My meeting with Professor Popich was a very brief one indeed. As I awkwardly entered his room on the fourth floor of Foster Hall I noticed at first that he kept a whole lot of books. The second thing I noticed was that he seemed entirely unenthusiastic about the whole prospect of starting a debate team. He was in charge of the Ethics bowl team, so clearly he saw me as an even greater burden.
It is fortunate to note that I had no intention of shoving the debate team upon him. The week before Professor Rulon Wood had agreed to coach our team, and Tim Dolan was already the club advisor. What I needed him for was something of far more importance than helping the Debate Team start up.
I needed him to join myself and my Mock Trial coach in the creation of the new Academic Department that would house all of the academic teams. The trio of academic teams could accomplish together something grand for the school, and that would be this umbrella programme. Debate, Mock Trial, and Ethics Bowl all working in tandem to develop direct funding of the academic teams. This would work much the same way as the sports teams were funded, and would increase efficiency greatly.
The school needs a strong academic team base if we are to get the best and brightest prospective students to attend. By accomplishing this we will make Westminster a stronger school.
-Brendan
(On a side note I am not getting paid for this... Which is funny because I am spending so much of my personal time trying to improve a school that I am paying an arm and a leg to attend. Hopefully the school will also offer out debate scholarships for those who come to the school; maybe even offer me one as well.)
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
First Team Meeting
Heading over to the team meeting room I was disappointed to see where we would be practicing. The kitchen staff had brilliantly decided to leave dining ware all over the tables my team would be prepping on. Fortunately I had arrived fifteen minutes early, or the team would have had to bear witness to the awful disarray of things. I quickly moved the plates and other cutlery off the tables into a corner of the room where for the most part they would be out of site.
I was disappoint at the lack of turnout as well. You think there would be more people interested in expanding their knowledge of argumentation, but low and behold only five people attended the meeting. I quickly procured the necessary materials to the members so that the meeting might commence.
They all filled out a questionnaire I had styled like the the one I received when I was attending debate camp at Stanford University. This was used to gauge what level everyone was at and to help me divide up the teams. Unfortunately, since attendance was so few, it hardly mattered at the time.
The speaker I had scheduled had called in sick earlier, so that left me with the problem of filling up the next two hours of practice. We decided to run a mock debate, so that we at the very least would be productive. Not heeding my instructions, no one in the room had brought a pen with them other than myself. It is like they missed the multiple memos I had sent out referring to that essential item.
Instead we used the white boards and did a very poor practice round. Yet despite all these set backs there is a great deal of hope for the team. I believe with a little more practice they will shape up to be very fine debaters.
-Brendan
I was disappoint at the lack of turnout as well. You think there would be more people interested in expanding their knowledge of argumentation, but low and behold only five people attended the meeting. I quickly procured the necessary materials to the members so that the meeting might commence.
They all filled out a questionnaire I had styled like the the one I received when I was attending debate camp at Stanford University. This was used to gauge what level everyone was at and to help me divide up the teams. Unfortunately, since attendance was so few, it hardly mattered at the time.
The speaker I had scheduled had called in sick earlier, so that left me with the problem of filling up the next two hours of practice. We decided to run a mock debate, so that we at the very least would be productive. Not heeding my instructions, no one in the room had brought a pen with them other than myself. It is like they missed the multiple memos I had sent out referring to that essential item.
Instead we used the white boards and did a very poor practice round. Yet despite all these set backs there is a great deal of hope for the team. I believe with a little more practice they will shape up to be very fine debaters.
-Brendan
Monday, November 1, 2010
Setting Up the First Meeting
Trying to organize everything together before the first meeting of the season is very challenging. I have hit many roadblocks on the way to the creation of a college debate team, and the greatest one is organization. I have to set up meetings that are catered to the majorities needs in order for the debate team to work out, and it is very difficult. I am planning on having the first meeting of the members on Friday the 12th @ 4:00pm.
This being said I have to set up an itinerary for the meeting. I am getting myself and a few other veteran debaters from high school to prepare a demonstrative round of Parliamentary debate. This should go over well with all the new debaters our team will be composed of. Also I will need to get some information packets together and distribute them at the meeting. I am preparing a questionnaire to be handed out at the meeting to gauge the strength of the members.
Also I will be scheduling a movie night for the team, and we will watch either The Great Debaters or Rocket Science. Two good movies that are centred around debate.
-Brendan
This being said I have to set up an itinerary for the meeting. I am getting myself and a few other veteran debaters from high school to prepare a demonstrative round of Parliamentary debate. This should go over well with all the new debaters our team will be composed of. Also I will need to get some information packets together and distribute them at the meeting. I am preparing a questionnaire to be handed out at the meeting to gauge the strength of the members.
Also I will be scheduling a movie night for the team, and we will watch either The Great Debaters or Rocket Science. Two good movies that are centred around debate.
-Brendan
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