Summer Updates

I hope your summer has had a peaceful and relaxing start. I just wanted to touch base with you all on the happenings of the East Iowa district of the National Forensics League.

First, I wanted to congratulate all of you on a wonderful national tournament! East Iowa was very well represented, and special commendation goes to Melanie Johnson, Megan Johnson, and Travis Henderson of Iowa City West. Their policy debate team of Jeffrey Ding and David Huang finished fourth in the nation! West also had students clear to elimination rounds in speech: Paul Curry and Wadood Daoud in Duo and Eleanor Marshall in Oratory. Congratulations to all of these representatives of East Iowa and the West speech coach, Kathleen Hession!

The NFL has made some changes to the structure of district committees. Instead of there being a chair, two members, and an alternate, they have been restricted to have a chair and four additional members. Thank you for all who voted this year. I will be serving as your chair, and the rest of the committee is Janelle Hawk (Marshalltown), Melanie Johnson (Iowa City West), Don May (Clarke) and Joe Ranking (Bettendorf). We all look forward to serving you.

We do need to make decisions on our district tournament locations. The district tournament for all events except congress will be Feb. 10 and 11. We are looking for a school to volunteer to host this event. This is a great opportunity to “get your feet wet” in tournament hosting. As district tournament host, your responsibilities include securing approximately 30 classroom spaces and providing concessions for the students and a hospitality lounge for coaches and judges. The district committee will take care of the rest—registration, hiring judges, and tabulation. Please let me know ASAP if you are possibly interested in helping out the district in this capacity.

We also need to determine a date and location for congress qualifiers. Any please feel free to respond with any suggestions.

I hope the rest of your summer treats you well. Never hesitate to contact me via e-mail or cell phone (319-899-4557) with any questions!