Community Archive



Help Write Resolutions!

Posted by Victory Briefs in the Community, Featured, Lincoln-Douglas Debate category

SANTA MONICA, Cali. — You can help brainstorm, suggest, write, and discuss potential Lincoln-Douglas debate resolutions on the VBD Discussion Forums.
Please use the conventions that have started. Start each post with the title of “Topic Area: ___.” Under each of these Topic Areas we can start coming up with wording. […]

Popularity: 1%


Happy (Intense) Birthday, Neil Conrad!

Posted by Jon Cruz in the Community category

NEW ORLEANS, La. — There’s one image from last summer’s VBI Third Week Extension that will stay with me to my last day. The image? Neil Conrad intensely yelling in Matt Dunay’s ear during a top lab speed drill: “One more week to get better! One more week to get faster! One more week to […]

Popularity: 2%


You’re In! The College Connection

Posted by Jon Cruz in the College Debate, Community category

SANTA MONICA, Cali. — Those who applied early decision, early aciton, or rolling admissions have heard back from colleges, so it’s time to continue the annual discussion. Where you are going? Or, perhaps still, where are you considering going?
What about your teammates? Where are they going?
If you’re coming to New York, in addition to posting […]

Popularity: 15%


New Airline Baggage Policies Will Directly Impact Debaters

Posted by Jon Cruz in the Community category

NEW YORK, N.Y. — Here’s a little gift to the debate community just in time for the Tournament of Champions!
Expedia recently issued a summary of new airline baggage policies. Many airlines — starting on or around the TOC weekend — will begin charging money for checking a second bag. The future impact on programs with […]

Popularity: 3%


Mercury’s Pen Flip

Posted by Jon Cruz in the Community category

DEARBORN, Mich. — The Ford Motor Company has an ad for the Mercury Mariner that features something that, as Dan Meyers puts it, “is part of our (debate) culture.” It appears in the first three seconds of the ad. Check it by clicking here. (And many thanks to Dan Meyers for pointing me towards this […]

Popularity: 3%


Building an Institutional Memory: Woodward

Posted by Jon Cruz in the Community category

NEW YORK, N.Y. — Matt Ross proposed a simple question for my next Ask Cruz: “Which Woodward champions, in their novice year, have gone on to win the TOC?”
Ask Cruz returns next week, and while preparing it, I realized that Woodward is one of those stories tournaments that seems to lack a clear record of […]

Popularity: 3%


Topic for Debate: “Pre-standards” Arguments

Posted by Jon Cruz in the Topic for Debate category

NEW YORK, N.Y. — “Topic for Debate” — once a category for politics-related discussions — will now feature pertinent discussions of current debate practice and theory.
At the Woodward National Championships this weekend, I was party to a discussion about pre-standards arguments with Sheryl Kaczmarek, Aaron Timmons, and Becca Traber. Actually, I wasn’t party to […]

Popularity: 14%