APPLY NOW!!! - APPLICATIONS DUE APRIL 2, 2008
Click here for a CONA 2008 Application Form
ABOUT CONA 2008
Colorado will be sending a delegation to the 2008 Conference on National Affairs, June 28-July 4, 2008. This year’s Colorado delegation will join over 450 delegates representing some 32 state Youth and Government programs at the historic YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly Conference Center in Black Mountain, North Carolina.
Each delegate brings their own proposal relating to an issue of national or international importance to debate in one of 18 first committees. In this first committee delegates proposals are presented, debated, and eventually scored based on National/International Importance, Evidence of Research, Feasibility, and Presentation. After the scores are tabulated, eight proposals from each first committee continue on to a second committee (second committees are made up of two first committees.) The process is repeated in Second Committee, where six proposals from each group are sent on to one of three third committees. By this time, only 54 of the original 450+ proposals remain, thus the quality level is extremely high. Each third committee repeats the debate and scoring process but adds Debatability as a fifth ranking criterion, and sends seven proposals on to be debated in General Assembly. The General Assembly proposals are considered "the best of the best" and are debated and voted on in a method similar to that used by our model legislative houses.
The conference is run by Presiding Officers (PO's) -- former CONA delegates who are finished with their first year of college. Presiding Officers for the following year's conference are selected through a process run by a committee of select Y&G advisors with input from the current PO's and a vote by the delegates at the conference. PO's are responsible for the day-to-day operation of the conference, serving as liaisons between the delegates and the conference staff, and presiding over third committees and the General Assembly. Presiding Officers also train the delegates who were selected to preside over first and second committee.
Perhaps the most valuable aspect of the Conference on National Affairs is that it broadens the political and social perspectives of its participants. Interactions occur both in and out of the debate halls that underscore the diversity of the American political spectrum.
Colorado is fortunate to have Will Whitmore, a former CONA presiding officer, assist in advising the 2008 delegation. This year's delegation will also be advised by Michael McCormick, State Board Chair, who will be traveling to the conference. Michael is a litigation attorney in private practice at Montgomery Little, Soran & Murray, a former Colorado Assistant Attorney General, and a CONA alumnus.
National Affairs Website (official conference site)
