The field trip for Student Council was nearly cancelled after the keynote speaker dropped out of the Minnesota Association of Student Councils division leadership forum the day of the event, according to senior Student Council president Jessica Schmidt.

Originally, the forum aimed to provide a chance for student councils from around the Twin Cities to share ideas and work on their leadership skills, according to Schmidt.

“We really just get together into breakout sessions and share ideas for increasing school spirit and other events other student councils have,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt said the council planned to attend the forum in hopes of gaining leadership experience and new ideas for events.

“The goal for me as the president was for the staff to gain a better sense of leadership,” Schmidt said.

But according to Schmidt, this year fewer schools came to the forum.

“Normally, there are quite a few schools that go, but today it was just us and Orono due to a cancellation of the keynote speaker,” Schmidt said. “However, it went very well, as we were able to develop deeper relationships with the council from Orono.”

Adviser Sarah Lindenberg said many schools dropped out after the keynote speaker had a family emergency, but overall it was still a beneficial experience.

“It is always worthwhile to see how other schools operate and what they do for activities and student involvement,” Lindenberg said.

Sophomore Student Council member Billy Nicholls said the forum went well.

“We met as a council at the end to discuss ways we can improve, things that Orono did that we could do, and just bonded as a council,” Nicholls said.

Senior Student Council officer Eric Hendricks said spending a large part of the day with the council from Orono was constructive.

“We had time to share and collaborate on ideas of events for each school. It was very nice to create a relation between another school,” Hendricks said.