In addition to reading our newsletters, you may also want to visit our web site by clicking on the link below. We have a good deal of current information, and through the year we will be working on building up our archives from previous years.
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COUNTRY DRAFT this Saturday
This Saturday, September 20, we have our all-important COUNTRY DRAFT. This is when each of our participating high schools select the countries that they want to represent in our regular Model U.N. session (first one this year on November 8).

Each school will need at least three delegates per country. This is because their country will be represented on three committees of the General Assembly: (a) The Political & Security Committee, (b) The Economic & Social Committee, and (c) The Human Rights Committee. Since each school will also have a country represented on the Security Council, they will need a fourth delegate for that country.

Listed below are the following:

1. Explanation of how the Draft works.
2. List of General Assembly countries (191).
3. List of Security Council countries (15).

The draft will begin at 9:00 AM at Crossroads and proceed until approximately 10:00 AM. Following the country draft will be the first preparatory session for the Middle East conference. All students are invited to join in both events.
How The Country Draft Works
General Assembly Members of the United Nations
Security Council Members for 2003-2004

First Middle East Conference Prep Session this Saturday (New)

The first preparation session of this November's Civitas Conference on the Middle East will be this Saturday, September 20, at Crossroads School (link to map below). The session will be from 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM -- following the Model U.N. Country Draft from 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM. Students who are coming only for the COUNTRY DRAFT are welcome to stay for the prep session. The COUNTRY DRAFT is one of the key events of the year!

It has come to our attention that some students who wish to be delegates to the conference have scheduling conflicts for the prep sessions. In a sign of common sense and appeasement, we have agreed to allow students to miss a prep session if (1) they let us know in advance, and (2) they call us after the meeting to find out what they missed. We certainly do not want to encourage students to miss these prep sessions, but we want to honor the school-related and work-related obligations that they have.

Among the things that we will do this coming Saturday is to give students an opportunity to select the countries, U.N. organizations, or NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) that they want to represent at the conference. We will also be providing considerable background information and the countries and issues in the region.

In addition, we will be talking about the nature of the three committees that we will have. Their foci (plural of focus) will be:

1. Oil, Water, Power
2. "Isms"
3. Peace

The goals of these committees will take some explaining, and that will be an important part of the meeting.

We now have over twenty students signed up for the conference. We would like to increase the numbers to 30 or 40, but we will not force the issue at the expense of ensuring that the students who are attending are genuinely committed to preparing for the conference.

If you wish to sign-up for the conference, you can click on the link below. Applying to participate will not guarantee a student a slot in the conference, but it will be an excellent first step for a student to take.

We also have available other information on the conference. It can be accessed by the second link below. More information will be available next week.

Application form for Mid-East Conference
Link to Index of Information on Mid-East Conference
Directions to Crossroads School
Jon Sawyer to Keynote Conference (Updated)

Jon Sawyer, Washington bureau chief of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch will be the keynote speaker for the Civitas Conference on the Middle East, to take place on November 21-22, 2003. Jon has been on the staff of the Post-Dispatch for nearly thirty years, but he is young. He meets our educational standards of "No Child Shall Be Bored Out of his or her Gourd."

He has traveled in and written from almost every country in the Middle East. Most recently he was in Iran, shortly after the "military end to the war in Iraq." His writing style features a wonderful blend of stories about individual people and families and how they are affected by political and economic forces in their country.

He will speak at our Friday evening opening session. He will also be availabe to delegates to work with them in their Friday night sessions. We will provide you with further information on Jon Sawyer in upcoming newsletters. You can do a search for his stories in the Post-Dispatch by going to the link below.

Link to St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Fall High School Model U.N. to be at Chase-Park Plaza

As you probably know, we had to do some "calendar shuffling" in order to find a more suitable date for our Mid-East Conference. This included changing the date of our Fall High School Model U.N. to Saturday, November 8.

This date did not work out with Forest Park Community College, but we were able to work out a fine arrangement with the Chase Park Plaza for the event. We will have one room (the Khorissan West) for up to 150 students; three rooms suitable for seating fifty for the Political & Security Committee, the Economic & Social Committee, and the Human Rights Committee. We will also have a room for the Security Council that can seat twenty delegates.

One of the fine aspects of having this 9:00 AM - 2:30 PM event at the Chase-Park Plaza is that students will be able to go out for their own lunches. There are more than a dozen restaurants within short walking distance of the Chase.

We'll provide you with more details as we get closer to the session.

Civitas Calendar
Thanks to the High School Students who....

came to our discussion group last Saturday, September 13. During the first hour, we had a lively dialogue on the topic of school uniforms with the nearly 35 students who were in attendance. In the second hour, we divided into two groups and responded to the question, "Does the United States have the 'moral authority' to be the world's policeman?"

With the "advice and consent" of the faculty advisors, we are implementing a few changes. Special thanks to Mario Sylvander from Chesterfield Day School who suggested that we group similar events together for sign-up purposes. We will provide you with more information on this in next week's newsletter.
Directions to Crossroads School
Video from Last Saturday's Discussion
Photos from Last Saturday's Discussion

Civitas to Sponsor Workshop on Applying to College

For the second year, Civitas will sponsor a workshop for high school on the process of applying to college and maximizing your potential to receive financial assistance.

Joan Graviss, college counselor at Crossroads School; Jane Schoenfeld of the Independent Schools Placement Service; and Faith Sandler and/or Angela Blake of the Scholarship Foundation will be presenters at this workshop on how to apply to college and maximize your potential to receive financial assistance. While the program is primarily directed towards high school seniors, "underclass-persons" are welcome to attend as well.

The program will be on Saturday, Ocotber 4 at Crossroads School (map below) from 12:30 PM - 3:00 PM. It will follow a morning discussion and prep session for the Middle East Conference.

Several high school students from the Class of 2003 worked extensively with our panelists following the workshop and were most pleased with the colleges to which they were accepted and are now attending. We invite students who feel that they might benefit from another perspective on the college process to attend the workshop.

Directions to Crossroads School
Middle School Teachers Have Fine Meeting Yesterday (New)

We extend our thanks to the Middle School teachers who attended our first preparation meeting of the year yesterday. We were able to make considerable headway in getting accurate counts on how many students from each school will be participating this year, how many will be coming to our Middle School Workshop at the Chase-Park Plaza on November 5, and what schools will be attending each of the Spring sessions.

Our next teacher meeting will be on Monday, October 20 at 4:00 PM at the former UNA office (map below).

Thanks to Jon Bang (John Burroughs), Dr. Mary Eckert (Saeger Middle), Debbie Green (Holman), Sal Mantia (St. Dominic), Rick McGloughlin (Our Lady of Fatima), Lori Kapler (Pattonville Heights), Joan Patton (St. Mary Magdalen), and Monica Assareh (Northwest Valley Middle) who attended the meeting. If we forget to name someone, please forgive us. Directions to Middle School Teachers Meetings

Survey on Budget Deficit

In 2001, it appeared that the federal government was going to run budget surpluses for as far as the eye could see. Now the picture has changed. In the fiscal year beginning this coming October 1, we may well see a deficit of $400 billion -- billion with a 'b'. Now a trail of red ink stretches out as far as the eye can see. Our question is:

Do you think that the federal government should live by the same principles in balancing its budget as an individual person or family does?
Link to Survey on Budget Deficit

Link to Poll on Civitas Intranet Site

Previous Survey Results (New)

Last week's survey was:
This week marks the two year anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, DC. Do you feel more safe in the United States today than you did just prior to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001?

Responses % #

1. Yes 11.76 % 2

2. No 41.18 % 7

3. About the Same 47.06 % 8

4. Not Sure 0 % 0

Total: 17

The results of this unscientific poll show that only two out of seventeen respondents (12%) feel safer now than prior to September 11.
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