Wisconsin Forensics Daily

Thursday Thing to Read: Give Youth a Voice

The National Forensic League has unveiled a new resource for speech and debate teams called Give Youth a Voice. The new website is a free resource to NFL members and is targeted at helping schools raise funds for their program. The site offers teams a way for teams to list their funding needs and to share that information with potential donors. The website also offers donors a way to make a tax-deductible donation to the team.

Give Youth a Voice also offers some simple campaign tools, including the ability to set a goal, display efforts towards that fund raising goal graphically, and the ability to upload specific photos of your team.

This a great resource that helps fill a need that all teams have. If your school is an NFL member, I highly recommend you check this out. (Alternatively, if you’re not an NFL member, your school can join the NFL).

Posted in Columns, Thursday Thing To Read | 1 Comment »

Thursday Thing to Read: Double Entry at WFCA State

Having been proposed and discussed at several WFCA meetings, Wisconsin Forensics Daily would like to turn its attention to the Double Entry Proposal for the WFCA State Tournament. The current WFCA State Tournament only allows a student to enter into a single event. Schools are capped with a 25-person team and cannot enter more than four students in a single category. The proposal would keep both the 25-person and 4 entries per category caps, but would allow students to enter into more than one event.

A summary of the current proposal is below the break. Additional proposals are forth coming, and separate posts will be made as soon as they are available. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Columns, Thursday Thing To Read | 13 Comments »

Thursday Thing to Read: Help the NFL Give Away Pepsi’s Money

Yes. It’s back. Sort of.

The National Forensic League has released the following message:

NFL is a finalist for Pepsi’s Refresh Everything grant, which helps groups from across the country improve their local communities. NFL’s proposal will create weekend-long communication leadership summits in six major cities for students and teachers in Title I schools. Most of the grant money will be given directly to students, teachers, and coaches in the six major cities we serve. That’s over $210,000 directly into the hands of deserving students and educators.

We need your help to reach our goal! Grant recipients will be decided by community votes. Voting is open now! You may vote every day from today through the end of February. Visit NFL Online to read our entire proposal and vote to make speech and debate education available to new populations.

Also, here’s my random plug for Pepsi: Mountain Dew Throwback has been re-released. You’ve been notified.

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Thursday Thing to Read: How to be a Good Second Negative

Paul Hager was recently asked how to be a good Second Negative. He started typing and didn’t stop. This is what came out… Read on as Paul tells all secrets about how to win on the negative with a core counterplan or Kritik as your route to victory.

The Duties of  Good Second Negative by Paul Hager.

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Posted in Columns, Thursday Thing To Read | 1 Comment »

Thursday Thing to Read: WDCA 2008 Schedule

With several tournaments having the distinct possibility of moving and the schedule conflicts that have existed over the last season, Wisconsin Forensics Daily is interested in taking the lead in a discussion about the 2008 Debate Season Schedule in hopes of resolving any potential conflicts before they arise. In case some of you haven’t heard, the Appleton East Challenge potentially will not exist next season. We are also returning to a year where there are more weekends in September than we have had in the past. Hopefully with this work we can develop a 2008 schedule that works with Milwaukee Debate League, develops three large tournament before the state tournament, and avoids regionally conflicted tournaments. (And since that I’ve been reviewing the standing rules, I know that this was supposed to be resolved by today).

What follows below is a list of next year’s dates. I’ve listed the possibilities of tournaments on a particular date as well. I’ve tried to note what is going on with the National Circuit where appropriate:

Sept 12-13: Wake Forest, WDCA Fall Meeting
Sept 19-20: Marquette
Sept 26-27: Nicolet?, Valley?
Oct 3-4: Rufus King, Merrill?, New Trier
Oct 10-11: Hortonville, West Bend
Oct 17-18: LaCrosse, South Milwaukee?
Oct 24-25: Open,
Oct 31-Nov 1: Teachers Convention, Mukwonago?, Caucus/EGR?
Nov 7-8: (Sheboygan North if can’t move), Michigan
Nov 14-15: Janesville/Madison Memorial
Nov 21-22: Sheboygan South, Glenbrooks
Dec 5-6: Sheboygan North/Appleton East, Greendale/Hale
Dec 12-13: WDCA-WHSFA State, location TBA

If the first weekend of December is open (as in Appleton East is not hosting), then Sheboygan North would like to take that weekend and continue the tradition of running the challenge.

Tags: wdca

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Thursday Thing to Read: Running for the NFL Council

When I attended my first NFL National Tournament in 2001, I had the epiphany to become a teacher. I witnessed firsthand what forensics – and in a greater sense, education – could do for young people. After eleven years of coaching and a number of surreal successes, my greatest thrills still come from guiding students who work the hardest just to muster up enough strength to overcome a fear of speaking.
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Thursday Thing to Read: Running for the NFL Council

When I attended my first NFL National Tournament in 2001, I had the epiphany to become a teacher. I witnessed firsthand what forensics – and in a greater sense, education – could do for young people. After eleven years of coaching and a number of surreal successes, my greatest thrills still come from guiding students who work the hardest just to muster up enough strength to overcome a fear of speaking.

We exist in a world rife with frustration over accountability and funding in our education system. This is a world where budget cuts eliminate programs, coach retirements give way to staffing cuts, or attrition finds few wishing to dedicate inexhaustible energy that has characterized legions of coaches before. As an urban public school educator, I have several speech and theatre classes that have ballooned to 38 students. That’s in addition to coaching extra-curricular forensics, directing plays and volunteering with school and professional committees. The NFL Council can be a voice of advocacy for our discipline and should leverage the wonderful partnerships we make to continue to communicate that objective. The NFL has a promising future of endowments and growth, but we must not lose sight of our existing constituency of coaches “in the trenches” and the students they serve.

I can bring fresh energy to the Council, coupled with a decade of experience coaching every event the NFL offers, while working within an Urban Debate League framework and juggling the challenges of fundraising and traveling. I have also worked in a public relations firm, as a legislative assistant, and as a board member of a local professional theatre company; therefore, I understand how nonprofits work, and how to network to get things done.

As I complete my three-year term as president of one of the several leagues in Wisconsin, I worked to build consensus despite a history of contentious differences. When we merged two state debate tournaments under one banner, the unity of an activity lagging in numbers contributed to growth in participation and pooling of resources. My purpose in any forensic leadership positions I have held in the past eight years is the same: maximizing opportunities for the most children as well as eroding egos of old to make way for cooperation anew. Most importantly I listen: to coaches and students.

Thank you for considering my candidacy,
Adam J. Jacobi – Rufus King HS – Milwaukee, WI

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Thursday Thing to Read: State Tournament Trivia

It has been a long, long time since we actually had a proper Thursday Thing to Read. (And even longer since it has been written by me). While many teams will be finishing up their preparation this week for the state tournament tomorrow, we at Wisconsin Forensics Daily want to encourage teams to take a step back from the impending high-stakes competition and to relax before the storm.

To facilitate that relaxation in a positive way, we are providing some State Tournament Trivia. There are no exclusions on who can participate in this trivia game. The rules are the same as last weekend. Send results through the WFD forum and I am the sole arbiter of points. Hopefully more teams will participate than last weekend. (If you were curious, no one participated last weekend, and so I didn’t even post the results).

One last reminder: Bring your laptops to the tournament! Or if you’re a parent, stay close to your computer and away from the snow! We will be providing live updates from South Milwaukee. (South Milwaukee has an open wireless network and has allowed WFD to post round-by-round updates in the previous years that the State Tournament has been held there.)

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Posted in Columns, Thursday Thing To Read | 13 Comments »

West Bend East’s Doris Sexton Retiring After 32 Years of Coaching

Wisconsin is losing one of its longest tenured coaches next season and one of the most active contributors to the state’s forensic community. After 32 years as the head coach of West Bend East High School’s debate and forensics programs and after providing countless hours of service to the broader community, Doris Sexton is hanging up her timers and textbooks and sailing off into retirement.

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Posted in Columns, History, News, Thursday Thing To Read | 7 Comments »

Thursday Thing to Read: What is Judges Preference

During awards ceremonies of forensic tournaments throughout the season, places in final rounds are often announced as being determined by judge’s preference. This announcement is usually followed by a series of boos or ooh or some other misunderstanding that attributes judge’s preference as something nefarious. In today’s Thursday Thing to Read I explain why Judges Preference is nothing to fear.

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Posted in Thursday Thing To Read | 8 Comments »