LD summer day camp at RCC
Good news. I can get four or five classrooms reserved, with A/C, on the RCC campus for the week of August 17, 10-6 PM. I am pretty sure the campus is operational but deserted, so we could stay longer if we wanted to. That being said, I can draft a schedule for a workshop.
This workshop will be free. I will do my best to connect people when it comes to tranportation and/or housing. Since we are a CC we do not have access to dorms, but let’s just see what the level of interest is and see what we can do once it gets closer to the time.
I would like a list of anything you want to have included, as well as preferences for number of days. You can post it here or e-mail me at:
sydnekasle@yahoo.com. Please tell me who you really are, and what school you are from as well. Anonymous web chats are freaky.
We have a range of the following dates, so with those dates in mind let me know what you think. Obviously I can’t ask everyone about this, but the few who have been discussing this issue and the Resolution issue (Shantal or someone else) can chime in now. I’ll wait a few days to see what people say (about topics and also range of dates), and then I’ll work on a schedule with any coach or DOD who wants to be a part of the planning. Then we’ll advertise it to the masses.
Range of dates: August 17-August 23.
Times: 10 or 11 AM – 6 PM or so (avoiding rush hour)
We can do four or five days during this time span.
sek
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
This sounds interesting.
I should probably introduce myself since this is my first post on this site. My name is Nick Matthews, and I was/am a four year policy debater at CK McClatchy High School up in Sacramento. I did fairly decent despite having a relatively weak sophomore partner all year long (quarterfinals at the UoP tournament, semifinal qualifier to NCFL nationals, 2nd place qualifier to CA State Champs, and 1st place qualifier to NFL nationals my senior year, among other results) so I’m exploring doing NFA-LD next year. I’ll be attending UCLA as a freshman in the fall. The Bruins lack an established NDT-CEDA program so it may be my best option for policy.
My thoughts:
If I went to this camp I wouldn’t have any use learning about the stock issues or reconstructing the parts of a counterplan and disad. That would be a waste of time and airfare. I don’t need elementary skills work since I’ve already pretty much mastered it at the high school level. I need to take it a step farther.
I think it would be a good idea to have some sort of lab or lecture series for those transitioning from high school policy to NFA-LD. I’m definitely confident that I could enter in varsity from the start and do well but there’s also some distinctions that I would need to learn to truly master the five speech, one-on-one format. Perhaps you could offer a “scholars” lab of sorts that combines experienced high school debaters with college debaters who can serve as mentors to help the transition. They could focus primarily on advanced skills work, evidence production and practice debates.
My five cents, adjusted for inflation.
- Nick
I’m sure that Sydne has already thought well beyond the need for novice and varsity labs, lol. Come on, we may only be in College but I think some of us, well at least our coaches, are smart enough to see way beyond these ideas.
I would familiarize myself with the rule differences between cx and ld… I did policy in HS and did well enough, too. However, this is a big difference that will surprise you at first.
Well I haven’t thought much about it, actually, because I didn’t know who would be interested. I’d say off the start that we’d love to have you, and I will do my best to make the workshop a good experience for you and so on. The issue right now would be the kind of debate you intend on doing when you are at UCLA. If there is no CEDA/NDT program, and you don’t want to try to start one, then you could do LD around these parts. There are a lot of tournaments and you could get to many of them by car, or even connecting with someone from a nearby CC and hitching a ride. But we could get you all set up with the PSCFA schedule and you’d have access to both LD and Parli. You do need a partner for Parli, and I’m just guessing there is someone else attending UCLA who wants to debate, and certainly posting on edebate or some other site can probably quickly put you in contact with someone.
Not being certain, does UCLA have a program? Have you discussed your options with the coach there? Have you ruled out ADI as the workshop of your choice? But if there is a program and a budget and they are willing to support your LD efforts, you can do the local tournaments and also some national ones, like UOP and there’s one in Colorado, Pt. Loma is national, and so on. My point is that there are enough large tournaments nearby that you can attend and once you break you can qualify for NFA nationals.
Once we get a firm list of everyone who wants to attend, we can certainly do two levels of lecture/lab for the students. Most likely we’d have mutual topic lecture/discussions, and then break-out groups to discuss the other stuff. Once room would be learning the stock issues and the other room might be learning advanced CX skills, or something along those lines. I can’t guarantee that everything will be brand new, since you have quite a bit of experience; but we can discuss the strategies specifically for LD (going over the time constraints and the best way to succeed through rebuttals), the culture of judges around here (if you compete locally you’ll have to know about that), and we can cover anything you want to cover that you believe would make you a better debater. Sometimes networking is the most important thing, too.
Think it over and if you are still interested, answer the questions I posed earlier about span of dates you prefer within that range of dates, topics you want to cover for sure, and if you need help with housing let me know that, too. You can post it here or send it to my sydnekasle@yahoo.com address. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Sydne,
I’ll do a quick line by line:
- UCLA does have a debate team. For the most part they do Parli, which I have absolutely zero interest in. There is one NDT-CEDA squad; however, it is ran separately from the parli debate union, has no coach and doesn’t have the financial resources necessary to be competitive. Additionally, the parli person I’ve been in contact with there implied that they were very resistant to supporting NDT-CEDA due to its expense. I don’t have any illusions of doing it at this point because in all likelihood it’s not going to last. My goal is convince them to do NFA-LD as a low-cost policy alternative.
I’m going to get in touch with Keyan Shokraie (the UCLA coach) and see what he thinks about NFA-LD.
- I’m not attending the ADI because my parents have made it clear that any debate camp I attend this summer is going to be on my own dime and I don’t have a spare $1200 lying around to go. Plus, the evidence set would be oriented towards Russia/Nukes/whatever the topic happens to be and would be pretty useless for NFA-LD.
RCC on the other hand would only cost me $150 for the airfare and $100 or so for food, IF I can get some kind soul to put me up on their living room floor for a couple nights and drive me to/from Ontario airport. So yes, consider this a request for housing.
- I’m definitely hoping to do some national tournaments. The good news is that to the best of my knowledge, UCLA already goes to a lot of the tournaments that offer both parli and NFA-LD, which subsumes a lot of costs. Them funding me to go to nationals would probably be dependent on my success locally, but I’m optimistic that my background gives me the tools to do well.
- As for camp focus, I’m always interested in learning more advanced debate skills. I realize there’s no way to avoid repetition in what I already know, but I can always benefit from a reinforcement of essential skills. And of course the LD-specific strategies and information that you described is something I would benefit greatly from.
Finally, I should probably make it clear that I am in no way confirming my attendance – I’m still hoping I get hired for one of the summer jobs and if there’s a conflict the job is going to take priority. We’ll see what happens.
As for a range of dates, I’m not going to know for sure until I get a summer job offer confirmed, if any. But airfare is cheapest Monday-Thursday so it would be best if the schedule allowed me to fly down on one of those days. Just have the schedule set at least a month ahead of time so I can book the cheap Southwest airfare while it lasts.
I’m looking forward to meeting you LD folks over the summer or during the year. If you need to contact me my email is nmatthews@ucla.edu
- Nick
Okay, good to know you’ve explored it as an option. I’ll keep you posted on the development of our workshop. We can definitely connect you to the LD competition in the region, and help you get into the PSCFA tournaments. And there are some national tournaments around, and you could get enough experience to qualify for NFA. We’ll help you any way we can, or put you in touch with a program that could help you. LD competition is run at the IE tournaments, so it could also be the case that you can partner with some LA squad with a more active IE squad, or even CSULB does all kinds of debates, maybe for rides and stuff to tournaments outside of this area.
We will be able to offer you a more advanced discussion, LD strategies, an understanding of the LD community, and also topic discussion. We hope you can join us!
I’d be interested in participating for like 3 days or so. I’m a rising second year debater from El Camino. A few others from our squad are also interested. The week of August 17 sounds good. The time sounds good as well.
Great! Please mail me directly at: sydnekasle@yahoo for the details. I’m very happy that people from El Camino are interested!
I’m 99% sure I’ll be attending this camp. It sounds fun and I hope interest can grow as the summer goes on.
Because I live in Northern California, and I don’t have enough money for a hotel, I’m looking for someone who is attending the full length of the camp to: 1) house me on their living room couch every night, and 2) transport me to and from their residence to RCC every day.
I’m willing to pay a semi-decent amount for the trouble (somewhere around $80 perhaps?), so this is an easy way to make some extra cash if you are a starving college student. I don’t smoke and I am generally well-behaved.
Feel free to email me if you are interested: nmatthews@ucla.edu
- Nick
Thanks to all of you for your inquiries and patience regarding the RCC LD debate camp. I am working on a daily schedule for the camp, but the short version is the camp is a “go”. The camp will be at RCC, which is in Riverside, CA, located at 4800 Magnolia Avenue, Riverside, CA. Here are the vitals for now:
Location: RCC City campus, Riverside, CA
Dates: August 17-August 20 (come any or all days)
Times: 10:30 AM – 3:30 PM (people can stay longer to cut evidence and/or network)
Cost: Free, but plan on having your own money for food/drinks/WATER
If you have not been able to secure accommodations and/or transportation by August 3, please let me know and I will do my best to help you out.
If you are able to “house” and/or transport someone, please let me know that as well.
We will have a nice mixture of topic and theory lectures. August 20 will be set aside for practice debates. We also have a digital camera and if you bring a flash drive it is possible to get a good glimpse of yourself in order to work on delivery and such.
If you want to maximize your experience, please bring your own evidence and as close to an AFF case as possible. Beginners may choose to debate or observe on August 20.
A daily schedule is forthcoming. Please direct any questions toward sydnekasle@yahoo.com. If you are a coach and would like to contribute as a lecturer, please get ahold of me ASAP so I can plug you into the schedule. Please include your name, school affiliation, and topic preferences.
I am warning you now, it is boiling hot outside and freezing cold inside in Riverside in August. I look forward to meeting all of you, and want to thank you again for being so dedicated to the activity of debate. You are truly inspiring!
Expect to see the daily schedule in the next 24-48 hours.
Sydne
W00T
sorry excited nerdy gamer came out for a sec…
I am getting Uber excited. I already got the better part of 2 1ACs done that should be able to fit 4 of the topic areas… its that alt nrg car one that’s may not link to both of them.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Count me in – in any capacity in which I can be of help. I will PM you about this.