On Jan. 27 at Cupertino HS, Key Clubs from schools in Region 17 gathered to attend an event called “Conclave.” Region 17 is one out of the 18 regions that make up the California-Nevada-Hawaii Key Club District. This region stretches from San Francisco to cities such as Santa Cruz and Monterey, including local schools like MVHS as well.

At Conclave, Key Club delegates voted for next term’s Lieutenant Governor (LTG), a student who is in charge of division-wide events and oversees the approximate seven to eight schools under their division. Each year, a new LTG is elected for the upcoming term, and this year, Los Altos HS junior Rebecca Pan was voted for the position.

The LTG is responsible for managing each school’s club in their division and ensuring that each club keeps up with their monthly service projects. Sophomore and MVHS Key Club Director of Public Relations Cheryl Bai believes it is important for whoever is LTG to be involved with the clubs they oversee and ensure they stay on track with their requirements as a club. She was one out of the two delegates from MVHS that were sent to vote for the LTG.

“You definitely need strong leadership skills [to be the LTG],” Bai said. “You have to [not be] afraid to help others and let others experience Key Club. I think it’s also important to keep people accountable. If clubs aren’t active, I think that [the LTG] should remind the clubs to stay more active and make the members feel like they belong.”

Similar to Bai, senior and MVHS Key Club member Vincent Tran believes that due to the large responsibility of the LTG, the leadership skills that Bai mentions are essential characteristics. Tran is optimistic about the 2019-20 term with Pan as the LTG because he believes she has the qualities that would make a strong leader.

“I’m really happy that she got chosen as LTG because she’s our [executive assistant] right now for the division and she’s really good,” Tran said. “[She’s] just really outgoing. She smiles a lot and she does a lot of events so naturally, she’d be perfect for the job [as she has] lots of spirit.”

Like Tran, Bai was also excited about electing the new leader, but she was stressed regarding who would and who wouldn’t get the position.

“I think everyone’s pretty excited because it’s definitely a really interesting experience to be able to vote for the next leader,” Bai said. “But also somehow, it was kind of stressful. Like, even though [there was] nothing at stake for me, it was kind of scary to see all the candidates being elected or not.”

The election evoked many other emotions amongst those who attended Conclave, including MVHS Key Club Co-Vice President senior Satoshi Ueda, who felt somewhat bittersweet throughout the event. Conclave 2019 was one of the first division-wide events that he had attended since he joined the club’s leadership team this year.

“Seeing all the emotions really showed how dedicated [members] are to Key Club and how much it means to them,” Ueda said. “But it was also pretty sad because this is kind of like one of the first steps to the end of my term and everyone else’s term.”

Ueda wishes he had participated more in prior years, rather than getting more involved in Key Club during his last year in the club After seeing how connected and widespread Key Club was, he believes he would have run for LTG if he had attended division-wide events, like Conclave, earlier.

“I recommend at least trying to go because these type of meetings really show you how large of an organization Key Club is and provides an opportunity to get more involved,” Ueda said.