Debate: AD, and some tournaments

Chrome, or more to the point, my DJ version of Chrome, has gone rogue. For reasons that elude me, it now spits out unfathomable fonts in place of, say, Courier, which for all its dullness, has never been accused of unfathomability. And I like Chrome so much… Oh, well, back to Firefox and Safari.

I’m very pleased with the look of the NYSDCA website. Having listened to SquareSpace being hawked on TWIT for the last millennium, I figured I’d give it a whirl, and while occasionally I have problems lugging things from one part of a page to another, it looks fine and is mostly easy. A nicety not immediately apparent is that a site that looks good on the computer screen also looks good on the mobile or tablet screen, with no effort on my part. We also moved the url over from the old WordPress site, which I never liked. Now I need to get traction with people actually using the site, providing resources and pictures and whatnot. It will happen.

The discussion of Academy Debate with the NYSDCA board (I sent it to them because I want the organization to officially support it) was, at the first volley, mostly about things unrelated to the concept, e.g., costs of tournaments. While I have nothing against discussing ways to reduce costs (and AD has one way, albeit a limited one, reducing the need to hire judges), it’s a separate argument, as were the other unrelated issues. The nice thing about discussing stuff with debate coaches is that they immediately recognize the concept of sticking to the framework and debating the pros and cons of the subject at hand. We seem to be working toward a practical application of the idea as the best forge for its development, and I’ll start on that this weekend. One thing that came up is that we might not allow students who have gone to debate camps to participate at this level. Maybe it’s better that we merely recommend they not participate. I don’t know. After all, in my mind we would only be doing this a few times a year, primarily because the tournaments we’d be doing it are already not attracting circuit types. We’ll see.

The First-Timers’ is this weekend, and on face looks to be pretty fantastic, with about 350 students (this includes small JV divisions). We’re also officially offering parent judge training; God knows how many poor fish parents we’ll attract, but I know I’ve got 3 from Sailorville (1 ½ for each debating student). Lots of new schools this year, too. The thing about new schools is that they usually disappear quickly enough, but the more that start, the more that survive. Here’s hoping we can keep them committed.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, O’C is no doubt nearing the point of insanity on Jake, although he claims to be as calm as a cauliflower in a frozen tar pit. I’ve said this before: If Jake doesn’t drive him crazy, it’s only because he’s already crazy to attempt to do it pretty much on his own. The things people do…

And speaking of tournaments, Princeton is about to come to the plate, opening registration next week. This year we’re back to having PF off-campus, which is a boon to LD, but we’ll stick to the two hours on and off approach, as I don’t think anybody didn’t love it. You can plan your down time, and when it’s time to judge again, you don’t feel battered. Best, most timely ballot pickups in recent memory, as I recall it.

And Bump is plodding along. This is the point at which it’s wildly over capacity, and nothing is happening. I’m trying to acquire more judges (and if you’re one, let me know), but I’m not sanguine. It’ll be a BYOJ tournament, for the most part. Sigh. On the other hand, that’ll knock out a few of the ribbon clerks and clear up slots before long. But it’s too far away for people to be thinking about it seriously yet. After Jake, though, it’ll start looming in the public eye.