Wednesday, April 13, 2011

State Qualifier

Thurston qualled four individuals to the State tournament for the first time in its history!

Congratulations:
Thurston DS - Austin Dillon/Aaron Smart
Thurston GS - Conor Gagner/Kelsay Smart
1st Alternate Thurston PV - Edie Powell/Maggie Vanwey-Wells
2nd Alternate Thurston VV - Katherine Velazquez/Francisco Velazquez

Aaron Smart got 3rd place, 1st alternate at his first impromptu tournament as well.



If you are interested in going to the state tournament as an observer or as a competitor, you need to get your research assignment from Hank. Talk to him at Thursday's meeting.



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Thursday, April 7, 2011

LDL Elections

Tuesday, April 12th is the last day for LDL student election nominations. We've extended the deadline so that you can consider the new positions we've added (see below). Voting will take place on Thursday, April 14th. Remember that these elections are only for the rest of this school year; we'll have elections next year for yearlong positions.


Positions

President
Duties: 1) School representative to LDL: Represent teammates to the coaching staff and help solve problems.
2) LDL representative to school: Represent LDL at meetings or student council. Give speeches if necessary (slowly :) ). Be in charge of making sure parents know about what LDL is all about.
3) Outreach: Plan ideas for recruitment both at his/her own school and at other schools.
4) General team leader: The president should be able to have a good enough grasp of debate concepts to be a coach of sorts to younger or newer LDL students. S/he can schedule outside practices with the coaches or with other students to make sure nobody falls behind.


Fundraising Chair
Duties
1) Come up with fundraising ideas: Fundraising Chair can plan with the coaching staff to come up with ideas for money and to set specific goals like camp attendance or the NFL tournament (again, not football).
2) Track teammates' progress: it will be the FC's responsibility to know the fundraising goals of each individual from his/her school and chart how far fundraising needs to go.
3) Fill in Presidential duties if President is absent.

Secretary
Duties
1) Notation: Take notes on the general concepts in LDL meetings. If some LDL students miss a week, the secretary should be able to fill them in on the concepts we covered and help point them to resources (websites, team president, etc) that could help them catch up.
2) Press: The Secretary will draft a press release after every significant LDL event to be read at school on the morning announcements detailing LDL's success or lack thereof. The secretary should build up good relations with office staff at his/her school. The writing should be professional, though it can be funny, and is subject to Hank's review, as he is the ultimate arbiter of funny.
3) Plan recruitment materials: The secretary will lead the way in designing and planning posters, fliers, and other outreach materials for the school.

You can nominate someone by emailing me or by giving me a piece of paper with the name and position you'd like to nominate during the meeting today or Tuesday. Yes, you can nominate yourself. A week from tonight we'll have brief speeches from the nominees and voting. If you can't be there you can vote by email between Tuesday and Thursday.

Let me know if you have any questions. See you on Thursday!
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Sunday, March 27, 2011

UO Debate Team - Your 2011 National Champions

Good news for debate in Oregon - the U of O debate team is your two-time 2011 national parliamentary debate champions!

Seniors Matt Gander and Hank Fields represented Oregon in two national final rounds. The first was at NPTE, an invitational "March Madness" tournament for the top 64-ranked teams in the nation. Oregon defeated Whitman College in the final round on a 7-0, claiming the title back for the first time since 2001. The second, the NPDA, is a competition open to every college in the nation - over 150 teams were represented. Oregon defeated Washburn University on a 6-3 in the final round. It was the first time Oregon won the tournament, and Oregon FG became one of three teams in the history of collegiate Parli debate to win both national tournaments.

Gander and Fields were both raised on Oregon debate. Matt graduated from Sprague High School in Salem in 2007 and won public debate at the state tournament his junior year. Hank is from Coos Bay and graduated in 2007 from Marshfield High School, where he competed in CX and public debate. Both are proud ODI alums and applied to Oregon to do collegiate debate. LDL would like to congratulate them for their success and wishes them luck next year!
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UO Clark Tournament

LDL had a strong showing at their home tournament - the UO Clark Tournament on February 25 and 26.

Competing teams:
The THREE HEADED MONSTER: Thurston SPD - Aaron Smart, Edie Powell, and Austin Dillon.
Thurston VV - Katherine and Cisco Velazquez
Thurston SS - Matt Selby and Kelsay Smart

We had a great time debating South Eugene, Century, and other Thurston teams. We got to compete against top teams from around the state in what was most LDL students' first open competition (and just their third tournament ever). Katherine Velazquez was third speaker in open policy, and Aaron Smart was fifth. LDL student Alex Payne (yeah, we'll claim him even though he was competing in public forum) blew the competition out of the water, securing first speaker and winning the tournament. Finally, Katherine Velazquez was the recipient of the 2011 Clark Tournament Scholarship to attend the University of Oregon next year. We are incredibly proud of all LDL students' hard work.

 Go Colts, Axemen, Highlanders, and the LDL Sea Lions!
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UC-Berkeley Debate Tournament

Please congratulate Thurston students Katherine and Cisco Velazquez, Edie Powell, Austin Dillon and Aaron Smart and North Eugene's Alex Payne for their stunning success at the biggest speech and debate tournament of the year at UC Berkeley February 19-21. Representing Lane County, the team secured big wins over opponents from some of the finest debate schools in the nation, including Nevada Union, Little Rock Central (AR), and James Logan (CA) high schools. Katherine Velazquez was in the top 50 among more than 300 speakers. Alex Payne performed like a boss in IEs as well, breaking not one but TWO events, extemp and impromptu, at the biggest tournament of the year. 



Competing in a policy debate field of over 160 teams, all teams proved that LDL can hang tough with the very best teams. Their success was especially incredible as this was only their second competition, and the tournament drew far more experienced competitors from schools as far away as Washington, DC. Wish the  team luck next weekend at the UO tournament, where they will compete against crosstown rivals and occasional best friends South Eugene.

Competing teams:

Thurston VeVe Francisco and Katherine Velazquez
Thurston/North PoPa Edie Powell and Alex Payne
Thurston DiSm Austin Dillon and Aaron Smart




Special thanks to our gracious busmates including Sprague, Tualatin, and Silverton among others. Most importantly, thanks to David Harris from Tualatin for setting up the whole trip.
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Monday, January 17, 2011

If you're pining for more practice in between LDL meetings, here's an online debate from the NFL tournament that will show you what a national circuit debate can look like.

They are debating the topic from 2009:
(2008–2009) Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase alternative energy incentives in the United States.

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Sunday, January 9, 2011

Happy 2011!

2011 Schedule
 Here's the tentative Winter LDL Schedule. This is a great time for new students to join in because we'll be preparing for the UO Clark Tournament in February - the largest in the state!

 January
M
T
W
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 JANUARY 15 (Saturday)
Practice Day
 February
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 FEBRUARY 13 (Sunday)
LDL Winter Warm-up Round Robin

FEBRUARY 21 (Monday)
Pre-tournament Prep

FEBRUARY 24-26 (Thursday-Saturday)
UO Clark Tournament
March
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MARCH 10 (Thursday)
LDL Meeting Cancelled – College Debate Nationals

MARCH 10-11 (Thursday-Friday)
Southern NFL District Tournament – U of O

MARCH 17 (Thursday)
LDL Meeting Cancelled – College Debate Nationals

April
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W
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APRIL 9 (Saturday)
Last Day for State District Tournament

APRIL 21-23 (Thursday-Saturday)
State Speech Championships – WOU (Monmouth, OR)

JUNE 13-18
NFL National Tournament – Dallas, TX


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