On May 5th, elections will be held to determine the Marriotts Ridge SGA Executive Board and Class Council members for the 2021-22 school year.
The campaigning process began on April 22nd, and the electoral process will take place beginning on May 5th. Following the airing of the SMOB videos, the candidates’ speeches will air, and students will be asked to vote right after. Online voting will remain open until Sunday, May 7th, and the winners will be announced the following Wednesday, May 12th.
Throughout the year, the councils work hand-in-hand with the SGA to come up with effective solutions to the problems determined by the student body. The main difference between the SGA Executive Board and the class councils is that the board works at a higher level, coordinating with the Howard County Association of Student Councils, which connects students across the county to talk about leadership and government.
Everyone in the student body will vote to elect members for each position in both the executive board and their respective council.
Starting with the President, they are in charge of coordinating with advisors and administrators, as well as each other, leading and overseeing meetings, and planning their agendas. The President is a representative of their respective group, so a class council president represents their individual class, while the SGA President is meant to represent the entire student body and SGA. This year’s candidates include:
SGA President: Alice Jacob, Mia Johnsonbaugh
Class Council Presidents:
From the class of 2022: Jackie Palmer
From the class of 2023: Abby Eldridge, Isabel Mathews
From the class of 2024: Suhas Chokkaku, Archisha Saxena
Students will also have the opportunity to vote for the Vice President. The VP-elect will act as representative in absence of the president, and help the president to complete their duties. However, the executive board has two vice presidents, while the councils only have one. The executive board VP’s have slightly different jobs, with the VP of Student Activities reporting on all SGA student activities, and the VP of Community Service reporting on all community service, but they still maintain the usual duties of a vice president.
Vice President of Student Activities: Shreyas Rath, Isabelle Summann
Vice President of Community Service: Anna Kim, Priya Nayak
Class Council Vice Presidents:
From the class of 2022: Jedin Truong
From the class of 2023: Zainab Idowu, Anika Sinha
From the class of 2024: Whitney Egbe, Christy Lee
After the President and VP, students will vote for the Recording Secretary and the Publicity Secretary.
The Recording Secretary is in charge of, well, recording. They keep track of the meeting by recording the topics attended to and any important information in records called ‘minutes’. Not only do they record meetings, but they are also responsible for maintaining calendars, working with the President and VP to create meeting agendas, distribute material to the council members, such as minutes, and represent the class body as requested by the President.
SGA Recording Secretary: Sai Chhodavarapru, Colin Hartigan
Class Council Recording Secretaries:
From the class of 2022: Malhar Mandsaurwale, Harini Muthu
From the class of 2023: Mollie Anderson, Smrti Arava
From the class of 2024: Elain Park, Tanvi Potukanuma
While the Recording Secretary keeps track of duties inside of the club, the Publicity Secretary is working on the outside. Their job is to tell students what their council has been working on, and act as a liaison between groups. They are responsible for the coverage of the club by creating and producing the materials the council puts out like flyers and posters, and social media posts.
SGA Publicity Secretary: Kayla Kim, Hannah Lee
Class Council Publicity Secretaries:
The class of 2022 already has a publicity secretary appointed.
From the class of 2023: Sanjna Das, Annie Wang
From the class of 2024: Sarah Hill, Cora Selzer
The events and projects that the council works on requires money, so the SGA and each class council has a Treasurer. They present an annual budget, keep track of all financial affairs, and present and interpret financial reports at meetings.
SGA Treasurer: Rishi Erigineni, Alan Zhao
From the class of 2022: Lani Akinwale, Rahul Pinninti
From the class of 2023: Marin Kriner
From the class of 2024: Nihal Maddirala, Grace Pak
One particularly unconventional position is that of the Class Historian. While there is not a historian on the executive board, every council has one, and any recent events or activities are memorialized by this person. They take pictures and records of each event and work on presentations that show everything the council has done. All of this goes into a digital archive that will stay with the class over the years created by the Historian.
The class of 2022 already has a historian appointed.
From the class of 2023: Frank Rhodes
From the class of 2024: Nora Ewis, Haeli Shah
As the candidates for each position are announcing their campaign, and with the election nearing, it is important to pay attention to their platform. Each candidate has a slightly different idea for the class than the next, so when voting, it is vital that students vote for someone that they think will be beneficial to them and their class.
After an emotionally and physically taxing year, the Student Government hopes to make the 2021-22 school year the best it can be for the student body at Marriotts Ridge. As such, students are strongly urged to vote on May 5th.