Carmen Huynh, President of the Montgomery County Regional Student Government Association (MCR-SGA), had big plans for the 2013-14 school-year. During the first semester, Huynh gathered information from students through a survey regarding the MCPS operating budget for the following year. MCR collected roughly 800 results and is expecting more. The survey prompted a significant amount of involvement from Montgomery County students, and was recently used for the annual MCR budget testimony to the Board of Education. MCR also met with officials to discuss student needs. Huynh expressed that MCR’s work during the first semester would feed into the goals of the second.
This month, Huynh and MCR plan to launch another electronic survey via GoogleDocs to collect students’ opinions on bell times. Later on, MCR plans to create a survey regarding school lunches, run jointly with the Montgomery County Junior Councils (MCJC), Montgomery County’s countywide middle school-level student government.
Every spring, MCR attends the Maryland Association of Student Councils’ convention in Ocean City. The convention includes MASC’s member student governments. This year, the Richard Montgomery Student Government Association is organizing the convention along with MCR. Delegates at the upcoming convention plan to discuss SMOB voting rights and Senate Bill 194, which would remove many of the voting rights that the SMOB in Anne Arundel County currently retains.
Last year Huynh worked as the Communications Director on the Student Advisory Council, assisting former SMOB John Mannes. Huynh worked with other students on the Council to publish a refined version of the Student’s Rights and Responsibilities Guide. Christina McCann, the MCR Public Relations Director, recalled Huynh’s affinity for puns while creating the Guide. Huynh remembers the publication as one of the greatest accomplishments of the Student Advisory Council last year.
McCann relayed that Huynh plans to lobby the County Council in her remaining months as president. The election for new MCR officers will take place at MCR’s March 21 meeting, hosted by Clarksburg High School.