Quote:
Originally Posted by Magin
In the high schools is the Student Council really that much of an important deal?
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To my surprise, a thread on this topic
does exist:
Student councils in Japan.
The
best answer is probably
Tri-ring's (not least because he is Japanese and was once a regular contributor to this forum):
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tri-ring
I use to be a club president in Japan and deciding annual budget was a very democratic one.
At around September all club presidents files in next year's budget and assembles to a budget meeting to obtain their fair amount but like any budget the request is always more then the allocated budget so it becomes a debate on who cuts down on what.
The student council mediated and the ones I worked with never abused their given power since there was also a right for appeal to vote for no confidence.
What happens is all participants are given a sheet showing break down by clubs of last year's and this year's budget and negotiate till an agreement is reached in cutting each other's budget.
It depended on how good a negotiator the club president is being able to justify how the budget will be placed into good use. So the more people signing up to a club and/or better achievement at tournements meant more justification in obtaining budget allocation. It also meant that less approved club meant more money to go around.
So soliciting freshmen into a club during spring was no laughing matter and winning at tournaments was also a mandate to obtain budget.
It was sort of fun since it was a deduction game trying to out wit other clubs trying to search for holes within their logic and budget request for most clubs strategically placed 20% above target budget so when cut down the damage would be minimal.
I also did alot of class activities like class president and festival executive comittee working with again the student council.
The student council acted as mediators between school staffs and the students and did all the preperation for executive comittees to actually hammer out the details since it was their responsibility to obtain budget and rights for the students.
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