2021 SMOB Nominating Convention Recap

On the morning of February 17th, 2021 students from across Montgomery County gathered in hopes of selecting finalists for the 44th Student Member of the Board election. The nominating convention was held as a webinar via Zoom and began promptly at 9:30 am as students began to trickle in and watch the presentations of the candidates.

The convention started with the pledge of allegiance, followed by a call to order from MCR Secretary Shairee Arora and MCJC President Yun Yeung. Welcoming remarks were made by the Board of Education President Brenda Wolff and current SMOB Nick Asante. Soon after, Special Election Administrators Marcelo Garibaldi and Divya Vakkalanka gave a brief introduction as to what the morning of the convention would look like beginning with candidate speeches.

Candidate speeches were each four minutes long and were called in no specific order. Each candidate had prepared a short video introducing their campaign and the forefront of what they want to accomplish if elected as SMOB. After introducing themselves, the participants watched their video, and soon after the next candidate presented.

The first round of voting began around 11:00 am and was followed by a self break. The first round eliminated five candidates which meant five candidates were remaining going into the second round of the election process. In no particular order, the remaining five candidates were: Neha Kohli, Henry Kaye, Vivek Majumdar, Hana O’Looney, and Blen Yohannes.

Following the announcement of the five candidates were a question and answer period where they were each asked questions from MCR Secretary Shairee Arora and MCJC President Yun Yeung and were given a certain time to answer them. After about thirty minutes of the question and answer period, the second round of voting began and was again followed with a self-break.

Returning from the break, everyone had eagerly waited to hear who the final two candidates were. After a first-ever virtual nominating convention, it came to an end when the SMOB finalists were announced: Hana O’Looney and Henry Kaye, both juniors from Richard Montgomery High School.

Both candidates are determined to continue through the election season and are working hard to gain the vote of Montgomery County students. The SMOB elections will be held on April 21st, 2021. Stay tuned and be on the lookout for both candidate's campaigns on their social media!

Written by Pelin Altintas

Published by PR Department