219th General Assembly - Day 9

I think the thing that surprise me most about being a YAAD (which should probably be changed back to YAD since we just passed the overture stating that youth are 25 and under) was that everyone was a nerd - including me! I know it really shouldn't have surprised me; after all, all of us are voluntarily attending a business meeting in the middle of the summer. Still, I arrived to find a group of people who had actually read the overtures assigned to them and who had strong opinions about their committee issues. (Naomi is picture here in the middle of two other YAADs.)

My favorite part was that I had a completely sincere conversation with two other YAADs about how we thought we should be given copies of Robert's Rules of Order so that we would know what was going on beforehand. It was such a lovely realization; I felt like I was back at Wake Forest (where I go to college) except at GA, I had exponentially less homework.

At our YAAD outing to the Mall of America, we saw a show by a comedy troupe. In one of the skits, an audience member was to shout out a question. One of the YAADs sugggested, "Could you please explain parlamentary procedure?" Every single YAAD laughed! How many groups of young adults (or 'youth' by the assembly's brand-new definition) do you know who find parlamentary procedures funny? How many of them even know what parlamentary procedure is?

Like I said earlier, "Nerd Convention." In other words, tons of fun. (That is a serious statement.)

I was also pleasantly surprised by how well-respected the YAADs are. I fully expected to be treated as "one of those kids" and to be marginalized to some extent by the commissioners there was in no way the reality.

I had multiple commissioners ask my opinion and many more commend how the YAADs were both prepared and willing to speak in committee and plenary. It was cool to know that the adults do value the young people, and I would encourage andy adult who does value the youth to let them know that because it isn't something that is assumed.

Also, as I was the "new" voice, the adults near me in both committee and plenary helped me to follow the issues to understand what was happening. It was cool to interact with both YAADs and commissioners and to be able to voice my opinion on what the church should do.

Naomi Maxa, young adult advisory delegate
Lenox First Presbyterian Church
Presbytery of Des Moines