Bake Sale a Success! And other news...

Thank you everyone who helped with today's bake sale!  It was incredibly well done and we are well on our way towards being able to pay our dues to CDA.

In other news, tomorrow we will be having a practice debate for our Novice Scrimmage on Tuesday.  Doug will have a topic and we are going to split up into groups and go through the entire process step by step.

Finally, for everyone that has not let me know if they are coming to the novice scrimmage on Saturday, please let me know tonight or tomorrow in the meeting at the latest!

P.S. Permission slips are being sent out over email.  I don't need those until Saturday morning, but please get them filled out.  Thanks!

Bake Sale Tuesday 9/27

We will be having our first bake sale of the school year next week!  To all of you who signed up to bring in food, 1) You are awesome, bake sales really help 2) Please bring your food on Tuesday morning to the English department.   Across from Ms. Mac's office is an open space for teachers with a microwave, if you could leave your food next to the microwave - perhaps with a post-it so we know its your food for the debate team - that would be great!

First Meeting of the Year!

Our first meeting of the year will be next Wednesday, 9/14, in Room 2002.  We are going to spend the first few weeks welcoming new members to the team and prepping for the Novice Tournament on 10/1.  The CDA schedule for this entire year is posted.  Ryan and I hope everyone had a great summer and lets get ready for some debate!

Staples Abridged CDA Format

1 Resolution

2 Pro Speakers
2 Con Speakers

1st Pro - 1 min
Cross-Ex - 1:30
1st Con - 1 min
Cross-Ex - 1:30
2nd Pro - 1 min
Cross-Ex - 1:30
2nd Con - 1 min
Cross-Ex - 1:30
Con Closing (1 speaker) - 30 sec
Pro Closing (1 speaker) - 30 sec

Debate Team Cabinet Positions 2011-2012

Today the Staples Debate team held elections for the two president positions, vice president, secretary,treasurer, and public relations officer.

The Executive Board for the 2011-2012 is...

Public relations: Tory Scordato
Secretary: Neloise Egipto
Treasurer (keeper of the war chest): Doug Russ
Vice President: Jacob Meisel
Co-Presidents: Ryan Greenberg and Mark Schwabacher

We bid farewell to current presidents Jeremy Rubel and Emily Harris. They've done an excellent job and put a lot of hard work into the team this year. Thanks for everything!

Osterweiss Tournament Debate Results

Staples did really well at the Osterweiss debate tournament at Yale earlier in April.
Team Jeremy Rubel and Emily Harris were the first place team at the entire event, and Jeremy was the second place speaker!
Highlight of the day: arguing that this house is justified in targeting civilians. Fun stuff!

State Finals Results!

Today's topic was Resolved: The US should ban collective bargaining by public sector labor unions.

Collective bargaining refers to the process in which union representatives (such as the teachers union) negotiate for slaries, benefits, schedules, vacation days, etc. with their emplyoers.  It is currently at the heart of a fierce debate in the state of Wisconsin.  Generally Democrats are against this resolution while Republicans support a ban on collective bargaining.

It was an interesting topic to discuss.  Personally I thought the Con side was favored with stronger moral contentions and strong rebuttals for anything the Pro threw at them.  Still, an economic argument and possible corruption ideas did exist for the Pro.

...And now, the results:


In the Varsity division - Jeremy Wrubel and Petey Menz went 2-1, as did Mark Schwabacher and Jacob Meisel.

In Novice, Ryan Greenberg and Tory Scordato also went 2-1, with Ryan winning 2nd place best speaker in all of novice.