Hey Guys

Just checking in to see how everything's going and who's new to the team this year. Anyone I wouldn't know? I judged a tournament here at Williams last weekend, and yes, BJ, Harvard was in attendance. I judged the Harvard team that came in second and gave them one win and one loss. A team from Yale won the tournament. I ended up judging three regular round as well as quarters, semis, and finals. I was the only novice to judge each of the elimination rounds. (I'm representin' for DHS.)

This weekend I'll be competing in a novices-only tournament at Cornell. As I've told Mr. Conant, the rules for parliamentary debate, which is what I'm competing in now and also what you'll probably compete in if you continue debate in college, are very different from those of LD. One interesting aspect is that every tournament is essentially structured like National Qualifiers for LD, except you have about five guaranteed rounds rather than two. They still award trophies for novice and varsity seperately, but good novice teams may end up competing against varsity teams based on win-loss record. Anyway, this Saturday I fortunately won't have to worry about facing any varsity teams. It'll be the only time that will ever happen. Should be an interesting Saturday. I'll let you all know how it turns out.

Take care,
Amy McLeod