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
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