 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
NAP Youth Partnerships
 The National Association of Parliamentarians is vitally concerned about the youth of the U.S. and abroad, and has dedicated a standing committee to specifically address the needs of those youth to enhance their learning about parliamentary procedure. The first NAP youth subcommittee was appointed by 1977–79 NAP President Leah Koester. In 1993, the NAP convention delegates voted to amend the NAP bylaws to add a youth committee to the standing committees.
Over a decade ago, NAP established a partnership with Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA)—Phi Beta Lambda (PBL) to assist with its national parliamentary procedure contests and to make NAP's educational resources more easily available to its student members and teacher-advisers.
NAP currently has partnerships with six national youth organizations that have an annual parliamentary procedure competition:
Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) is devoted to developing business skills in secondary school students through local chapter activities as well as state and national leadership conferences.
FBLA's Phi Beta Lambda (PBL) division continues developing business skills in students as they continue on to postsecondary education.
Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA - formerly FHA) helps young men and women address important personal, family, work, and societal issues through family and consumer science education. FCCLA members develop skills for life: goal setting, problem solving, decision-making, and effective communications.
Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) is a national career and technical student organization for students interested in health careers. HOSA's activities provide occupation skills as well as leadership skills to promote career opportunities in the health care industry.
SkillsUSA-VICA serves high school and college students enrolled in technical skills and service occupations (such as health) programs of study. SkillsUSA-VICA programs strive to establish industry standards for job skill training in the classroom.
Business Professionals of America (BPA) aims to prepare a world-class workforce through the advancement of leadership, citizenship, academic, and technological skills. Its conferences, workshops, and skills competitions encourage personal and professional growth among secondary and postsecondary students. Partnership management is handled by the NAP Youth Committee. Benefits of the partnership include direct contact with the organizations through a liaison between one of the youth committee members and the chief executive officer of the organization.
Many of the partnerships make purchases of NAP educational materials for direct sale to their members. In addition, each member of the youth committee serves as a liaison to one of the partnerships. As the NAP liaison to the partnership, the committee members have coordinated having a technical adviser available to each organization to recommend parliamentary resource materials, write contest exams and demonstration problems. They have assisted in arranging judges for the national parliamentary procedure competition, presented educational workshops, and monitored the NAP membership exam at the national conferences of the partnerships groups.
Finally, a convention internship program brings a student representative of each of the partnership organizations to the NAP biennial convention. The interns assist with convention registration, serve as pages during business meetings, attend educational sessions, participate in the youth committee workshop, and serve as an ambassador for their partnership. The members of the youth committee serve as mentors for the interns during the convention.
The internship program is underwritten by NAP and the NAP Educational Foundation.
|
|
|
|
|
