Each year, elections are held to determine the next members of the Student Government’s Executive Committee. The three positions that students can run for are Speaker, Secretary, and Treasurer. This year, junior Nick Tippner won the role of speaker while sophomore Stella Zimmer was voted secretary. Any candidate who chooses to run for a position on the executive committee is required to have been on SGA for at least a year. Their obligations additionally include attending four meetings in that year or eight over two years. The candidates for Speaker must be rising seniors, while those who fill the other positions may be rising sophomores, juniors, or seniors.
All three positions come with lots of responsibilities. “I think the Speaker needs to be someone who has the time and energy to do a lot and run the meetings and assemblies,” Director of Academic Planning and Faculty Advisor to SGA Carolyn McKee said. “You want somebody who will be comfortable speaking in front of the Upper School.”
The secretary’s main responsibility is to take notes and document what happens in the SGA meetings. “The secretary tends to take notes for the meetings and usually posts them in the Google Classroom,” Ms. McKee said. “They also sometimes post them publicly.” This year, SGA’s minutes have been accessible through a link on the Daily Bulletin.
The main role of the treasurer is to manage the accounting for SGA’s budget. The treasurer keeps track of what money is being spent where, as well as the amount of money earned by SGA through school-wide fundraising events. This year was special, as no student ran for treasurer. Sometimes in the past, another SGA member is chosen in meetings to serve as the treasurer, or a special election is held to determine who will occupy the position. This year, junior Leo Zhang will serve as treasurer.
This year, there were two candidates for Speaker, Nicolas Tippner and Leo. Nick eventually won the position for speaker. “I ran for Speaker because I really thought I’d be able to help the school,” Nick said. “I also want to make sure everyone is fairly and equally represented and give the students equal opportunities.”
Nick has many ideas he would like to try and implement during his tenure as Speaker. “I want to move the meetings to a time where there is more community input,” Nick commented. Nick also looked at last year’s Speaker, David Shi ’22, and current Speaker senior Frank Pu for inspiration. “I want to bring Frank’s enthusiasm and creativity to events,” Nick said. “David was also really organized and had really good foresight.”
The candidate running for secretary this year was Stella. Stella has been a senator for Form 4 this year. She won the position by receiving a majority of the votes for the position. “I ran for secretary because I like taking notes, and I was secretary in middle school,” she said. Stella wishes to get people in the community more connected and involved, and to allow for more school spirit throughout the year.
We wish all the elected members good luck and look forward to seeing what they do in office!
