TASC preparations in full swing after presentation to board

Elizabeth Gore and Madison Wilkins reviewed all of the preparations in their minds and presented their plans for this year’s convention to the board of directors.

Nerves were high for the co-secretaries of the executive board for TASC, as this presentation typically results in a scrapping of many plans that have been made, but it was a different experience for Gore and Wilkins.

“Usually they’re pretty harsh and change a lot of ideas, but they were really nice to us, so it was good,” Gore said.

TASC is a weekend-long convention for SGA members statewide to come together and learn how to improve their own student governments.

The meeting consisted of a presentation of the ideas for this year’s convention as well as a tour of the school. While the meeting usually results in several suggestions from the board of directors and changes to the plans of the convention, the board was mostly impressed with the work that has been done so far.

“They changed the schedule a little just to add in a couple of things, but for the most part they said it was one of the best things they’ve seen,” Wilkins said.

Some of the plans that were presented include the goal to make TASC more like Camp, which is an activity that SGAs from across the state participate in during the summer.

Attendance numbers from TASC are lower than those for Camp, so in an effort to bring more numbers to TASC, a Camp atmosphere will be implemented through the use of “counties”, which are small groups that will work together and perform activities together for the entirety of the weekend, as well as an outing at Dollywood, which was chosen in order to accentuate the theme of “Tennessee Traditions”.

Attendance numbers look promising as 300 people have already registered to attend, which is approaching last year’s attendance of 391, and the registration site for the event has yet to be published.

A variety of businesses, such as Chick-fil-A and Academy Sports & Outdoors, have made donations to help in the departments of food and door prizes, as has the University of Tennessee, who is supplying the materials for goody bags that each participant will receive. The contents of the goody bags include pens and hardback books telling the history of the University.

“Academy was probably my favorite to work with because they were nice and worked quickly,” hospitality committee chair and junior Erin Dolvin said.

Wilkins had a different opinion, proclaiming UT as her favorite contributor because they encompass the convention’s theme to a “T”.

Mr. Cody Martin also filled in the board about the secret guest speaker, but he’s not letting anybody else in on the details quite yet.

With their plans to make TASC more like Camp, Gore and Wilkins hope for big numbers at this year’s convention, and they hope to make this the best convention yet. With all of the progress from planning and a successful presentation to the board of directors, it looks like their dreams just might come true.