Arbor View High School One of Our Biggest Ways to Stay Focused and Motivated Is to Create a Calendar for the Rest of the School Year

Arbor View High School One of our biggest ways to stay focused and motivated is to create a calendar for the rest of the school year. This calendar breaks down each individual event with distinct assignments and deadlines, at least as much as we can plan in advance. Knowing what is going on and what will be coming up allows the members of our council to prepare for upcoming events and be confident in its ability to accomplish the tasks at hand. This also provides us with the opportunity to look back on old traditions and to create new ones. Last year our first ever glow assembly pumped our council up so much we couldn’t wait to plan our next assembly. Another way we stay dedicated is through positive feedback from the school. As a council when you hear that you are a making a difference in the student body it allows you to give yourself a pat on the back for all that you have done and motivates. Positive feedback between council members is extremely important is well; it’s hard to do good when people only focus on the bad. As a council it is our responsibility to support each other, building up not only confidence but relationships as well. Most importantly, while keeping in mind our responsibilities to our school, we need to have fun and enjoy our experiences together as a council. I love making memories with my council, and few things are more motivating than that. Bishop Gorman High School ‘Twas the month after Christmas when in ASG, Everybody was ready with full energy. All the deadlines were posted and hung up with care, knowing the next event soon would be there. All could hear them exclaim (they were nearly berserk!), “I missed you!” to all, and to all, “let’s do work!” For Bishop Gorman’s student government, the season back from the holidays is a season of fun and excitement. ASG finishes planning all the big events that happen after the break, such as assemblies, feeder school activities, and Sadies, before the holidays, so the first few days back are spent getting back in the habit of working hard and playing hard! ASG likes to start off with favorite games such as Lover’s Leap that get the whole council energized and back together again. Plus, because all the events are already organized, ASG comes back from the break refreshed and ready to put all their plans into action! We stay motivated by keeping up the spirit and love within our council that remind us why we love what we’re doing. Bonanza High School Here at BHS, our council does many things to keep everyone motivated, especially coming up in 2014! We start out by showing new council members old scrapbooks, slide shows and videos of past events. It shows them how great these events/activities can turn out if they put their energy into it. Second, we constantly have meetings to keep our council involved and on track. From class meetings, to officer meetings, to meetings with our class advisors, everyone is kept on top of what they need to do. Being the hosts of NASC Southern Zone Conference this year, we are especially motivated to make this conference one to remember! It’s a lot of work on top of our other responsibilities, but we have accepted the challenge and are ready to push ahead. Next, our Student Council Advisor will pick random days out of the month and present a leadership workshop, activities and read leadership books to us. These things keep us involved and excited about everything going on! Our advisor helps us out a lot and is always there for us. Our leadership class is motivated to do great things! We live and breathe leadership at Bonanza High School, and we enjoy keeping each other motivated all year long! Boulder City High School Keeping my student council motivated can sometimes be a troublesome task. There are many cliques within and this creates a gap between all of our student council members. To bridge this gap, at least once a month, we make an effort to gather together and complete tasks to get us one step closer to receiving the Southern and Silver Star Awards. After we have finished working on posters for a Pack the Place or planning an assembly, for example, all twenty-seven of us go out to dinner, play games or watch movies to not only have a fantastic time but also remind each other that we are not alone. Often, people forget that there are others to whom they can delegate out jobs and so that they do not have to take it all on upon themselves. We make sure that our hard work is worthwhile but also fun. When we all enjoy each other’s’ company, we’re more motivated and perform as a better, more unified council. We work together whenever the opportunity arises, which not only brings us closer but motivates us as well. Every Tuesday, our council separates into groups of three or four and each group is dedicated to fulfilling separate tasks such as recycling, teacher appreciation, and birthdays. We switch groups each month. This way, we get a fresh start to change up our otherwise systematic routine. It allows each of us to work with and get to know different members more closely and learn new jobs each month. These things all lead to a better, more motivated school and council. Canyon Springs High School Every school year, the year starts off extremely busy. At the beginning of the first semester, there are assemblies, dances and pep rallies that take place. In preparation for these events, the student council has to take the time necessary to complete the task. As the year progresses on, things wind down and students eventually begin to motivation. Here’s some specific ways on how to keep your council motivated for the second semester in 2014! Student Council is a leadership development class for student to demonstrate their talents and skills while learning new leadership skills. Student Council is also a way to learn with others. In continuing the motivation for the next semester, students can throw parties within their council to promote the excitement of the second half of the school year. They can also throw pep rallies at their school to spread the motivation of finishing the school year successfully. Keeping your council motivated is a very important aspect of student council because when the year comes to an end, people become apathetic about school in which spreads a negative vibe. Students involved in Student Council on campus should always promote positive behavior and positive energy. Carlin High School To keep our Council motivated in 2014 we will continue to have our monthly assemblies. During these assemblies we inform the students what is happening that month and then we have an activity to see which class has the most school pride. Our StuCo wants to make a good impression on the students this year and make it a year that they will never forget. Our Council has already made a difference this year by having Teacher of the Month, where students get to vote for the teacher that they feel makes a difference in their lives. We also have “Random Roader” where students are randomly picked and they are watched by the teachers to see who demonstrates the most school spirit that month. Our council is always coming up with something new and motivating that keeps us and our fellow students excited to come to school. In January, we are having a M.O.R.P. dance, which is the opposite of prom. There will be awesome dress days and spirit points throughout the week to keep everyone involved. We will also have a Mr. and Mrs. CHS, in which they will have competitions between the couples throughout the week. Carson High School

There are many ways to keep your council motivated. You can do many class bonding activities, and you can occasional times where you recognize the people that really help you through the day/year. Those council bonding activities don’t need to be something extravagant, just something to bring you guys closer together as a council. Some examples could be just having a sleep over at someone’s house, or maybe even a council dinner once in a while. Things like that will definitely bring your council together and make you stronger. Another things is to just recognizing the people in your council that really help you through the times that you need them the most, that could be just with a text or a phone call. But you never know, that simple text or phone call telling them that they mean something to you could make that persons day or even week. Even though it is just telling them that they are great people, it can make the council stronger because they know that we are all here for each other, through thick and thin. Centennial High School Inspiring and motivating the members of Centennial High School's student council to be outstanding leaders and role models in their community is an important part of our council's success. With so many leaders and models to emulate, we try choosing the most exemplary people and programs to learn from. Our planned, upcoming Leadership Excellence trip to Disneyland serves as motivation for our students. The day will be spent learning about the values and visions of the successful company Disneyland has come to be. We look forward to not only learning new leadership skills but also learning how to apply them to our daily lives as students and teenagers. Communication, goal-setting, organization, and many more skills are incorporated into the Leadership Excellence course. Spending the day with the teachers and staff that support us and serve as role models to us is also just as exciting as spending time at the parks. Until our trip to Disneyland, we spend time in class learning about the importance of goal-setting and our roles as positive influences on those around us, not just in school but in our everyday lives. For example, watching Will Bowen's lessons on living in a “Complaint Free World” and recognizing the impact a complaint free lifestyle can have on us all. We also learn about the importance of how to set a goal. We spend time setting our own SMART (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Reachable, and Time- based) goals, giving us more personal motivation to become better leaders in our community. Chaparral High School Our Council is excited for the many different things that we have coming up. To keep them pumped up, we have planned a trip to California where we are going to have some amazing bonding time to make us stronger and more united. After all the thrill and excitement of Six Flags, we are going to take a stroll on the beach and enjoy the pier at Santa Monica Beach. We are also getting matching track suits for our Six’s Flags trip. Coming back from our California trip, we welcome in the New Year by having our New Years’ assembly. Our council members just can’t wait for our Sadie’s Dance and Powder-Puff this incoming year. We can’t wait to see what this New Year has to bring for us and all the fun, crazy, and exciting things that are coming up. Churchill County Student involvement is a big part of our school. This year, Churchill County removed the “Student of the Month” which gave gratitude towards students being respectful towards the school. To motivate our council, we decided to give our members an incentive to build our reputation with the “Member of the Month” awards. In this case, the Student Body President and the advisor nominate two individuals of our council. We decided that the two members each month that were involved and had a positive impact on the school would receive the award. After the first month’s winners, people saw the attention given to the winners and seemed motivated to become one next month. The winners received a small gift such as movie passes, candy, or spirit items, as well as a thank you from the council at the meetings. Coronado High School

After wrapping up with homecoming and winter week students tend to get burnt out, and they often need motivation to stay excited for the rest of the year. This year in order to keep our council motivated in 2014 we will be doing a winter retreat! We will be going to Disneyland in January for their leadership seminar. This trip will be a great way to bond as a class and learn at the same time. We will be going to Disneyland with the middle schools around us. This is a great way to get to know them. Along with going to Disneyland we have been reading the Lead Young book by Alan E. Nelson. This book is a great way to teach us about being strong leaders. We are also thinking about doing a lock in. We would stay overnight at the school and just hang out with each other. This would be a great way to stay motivated because when we are closer we are more willing to work harder for each other. Dayton High School Keeping the Dayton High School Executive Student Council motivated is somewhat easy business. As a council we always try to support each other and help each other out when we need it. We always try to stay busy so we don’t get bored and forget our duties as a council. As soon as one event is over, we get into committees and start planning and creating our next event. We are constantly trying to make our events better and create new traditions for them. ! We also do council bonding to keep us as united as possible. This December, as a council, we are going to go to lunch and then go to Walmart to buy gifts for the kids that attend our annual Christmas Party for the underprivileged children in our community. This is a great way for us to bond as a council and remember why we are working so hard. Council bonding is important because it strengthens our leadership traits and improves our communication and understanding as a council. Del Sol High School

As the 2013 school year comes to a close, many of our council members are ready to enjoy themselves over winter break. They are ready to kick back and relax over the two weeks; which unfortunately makes it hard to stay motivated until winter break rolls around. To keep our council motivated we do creative things to keep members occupied and ready to work. To kick off our seasonal spirits and keep us lifted, E-board has planned a council family thanksgiving dinner. This is held right before we have thanksgiving weekend and is intended to bring us together not only as a council, but as a family. After that we begin decorating our classroom, plan a secret Santa, start work on the assembly. Our winter assembly happens the day before the break, we go all out. At the assembly will use black lights to illuminate the gym. With these lights and glow-in- the-dark neon paints, classes are instructed to wear neon colors according to grade. With their participation, we will completely transform our gym. Our school always looks forward to seeing the glowing brightly lit decorations. At the end of these events is our council Christmas party. Here we come together and celebrate and cherish one another. Our goal is to focus on preparing for the assembly, bond, and remember why we love student council. These activities will motivate everyone to continue going strong and not lose sight of council tasks and duties. Desert Oasis High School The Desert Oasis student councils’ method to staying motivated in the upcoming year is through each other. By being such a tight knit group of young adults we motivate each other to stay on top of our tasks even as our year comes to a close. We have gotten to this level of motivation by establishing at the beginning of the year that our exec board would lead by example. And with our example, our good habits have trickled down to even our just-starting-to-get-the-hang-of-it freshmen. By working through each other, this also teaches us to be reliant on us, and only us, and have only ourselves to blame if one of our events, knock on wood, goes sour. A tool we use to motivate each other is what we call a “You Rock Award”. Each person on exec hands one out every Friday to someone that helped us during the week. Along with the hand-written note is also a guitar pick with our mascot on one side and “you rock” on the other. Our goal initially was to promote more gratitude amongst the council with the awards, but along with gratitude the motivation has increased as well. Elko High School Elko High School Student Council does not plan on slacking one bit for the start of the upcoming year! We have exciting events in store to keep our council motivated until the end of the school year. We plan on motivating our new members as much as possible by getting ready for state. Creating decorations for state helps prepare our new members on what to expect for other conferences in the future. Not only are we creating decorations for state, but we will also be busy creating decorations for upcoming dances such as Sadie’s and Prom. Along with these dances, we have two spirit weeks coming up for the New Year as well. By motivating our council to have a successful rest of the year, we also encourage them to have a little bit of fun as well. Our council enjoys playing the “Dating Game” periodically throughout the year when there is free time to spare. This game really gets our council involved and interacting with each other instead of scurrying around during class in an attempt to get everything done. The “Dating Game” consists of three candidates who each portray a different character from a movie or a cartoon of some sort. Then the contestant, who is unaware of the candidates’ characters, tries to guess who the contestants are by asking them a series of questions in an attempt to eliminate them. After the fun and games, our council also plans on creating ginger bread houses with the special education classes. With our upcoming agenda EHS Student Council plans on having a successful yet fun new year! Fernley High School We all know it is hard to keep your council motivated, especially in 2014! It is amazing we have made it this far but there is a lot of distractions for high school students now. Between the phone and the internet, there is a struggle to ensure that your student council doesn’t lose the compassion for making the school a better place. The most important thing is to remind the students what we are all striving to accomplish. At Fernley High, that goal is to make the school a better place and gain support by a majority of our student body. Sounds like a campaign spiel, but, it is true! We are the cream of the crop and we want everyone to be proud like we are. In 2014, the job gets harder because we are essentially a business. We need to motivate the students but we need to motivate our council. Another thing we like to do is to just talk. Class meetings are frequent in our council because we want to hear the concerns. Sure, it can lead to a meeting lasting 3 days on one topic but there is good discussion. You don't need everyone pouring their hearts out to one another but you do need people to become comfortable with their fellow council. The first step to being heard is to listen. Finally, at Fernley we understand kids need a break! Periodically we will spend Fridays having what we call FUN FRIDAY. This is one day out of the week where we play team builders that let all of us hang loose but also learn some leadership skills. On that same note, we won’t have fun Friday unless all the work is done for that week. 2014 definitely comes with some struggles to keep a council motivated however, it is an obstacle that can be easily overcome through goals, listening, and relaxing reflection. Green Valley High School To keep our council motivated in 2014 we use many different techniques. One of our council’s favorite activities is the “Council member of the month”. This award is a class vote where we decide who and why worked the hardest this month. That member will be awarded with a plaque made by our very woodshop and have a picture on our wall. At this time we also do the standing ovation power clap. We let the council have a few minutes to stand on their desk and say a standing ovation to someone who may have helped or shined out to the person. For each ovation a power clap is given. We also know it can get boring to do the same thing over and over and therefore we have separated out each day with work days, workshop days and the occasional pot luck! The workshop days are really fun because we get to see new ideas form each council member, and of course treats are always brought! Incline High School Here at Incline High School our primary way to stay motivated is creating big goals and working towards them! We have planned out all of our upcoming events in order to reach our goal of the Silver Star Award! Some of our events include Staff Appreciation care packages, in which we will be filling reusable water bottles with chap- stick, kleenex, and more for the winter! Also, we are going to have an Extreme Leadership training with a martial arts instructor who will push our leadership class to physical and mental limits in order nurture a strengthening environment in which we learn to effectively work together and pay attention to detail! We are also hosting a Blood Drive in April, Snow-Coming in February, and so much more! Can't wait to share with you all how it goes! Indian Springs High School At the beginning of 2014, the school year is half of the way over. It is at this time that most students start to become less motivated: not the students at Indian Springs! As the student council, we provide students with plenty of events to look forward to in the New Year. Spirit week happens towards the end of the basketball and wrestling season. Battle of the Sexes week happens in the middle of spring sports. These activity weeks give students something to look forward to. Throughout these weeks, students compete for points by dressing up and participating in nutrition break and after school activities. The weeks end with a fun-filled, action-packed assembly full of games and competitions. These have proven to be a great way to keep students interested and motivated by school.

A way for students to remain academically motivated at our school is the recognition that students get for being on the honor roll. At the end of each quarter, students who go above and beyond to receive A's and B's, or even straight A's, are delivered a golden star with a candy bar attached to it. Even if the student does not enjoy candy, there is no denying the special feeling one gets from being recognized in front of their peers for their hard work and motivation. At Indian Springs High School, there are plenty of ways for students to get over the mid-year slump and stay motivated. Legacy High School December can be incredibly hectic with our student council. With everyone looking forward to break, we try to fill our time doing as much service as we can. We host "Make a Wish" week where we grant students wishes at school while raising awareness and money for the foundation. We also like to hold canned food/jacket drives for local programs. Keeping the ball rolling and focusing on service helps us maintain our goals as a council, but also get excited about doing even more as the New Year gets closer. Right now our council is also working on becoming Certified Student Leaders as a class. The deadlines and schedule of that also carries over into the New Year keeping the drive to become better leaders rolling! We’re also going to be doing a retreat in which we get pumped for the New Year and the events coming up! Although we have been around each other for a few months, we want to take the time to truly bond as a council and recognize what we are there for. It’s important that we keep the spirit up throughout the end of the year, but also into 2014. Liberty High School As this year comes closer to an end, we know that the next year is only another beginning. In the upcoming months we have many things to anticipate and to keep our council motivated we have many activities in store. Every year we do our annual Christmas potluck. Every class brings in certain kinds of amenities and we spend time as a council right before we go on Christmas break. We put together potlucks to remind ourselves how great of a family we truly are. Also we will be planning a lock-in to continue our bonding even more and to continue pushing through the year. In this lock- in we will work on building our leadership skills and hopefully becoming closer than we were at the beginning of the school year. Though we have our challenges we know that we can accomplish whatever goal we want to achieve, and staying motivated is a huge part of this plan. Many of the activities that we do in Student Council helps us develop our skills and make us more determined each day. McQueen High School

To kick off the New Year, our council will be planning a number of events to keep the student life and council members here at McQueen High School motivated and full of school spirit. We start off 2014 with our Winterfaire Homecoming spirit week, basketball game, and dance! One of our favorite things to do in Leadership is decide on the theme for the spirit week and design t-shirts for the big game Friday night. We collaborate as a class, and everybody brings so many creative ideas to the table. Although it is sometimes difficult to decide on one solid idea, we have a good time, and the dress-up days are always successful. For the second year now, we will be putting on a Charity Basketball Game. This event draws the entire McQueen community, both students and parents, to come watch the varsity boys’ basketball team compete against a team of McQueen teachers and administrators. Upon entering, game-goers have the opportunity to donate money by placing their donation in a bucket corresponding to which team they would like to see win; all of the proceeds go to the same place. It is a fun way to raise school spirit and competition in a positive way. Last year, the money raised went to a teacher whose son is disabled, giving the family a sum of money to help pay off piling medical bills. Mojave High School Motivation is something that strengthens, directs, and sustains behavior to get students moving in a particular direction, and keeps them going for different period of time. There are four key components to keep high levels of motivation within my student council. The first essential concept in implementing motivation into Student Council is engagement. All of our members need to be able to participate with the feeling of notability and confidence of being heard. To ensure this type of environment is the belief of making it social. To get create an environment for students are able to socialize members need to actively participate which can be accomplished by putting the students into committees where their ideas can be shared then brought back to a full group. Then this brings us to our next notion of fine tuning the challenge. Topics being discussed should not be labored or apparent. Difficulty level of topics or assignments should be based on a student’s proficiency level. By channeling the appropriate level of work students will not become bored neither frustrated with their work load. Lastly the most important idea is setting goals. Any group, particularly student council needs to establish some sort of vision for our members to accomplish the essential functions to keep student council functioning. These goals should not only be long- term to be eligible for awards or acknowledgements but also short-term to give students continual reminder or the impact they are making in their school and community. Therefore I believe these are strategies to motivate Student Council members. Reno High School Throughout the end of 2013, our leadership council was able to stay motivated and active through events such as Welcome Back Week, Homecoming, and holiday fundraisers. Our class persevered with positive attitudes and excitement, in order to put on some truly amazing events for the students of Reno High School, and the Reno community. As we progress into 2014, we plan to keep our class motivated by referring back to the successes of the past events of the year; and by attempting to make each event better than the last. Along with recognizing what we did well in certain events, we will also address what could have been improved. Along with event planning, our class is going to do more bonding. We are planning a second semester retreat, along with class dinners for the holidays. We believe by having a strong personal connection with one another, we will be able to, and want to, work well together when it comes to school activities. Some of the charity events we will be conducting, and participating in, are Homes for the Holidays, Adopt a Family, and Evelyn Mount canned food donations. The activity we will be putting on immediately after bonding will be Winter Fest Week, which includes dress up days, student activities, and a dance. We will hopefully be able to finish the remaining school year events with charisma, allowing for the student body to have some of their most memorable high school experiences yet. Sandy Valley School For the 2013-2014 Sandy Valley School year the High School and Middle School will be keeping our student councils motivated by doing stocking stuffers. Every year during December our student councils come together and make a stocking filled with gifts for everyone in the school. The cool thing about this is we fill each and every stocking for a certain person. We have a class list with all the students’ names on them. Since our school is so small we are familiar with most of the students on our campus this enables us to personalize their stocking. This motivates them to make each and every student on our campus happy. While filling stockings we get to give back to our community in a way that no one else does. The smiles on the student’s faces when we deliver the stockings are priceless. This is how we stay motivated. Silverado High School Often when you think of student council, you think of stress, assemblies, pep rallies, sign makings and glitter. As the New Year approaches, it's easy to set resolutions that councils will fail to follow. In 2014. Silverado's Student Council plans to stay motivated by going one step further. We've decided that during the 2013-2014 school year our motto was going to be "One Step Further." Our council plans to demonstrate this motto throughout the future. Recently, our council took a camping trip to Red Rock State Park. We bonded, shared, and almost froze. Prior to the camping trip, each member was asked to bring a sentimental item with them. As our council sat around the campfire, each member, one at a time, shared the meaning behind each of their items. This allowed us to bond and become closer as a council. In January, our winter retreat will take place at a cabin in Utah. These bonding activities will keep us motivated by reminding us why we work so hard in the first place. The camping trip allowed us to become more united as a council. Our winter retreat is going to be for relaxation, fun, and most importantly being reminded that we work so hard for all of the right reasons. We will be setting up the first planning phase for our next big event – Silverado Hawkfest Week! Silver Stage High School There are so many things that Leadership does throughout the year. We do many learning activities such as student lessons, class community service, and the Homecoming and Courtwarming dances. A few ways that I am planning on keeping my Leadership class motivated in 2014 is by doing things such as days where we do team bonding activities, and breakfast feast days. Team bonding days, we would get in a circle and do activities that we all like to play so we can all practice getting along more with each other. A breakfast feast is a day when everyone from our Leadership class brings in a specific food item, that we have previously decided on, and we all feast on the food and talk to people. In this way, we are letting everyone have a nice full belly for the rest of the day, and getting everyone to talk to each other. In these ways, we are letting everyone get to know each other, and by having everyone bond as one, we can get more people to stay and join Leadership, even if they are shy. If they are shy, then they may be motivated to join Leadership to make new friends, and they may then want to stay because of the fun activities that we do, and the many friends they will make. Smith Valley High School We work really hard to keep our relationships strong within our council. We feel if we have close relationships with each other, our council will remain strong. We do a lot of “StuCo Bonding”. Every month we host “movie nights” we assign the movie months at the beginning of the year, whoever host the night provides the location, dinner and the movie. We always try and watch inspirational movies that make us “feel good”! Every Christmas we have a gift exchange at our advisor’s house. We have snacks, decorate cookies, and exchange gifts by reading a story. This next semester we will be adding “SIC” to our council (Seniors in Control) our seniors will be responsible for planning an event. It could be anything from a gathering to a community service project etc. The only criteria is that it must teach a leadership lesson. We are really looking forward to this activity, allowing seniors to be in a leadership role for our entire student council. We feel the most important way to keep a council motivated is to have respect for each other, if we respect each other as people first, our motives stay on task, therefore keeping us motivated as a council. Southwest Career and Technical Academy With an upcoming new year, as Southwest Career and Technical Academy's Student Body Officers, we are determined to keep our council in high spirits! On Wednesday, December 18th, we're hoping winter retreat will be a big hit! Winter retreat is intended to keep our student council motivated and excited for the remainder of the year. During winter retreat we partake in various activities; helping our members bond even more so! As well as bringing us closer as a family, winter retreat tends to pump up our council's enthusiasm! Winter retreat leaves our STUCO members excited for the upcoming events! A major event shortly after retreat is... drum rolls please... Zone! Come the new year, our council is motivated and beyond ready to begin preparing for the conference! Going to Zone is a privilege (a privilege only so many of us are lucky to have) and somewhat of a competition among our council members. As a result, we are all at the top of our game, giving all we've got and then some! SWCTA's council is excited and motivated for the upcoming major events as well as the upcoming New Year! And we can't wait for the opportunities in store for us - we're ready! Spanish Springs The Spanish Springs student council uses fun experiences and great memories to keep high energy throughout the school year. These include but are not limited to bonding weekends, homecoming survival goodie bags, and the anticipation for the leadership conferences. With the beautiful Mt. Rose and Lake Tahoe right in our backyard the council uses it to our full advantage. During the hot summers we cool down and relax with several trips to the lake. In the winter months we go on sledding trips that are full of laughs and thrill. With the stress of the homecoming that we all know too well, our student body vice-president made us survival bags. Each bag contained items such as candy “to sweeten our day” and fake plastic watches, “to help manage time”. Those things set aside, one of the biggest motivators for the year is the countdown to attending the regional and state conferences. These provide a fresh outlook and new ideas for our council to incorporate into the Spanish Springs traditions. We are also motivated by the growth in spirit and participation shown at our events. These occasions are all sparks to keep our motivation flame burning as we strive toward excellence. Spring Creek High School

As 2013 fades into history, there is a tendency for everyone, including young leaders, to slow down and lose motivation, stop solving problems. Though as General Colin Powell once said; “Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them.” As Spring Creek High Student Council rings in 2014, we are working triple time to continue our inertia of excellence, keep Student Council motivated to solve our school and our student council’s problems. As Spring Creek High is proud to host the 2014 Nevada Association of Student Council State Conference, we reminisce about the epic adventure that was the 2010 State Conference. We use the memories of the past as an energizing tool to exceed all standards and expectations of state conferences. Even with the State Conference looming over us, we have not neglected those who elected us, and those we lead, the Spring Creek High student body. We are still motivated to propel our school during 21.2 (21st Century, 2nd Decade), through actively approaching and talking with our student body for assemblies, dances, and other programs. We find having direct conversations with all students, from all creeds reenergizes our Student Council members to make better the school, with the support and guidance of the students who chose us. Spring Valley High School We are going to keep our council motivated in 2014 by doing a few things. Our council is going to a have pot luck during lunch right before break. It is a great way to get everyone together and talk about new ideas for the year while also enjoying some delicious food. Everybody will bring a food to class and we will all share. Another way we are staying motivated is by going on a fun leadership trip to Disneyland with our sister school. We will learn how to work together and also gain lots leadership skills. We started a giving out a thing called leader of the month. At the end of each month we all write down a name of one person who we think was the best leader of that month. Then we see whose name was written down the most and they become our super leader. One more thing that we will be doing this month is a one dollar gift exchange. Everybody will get a person at random and then they will only be able to spend a dollar on a gift for them. That's including wrapping the gift too. It is always exciting to see all the crazy presents people buy. We also make sure that everyone is involved and no one is left out. A good way that we keep everyone involved is by letting everyone have their chance to take control and lead something that we are doing this year. Everyone in our council seems to like it and it is a great way for our new member to learn how to do things. Tonopah High School

In Tonopah High School, we are looking forward to helping all students in our school follow through on their goals and realize that they have the will power to accomplish anything as long as they truly want it. We are setting up a new year’s resolution board and asking everyone to sign with one serious goal. By putting it out in the open, you have no one to lie to about it except for yourself. Once valentines comes around we are going to hold the annual Valentines Sadie Hawkins dance and encourage all kids to go to it by offering a secret surprise guest which is not decided yet though. We have also just taken on the Yuda Band project which provides a year’s worth of education a third world child for every 175 that we sell. The bands are handmade by children in Guatemala, and are only seven dollars which might seem like a lot before you take into account that it is for charity. We have been pretty successful through the first two weeks and cannot wait to see if we sell enough to sponsor two different children. The second half of this school year is harboring a lot of hope and fun times and that is what spirit is all about. TMCC High School In a leadership class that is nothing less than delightful, it is hard to say that the TMCC high school’s council needs motivation for the upcoming school year but, there are always glorious activities to look forward to. Considering that the council contains a plethora of different groups that can be joined there is never a shortage of activities that can be participated in whether it be a fun run or taking pictures of a senior sunrise. Along with this there are some much anticipated events for the upcoming year. With summer coming up there will be many things to be involved with fun in the sun. The winter will include activities like helping at food banks. With activities like these it isn’t too hard to get people to participate whether it is the joy of giving a helping hand or the team spirit that comes along with pushing yourself across a finish line in the name of change. Along with all of these fun activities there are the people that comprise the student council. In the TMCC high school student council a bond has been formed so that no matter who participates in what there is always a friend to look forward to hanging out with. We are not only a council but also a family, and that is what will motivate us in the upcoming school year. Veteran’s Career and Technical Academy Our Student Council at Veterans Tribute Career and Technical Academy is focusing on planning spirit building events during 2014 to keep our council motivated. We are very fortunate to have a council bursting with spirit and charity, yet there are always moments when everyone feels a little disconnected, particularly after the holiday season. Our Student Council plans a Winter Retreat during the month of January, which allows us to make “resolutions” for the New Year. After we return from winter break, we come together and regroup. We take the time to talk about upcoming events such as our Battle of the Sexes assembly in February and our committee projects that we work on throughout the year. This bonding time within our council gives us the opportunity to engage in fun activities with our council and at the same time it will help us gather ideas and strategies on how to put together our assembly, decorations, and spirit events. Another thing that we do with our council to keep ourselves motivated and inspired is host a New Year’s Resolution Party. This “party” will be like a sharing session in which every council member will get a New Year’s star and write down a goal that he or she has for Student Council during the 2014 year. We will have everyone share with the class what his or her individual council oriented goals are, and then we will display all of our stars in our council. 2014 will be a great year! Virginia City High School In order to keep a successful Student Council in the upcoming year, our group has begun planning the 2014 events. This will increase our interest in our plans and excite the school as a whole. For example, our Winter Ball in January is a fun topic to discuss in our meetings. Creating the theme and coming up with spirited events to do during that week keeps our team on topic and looking forward to what the new year brings. Along with that, we are in the midst of planning two other dances. Our group is extremely excited about the upcoming Thrift Shop dance. Getting the bulk of our attire and decorations from the local thrift shops, we hope that this will be a fun experience while also lending a hand to the shops. Our other dance is of course, Prom, this is one of the most prestigious dances in a manner of speaking. We know it is a ways down the road so all that we are doing now is throwing around ideas and keeping our minds fresh on new themes, decorations, etc. To add to that, we have been talking about new fundraisers to do as well; along with our Thanksgiving food drive and Christmas toy drive, we are hoping to make some new fundraisers or community service projects for the upcoming Spring/Summer school year. Virgin Valley High School Student Council is a very important extracurricular program in any school. It teaches leadership, creativity, how to work in groups, and how to get the whole school involved. However, if a council is not motivated enough and performs badly in their organizing and planning, the school events will reflect and not look so good as well. Here are some helpful ways to keep your council motivated in 2014. A way to keep your council motivated is to reward everyone when something is done right. Our council is really good at doing this. For example, if your council stuck together and put together a really good assembly that everyone loved, reward your council by bringing in donuts and chocolate milk! Everyone loves donuts and chocolate milk! By doing little things like this, you are motivating your council that if they do what they are supposed to, they will be rewarded for their hard work. It is a small way of doing it but it makes a huge impact. These are just a few ways of keeping your council motivated in 2014. There are plenty more ways to do this but I thought making everyone participate and rewarding them would be really effective. So get out there and motivate your council! Wells High School By having such a small council and such a small school, ways to keeping us motivated is rather easy. For example, we are able to interact with one another on a daily basis, which is a very effective way to motivate. By being offered the opportunity to encourage one another each school day, our council’s monthly goals are almost always exceed! Another key factor to our motivation is the impact our council wants to make in our school and community. For example, our council wanted to raise 800 pounds of food for our local food bank. So, in order to achieve this goal, we proposed a canned food drive competition featuring the classes and staff to the student body of Wells High School. At the end of the competition, which was also at the beginning of November, we SOARED past that goal, raising 1119 pounds of canned food, and it continues to be raked in! By raising this much canned food, we were be able to fill our Thanksgiving baskets for the less fortunate and have a bunch of canned food to spare. Our council’s motivation pushed us past our goal and will do so for the upcoming one’s. Motivation is one of our key factor’s to success that never fails to return. Western High School With the holidays approaching quickly, there can often be a disconnection between school and students. Of course this is also true in student council. It is difficult to keep members motivated into the New Year, especially from the exhaustion of Homecoming, yet it is not impossible! Here at Western, we do this in a few different ways. First, our Winter Assembly is always held right before holiday break. This keeps members distracted and focused in 2013 and leaves them excited for all the events and activities planned for 2014. Everyone leaves on break happy and pumped. Next, we hold a holiday party for ourselves. The party helps everyone stay connected and it is held the day before break. We have idea share time and fun little icebreakers. At this holiday party, there is a gift exchange called “Secret Elves.” Not only is student council a part of this, but the Special Education students also get involved. All the members feel close with one another and become anxious for the break to end. Finally, our council plans everything into that will happen in 2014, in 2013. This allows members to look forward to 2014. Once again, excitement occurs. Overall, at Western, we try to make right before holiday break the best so that members are eager to return, refreshed and work hard! West Prep

Usually toward the months of December and January, Student Council tends to get stagnant. In order to boost up the morale, West Prep High Student Council planned a chartered river rafting trip through Black Canyon to Willow Beach in Arizona. It is our attempt to keep the entire council motivated so that we can keep planning events for the student body. The first activity Student Council did together was on the bus. One of the council members started the call and the rest of us responded back. Another thing we did on the bus was our “Show Me How You Get Down” game. This went so far as to have the Principal join in and show us how he gets down. When we got to our destination we continued to build our motivation. During the trip, we had to stop for a lunch break and during this break we had a small improv session. Improvisation is something we have been working on during our Leadership class so we can become comfortable with getting in front of people and speaking. All in all, the trip was a success in helping us raise our motivation. Spending a whole Saturday on a boat brought us all together and got us excited to continue the school year with just as much excitement as before.