The Youth and Government (YAG) administration decided to cap each school off at 60 members for the upcoming convention. For Howell, this meant cuts had to made.

“I had 108 names down originally, and about 70 showed up to meetings. Twenty-five students are already fully registered,” club sponsor Jennifer Flores said.

The YAG program has almost doubled in the past years. The state convention went from having one House of Representatives to having two Houses with about 200 members in each. The program also has judicial, executive, and media branches with a total of around 600 students.

“I think it’s definitely going to help with the large amount of people in the House of Representatives, but it’s disappointing that less people can participate in the program,” sophomore Isabella Reed said.

Flores is taking the first 60 students who register with the health and code of conduct papers and who pay for the bus fee. The new way for signing up has caused some panic for the current YAG members.

“I was really worried I would turn in my forms too late to be in the program, which  would have been really disappointing,” Reed said.

In YAG, students either write a bill and defend it in the legislative branch, go through a mock trial in the judicial branch, run for office in executive branch, or handle all the news in the media branch. After working on bills, trials, and campaigns for a 11 weeks, the members go to the convention at Jefferson City and work in the state capital for three days, Nov. 9-11.

“I’m not really a political guy, but my friends are in YAG and it seems like fun to write a bill and go to Jefferson City,” junior Hunter Tosto said.