work together on a project and to see their progress in real time. In addition, teachers and other group members may use the comment function to suggest changes to the document.

 

Communication Skills:

Robert's Rules is the process by which buisnesses conduct meetings. It's very similar to Parlamentary Procedure, which is the process that governing bodies use to run meetings. I had prior experience with Parlementary procedure because I was lucky to be a part of the Milan Youth Council the last two years and to attend American Legion Auxilarry's Girls' State over the summer. Robert’s Rules of Order is a meeting procedure commonly used in business meetings. In this format, a chairperson runs the meeting. Other people are involved in the process by vocalizing opinions and voting on issues. The leader may suggest a conversation, but the other people involved must vote to begin the conversation. Once the floor is open for discussion, anyone may speak. Once the floor has been closed for discussion, the leader may ask if there is a motion to vote. Once voting is approved, each committee member may vote for or against the issue by saying aye or nay.

 

Robert’s Rules helps hold individuals accountable for their actions. Motions help the secretary notate who suggests and who supports each issue. It actively engages its participants in motioning and seconding issues. In addition, it forces individuals to articulate their ideas in a way that is understandable and attainable. If a group discusses and agrees to a handful of ideas for dance decorations without Robert’s Rules, some of the ideas may be forgotten about. With Robert’s Rules, someone must make a motion to approve decorations X, Y, and Z. That way, the ideas are articulated and summarized before a final decision is made.

 

General Determination:

For me, writing my subcommittee bill and editing the final draft required the most focus. The biggest obstacle in writing my subcommittee bill was creating extremely specific functions. If I had an unlimited amount of time to spend on this project, I would have spent a great deal of it deciding on the nitty gritty: such as the types of bills that Student Congress could create or how Student Congress should carry out oversight.

As a group, I think we struggled to maintain focus while working to copy and paste our assignments into the final bill. Because everyone used a different system for their portion of the bill, copying and pasting the parts into a single document took up too much of our time. This was partially my fault, as the chair I should have laid out a skeleton for the bill on the Google doc before telling my teammates to copy and paste their documents in. In addition, I should have instructed the group on how they should copy and paste their bill instead of simply waiting for questions to arise. It seemed like I answered questions redundantly.

 

Overall, I feel like my team did a fair amount of work on this project. I worked on this project outside of class, and I’m aware that other group members did as well. We stayed on topic the majority of the time, although there were a few minor slip ups. With that said, I have mixed feelings about my team’s end product. I tend to be a perfectionist and I have some experience drafting a similar document, so in my mind there are several things that I would change. In addition, my team’s struggle copying and pasting meant that we sacrificed time that should have been spent reviewing the bill for consistency. As a leader, I’m working on not being nitpicky about the process and trusting my group. I tend to be extremely specific about how a task should get done. I’m trying to adapt to a project based learning environment where students learn by doing, not by me telling them what is right. I think that my personal goal to not nitpick may have undermined this project. In the future I need to find a leadership balance that involves pointing out areas for improvement and trusting my team while avoiding being overly bossy or impeding the project based learning environment. All in all, I think my team produced a quality and well thought out bill.