[ Home ]
Preparatory Steps
Click here for more information about the conference
Click here if you are an advisor and are interested in attending the conference
Click here if you are a delegate
Click here if you are a Princeton student interested in PMC
- Distribute committee assignments: After registering and sending us the Delegation Confirmation Form available at the Online Registration Center and delegation fee, we will respond by sending you a given number of committee slots to be distributed among your students. Since PMC is divided into three and a half separate congresses denoted by color, committee assignments will consist of a color (red, white, blue, or orange), a branch (House or Senate), and a committee. (All committee assignments will be given out so that no school has two delegates in the same exact committee, and an equal number in different types of committees, so as to ensure fairness.) In the past, teachers have handed out the slots based on seniority, or a first-come, first-served basis according to when students signed up for the conference. As soon as you know that a student will definitely be attending (even if this is in the spring), you will probably want to give her or him an assignment so that they can begin to...
- Research committee-relevant topics: To make PMC as realistic as possible, we provide online background papers on all of the committees, detailing the duties, powers, and current legislative debates of their real-life counterparts in Congress. (We can mail background papers to schools without reliable web access.) Students must find a bill topic relevant to their committee. While modeling their bills after real Congressional legislation is often effective and interesting, students are encouraged to carefully examine the real bills and improve on them as they see fit. Links for further research will also be available on the web site.
- Draft legislation: Once they have bill topics, students can begin to write their bills. A sample bill is posted online for students to study. There is also an online bill template form to download, print, and photocopy. (Again, we can mail one if needed.) Bills need to be typed onto these forms; handwritten bills will not be accepted. All delegate legislation must be in our hands by Tuesday, October 25.
- Learn parliamentary procedure: While they are crafting their own legislation, students also need to learn the proper way in which to debate it. The rules are available online to assist you in this endeavor. Students well versed in procedure will be vastly better prepared for the conference.
- The conference itself: All of the bills submitted on time will be included in the Billbook, which each student will receive upon arriving in Washington. There is a different billbook for each committee. PMC is carried out over six three-hour sessions; students will be in their committee for three sessions and in their respective House or Senate for the other three. Committee chairs (Princeton students) will set a docket in advance, allotting time for each bill so that all students’ legislation is debated in committee, where it is either passed or failed. Passed legislation moves to the full House or Senate session, where it is debated again. It is then sent to PMC’s President (elected at the start of the conference); vetoes, of course, can be overridden with a 2/3 majority.
Sample Process: From New Student to Passed Law
- Mary attends East Side H.S. Mary’s advisor, Mrs. Smith, turns in the Delegation Registration Form, signing up for 12 students. PMC sends East Side its 12 committee assignments. Mary is assigned to the Blue House Science committee.
- Mary visits the PMC website and peruses the background papers on BH-ST, seeing that it is in charge of bioethics legislation, something of interest to Mary.
- Mary writes a bill that would create a new regulatory commission to oversee all issues of organism cloning, which she sends to PMC.
- Mrs. Smith works with Mary and the other students at East Side, practicing parliamentary procedure by holding their own mock committee sessions.
- At the conference, Mary’s well-crafted, well-defended bill passes through committee and the full session of the Blue House, making its way to the President, who signs it.