The Youth Day Commission was established by House Joint Resolution 330, passed during the 1979 session of the Virginia Assembly (Appendix VII). The Commission, program developed by the Office of the Lieutenant Governor in cooperation with Delegate Ray Ashworth of Wakefield, was designed to bring outstanding high school students to Richmond for an introduction to the functions to state government and, in particular, the Executive Branch. The program was renamed the Model Executive Government Conference to more accurately describe its purpose, and represented the first youth oriented program in the nation to simulate the operations of the executive branch of State government.

The conference was held July 6-10, 1980 in Richmond. The Virginia YMCA managed the Conference arrangements for the Commission; the University of Richmond served as the host institution and events were held there and at the capitol. Two political scientists from the University, Doctors Stewart Gilman and John Whelan, planned and conducted the training program.

One hundred students participated in the first conference (See Appendix V for a list of the students, the high schools, and the roles they played in the program.) Lt. Governor Robb had written school administrators across the state inviting them to nominate students to participate in the conference. Each accredited high school could nominate one student who was a junior during the 1979-1980 school year. Schools with an enrollment of more than 1,000 students in grades 10-12 could nominate two students.

Students who were financially able paid a $100.00 registration fee which covered housing, food, and the conference. Eleven thousand dollars were raised from corporate sponsors without whose generous support this program would not have been possible. (A list of corporate sponsors can be found in Appendix II.)

The Virginia YMCA developed selection criteria which would reflect interest in this program. In addition, program participants, in order to be as fair and equally representative of the state as possible, were initially determined on the apportionment of ten students from each of the State's ten congressional districts, to be chosen by a committee composed of three members of the General Assembly in that district as designated by the Chairman of the Commission.

The conference involved a simulation of the state government responding to House Joint Resolution 100, passed during the 1980 Assembly session, which directed the State Council of Higher Education and the Board of Education to examine the state's teacher training programs. The resolution reflected concern over the quantity and quality of applicants for the state teacher preparation programs. While the simulation illustrated the executive-centered nature of contemporary state government, it also underscored the relationship of the executive branch with the General Assembly and the public, particularly interest groups and the news media.

Students were assigned the roles of relevant actors (i.e., the Governor, Secretary of Education, State Council of Higher Education member, Senate or House Education Committee member, President of the Virginia Education Association, Richmond Times-Dispatch Education reporter, etc.) and required to role-play how that actor was likely to behave. The purpose of role-playing was to encourage the participants to discover for themselves the major questions confronting the state in this area, and, further, to encourage the students to search out the answers through their own initiative. In doing so, the participants actively engaged in the best sort of "civic education," one that forced them to weigh ideals and realities, theory and practice.

A student evaluation of this program can be found in Appendix IX.