20 January 2004

BUSY START TO 2004!
TEAMS DEBATE TWICE IN TEXAS, ONCE IN MONTREAL

| Kayce Massey, Helen Morgan Parmett, Emily Sanders | Jillian Marty, pal Jason Regnier |

DEMOUGEOT INVITATIONAL, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS

The drive to Kansas City has become a memory, although a vivid one. After over a dozen years of driving from Vermont to Kansas City in January, the LDU rolled with the changes in tournament schedules and attended the new two-tournament "swing" in Texas. But this trip was a little different -- it involved flying. The bad news before we left was that Edwin Owusu would not be able to make the trip because of legal proceedings he needed to attend in support of hi family. Jillian Marty, LDU President and Edwin's partner, was able to find a "hybrid" partner from the University of Oklahoma, Rosie Lieurance, who needed a partner. Given that former LDU coach Jackie Massey is now director at OU, it seemed like a fortuitous move. Two other teams (Mimi Supernaw & Michael McMahan, along with Kayce Massey & Emily Sanders, also made the trip along with coaches Gordie Miller, Helen & Justin Morgan Parmett, and Tuna Snider, who was invited to run the tab rooms at both tournaments.
The competition was difficult but the LDU fared well. Traditionally LDU novices debate on the "swing" in a higher division to gain experience, and this year was no exception. In the varsity division Jillian and Rosie lost a tough break round to miss the elimination rounds, but Rosie was arming up after three years away from debate. In JV the team of Kayce Massey and Emily Sanders reached the elimination rounds and both won speaker awards, an excellent performance. Mimi and Mike held their own and beat a number of more experienced teams but did not reach the elims.
The hospitality in Denton, Texas was stunning. Brian Lain and Jon Hines were fabulous hosts, providing local transportation, some free hotel rooms, and the best advice for dining and sight-seeing. Tuna found a fabulous used book store and the local culture was excellent. The tournament also featured an X-box video game tournament, but Gordie Miller was quickly eliminated in the Madden football category.

| Alumnae Rae Lynn Schwartz | Mike McMahan's new look | Pre-round discussion |

FEAR AND LOATHING IN DALLAS, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS

Without any rest it was on to the University of Texas at Dallas for the next tournament, to complete six straight days of debating. The squad moved to Dallas from Denton. The varsity division was larger and more competitive, while the JV division stayed about the same. This time Jillian and Rosie won their crucial break debates and reached the elimination rounds, where they were unfortunately defeated by the University of Texas. Neither young team cleared in the JV division, but Mike and Mimi missed clearing by half a speaker point, but Kayce Massey once again received a speaker award, indicating that this swing was a real turning point in her debate performances.
Once again, the hospitality was fantastic, and Chris Burk and Scott Herndon of UTD did everything they could to make us feel welcome. The poker tournament was interesting, and Mike McMahan did get involved the second night. Adam Lee of Rochester won the official poker tournament.
Special thanks to Sam Miller for driving us down to Boston and to Charlie Hoag for picking us up.

| UVM & Claremont | 15 minutes prep for rounds | Montreal City Hall |

NORTH AMERICAN WOMEN'S OPEN, CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY, MONTREAL, CANADA

Concordia University in Montreal invited us up to join them at the North American Women's Open held the weekend of the 16-18 January. The tournament was to be held in Canadian parliamentary debate format. Jillian Marty and Teresa Hill wanted to go even though neither of them had ever been involved with parliamentary debate before. After some training the team went up in Tuna's VW bug to learn about the world of Canadian parliamentary debating.
While there the UVM team was lucky enough to room with Sarah and Jenny from Claremont McKenna College in California, so it was good to be with friends. 42 teams attended, with four being from the USA and the rest from Canada. The food, accommodations, and hospitality were fantastic. Canadian parliamentary debating was challenging because there are many conventions but none of them are written down, which made adaptation difficult. "Manner" seemed to be given more weight in making decisions than "matter." Teresa entered the public speaking contest and missed being in the final round by .5 points. Jillian indicated after that she preferred policy debate.
The tournament provided housing in the Ritz-Carlton, excellent meals, and a final round in the debating chamber of the Montreal city hall. We appreciate the special invitation by Concordia.

Vermont State Debate Tournament, March 6, Montpelier
Public Debate, April, 2004
Speak Out, warm weekend, Spring, 2004

WITNEY AND COLE SPROUT WINGS AND LEAVE THE NEST

| Brian Cole '03 | Jill Witney '03 |

Two long serving members of the LDU stopped by the office as they left town to say goodbye. We are proud of both of them and know that they will be successful.
BRIAN COLE began as a novice debater and finished as a coach. His first tournament was actually novice nationals. He returned in one year to reach the final round and capture second place at novice nationals. He received many team and speaker awards before acting as a coach in the Fall of 2003 as he finished his degree. Brian has already started coaching at Wichita State University in Kansas, where he will be a graduate assistant and work towards a masters degree in speech communication.
JILL WITNEY also began as a novice debater but was recruited through the Rhetoric of Reggae Music class taught by Tuna. She debated as a novice and finished as a coach. Jill had an outstanding energy for debate that propelled her towards helping many others people -- someone who needed a partner at the last minute, someone was having difficulty and needed a positive conversation, updates on evidence and arguments. She debated successfully in the novice and junior varsity divisions before turning to coaching. She was twice a TA in the Fundamentals of Debate class. This last fall was one of her most active at coaching and judging. Jill will be taking a full-time position at Dartmouth's medical center in the implementation of a major federal grant.

ALUMNI NEWS

PAM PECK from the 80's drops us a line:
" We are still living in funky inner southeast Portland. (Benjamin attends kindergarten at the neighborhood elementary school. Tom is a tech writer at Oracle.) I'm working, a civilized 4-days per week, as a public affairs coordinator for Metro, the only directly-elected regional government in the U.S. Metro protects open space and parks, plans for land use and transportation, and manages garbage disposal and recycling for 1.3 million residents in three counties and 24 cities in the Portland, Oregon, region. I manage a variety of projects for the agency -- one of the most interesting is working with independent filmmakers and community groups to produce a television program and website that will explore transportation issues through the personal stories of 17 families/individuals. I volunteer one morning a week at Ben's school and a couple of times a month at KBOO (our community radio station) hosting an eclectic folk music program."

If you come to Burlington drop by 475 Main Street, see Huber House, and get your photo in the newsletter!

LDU BANQUET - Dinner, Saturday, May 1, 2004.

AFFIRMATIVE MEETING - WEDNESDAY 4:30 PM
PRE-CORNELL PREP - SATURDAY 11 AM AND ON
TEAM BRUNCH AT HELEN & JUSTIN'S - SUNDAY, 1 PM

Research Director is Jillian Marty. Assignments accepted must be completed.

ASSIGNMENTS POSTED IN OFFICE. DUE NEXT WEEK, TUES NIGHT 9 PM

NOW WITH 278 DIFFERENT PROGRAMS!
Watch Flashpoint from your computer screen whenever you want! You will need RealPlayer installed on your computer to become a part of our growing audience. Here are some recent programs now available at http://debate.uvm.edu/flashpoint.html. Watch on Burlington Channel 15 Wednesday 12:30 PM, Thursday 10 PM, Saturday 1 PM.
Next tapings: 2/7, 2/21, 3/27, 4/3, 5/1 all Saturdays.

SQUAD MEETS AT 6 PM EACH MONDAY NIGHT, 475 MAIN STREET, ALL WELCOME!

ALWAYS CALL IT HUBER HOUSE!