The Shawnee Mission South Student Council kicked off their 2013 campaign with the first official meeting this morning and right off the bat the program plans on making a number of changes in the upcoming school year.

The first big adjustment that STUCO has made is that the overall size of their group has been downsized from last year’s 60 or so students to this year’s 40. This wasn’t so much due to a lack of incoming STUCO applicants as it was part of a new vision that STUCO sponsor and science teacher, Nicolas Deffer, had for his governing body.

“Right now, we’re working on making things more fluid,” Student Body Vice President Lily Johnson said.

Along with Johnson, there are three other main executive positions filled by Student Body President Kelly O’Connor, Student Body Treasurer Charlie Stanton and Student Body Secretary Rachel Larberg.

“We all pretty much work together on the same level,” Stanton said. “Everything we do is worthwhile and has a point and a purpose.”

These Execs have a number of responsibilities which include running the biweekly meetings, keeping all the representatives organized and dealing with the administration to get new things started around the school.

STUCO is primarily built up of three categorized groups, the Dance Committee, the Service Committee and the Special Events Committee. All representatives were assigned a committee at today’s meeting that they will be a part of for the remainder of the school year.

STUCO was not quite ready to reveal what the theme for the annual Homecoming dance Oct. 5. And they still want to keep the details of their schoolwide, interactive activity underwraps to reveal at the upcoming assembly Sept. 5, but they were willing to share their new idea for the yearly canned food drive.

The canned food fundraiser will be a Halloween event where students will be able to form teams and go trick-or-treating for cans with their friends in hopes that making the drive a friendly competition will bump up donations.

With this being Deffer’s second year as STUCO sponsor, Johnson commented that he stresses efficiency and that his presence should do the organization well.