MSYPs attend their first National Scottish Youth Parliament Sitting
Written by admin on July 19, 2011
Dumfries and Galloway’s four newly elected members of the Scottish Youth Parliament (MSYPs) attended their first national sitting in Stirling on 11 and 12 June.
They were elected in to the SYP by more than 4,000 young people from across the region in March 2011.
Representing Galloway and Dumfries West is Caitlin McDowell (15) from Glenluce and James Smyth (18) from Gatehouse of Fleet. For the Dumfries constituency the MSYPs are Ailie Bryson (16) from Closeburn and Adam Wilson (15) from Lochmaben.
SYP national sittings are held 3 to 4 times a year. Their purpose is to bring MSYPs and young representatives from all over Scotland together to discuss issues that affect young people and to propose solutions to these problems.
This sitting was hosted by Stirling Council and the theme was sustainability.
The sitting started off with a debate on what national sitting MSYPs should vote for. Around the region the most popular views of constituents were fairer prices on public transport and a national guarantee of work experience. This information was collected through the internet, young people’s meetings, and surgeries held in Lockerbie, Wallacehall, Stranraer and Kirkcudbright Academies.
As a result of voting, the Marriage Equality campaign was chosen. MSYPs will now meet locally with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) representatives to look at what we can do in Dumfries and Galloway and through national projects.
In the evening all the MSYPs attended an EcoFest, during which Adam, Ailie and Caitlin took part in a meeting about how to campaign successfully. The MSYPs also spoke with to a range of organisations, such as Fairtrade, which had information stalls.
On Sunday, the MSYPs attended hustings for the positions of chair, vice chair and four trustees. From the many candidates, Grant Costello MSYP was elected chair, Rae Cahill MSYP was elected vice chair and the four trustees elected were Dariush Saheli MSYP, Emily Shaw MSYP, Keenan Alexander MSYP, and Jordan Linden MSYP.
After the elections for chair, vice chair, and Trustees, there was enough time for each subject committee to hold elections for their own convenor and deputy convenor.
Adam joined the Jobs and Economy Committee, Ailie joined the Sports and Leisure Committee, Caitlin joined the Education and Lifelong Learning Committee and James was elected as the Convenor of the Social Justice Committee.
The four MSYPs have a number of future plans. These include ‘Shadowing a Councillor’ for 10 hours, arranging surgeries in schools, and holding joint surgeries with MSPs and MPs.
