To achieve our goals takes time, effort, and financial support. Some of the key ways that parents and community partners can help are:
Volunteer to judge at tournaments.
Participate in fundraisers or donate funds.
Give your child encouragement and support.
Encourage your work or community organization to become a team sponsor.
Transport your child to practices and tournaments.
Chaperone on trips to out of town tournaments.
Volunteer to help out at tournaments.
These roles are briefly described below
Volunteer to judge at tournaments – Volunteer judges are critical to our ability to compete at tournaments. Each school has a quota of judges that they are required to bring to serve in a tournament. The number of judges required is determined by the number of students that your school has participating in the tournament (Assume we have six debate teams participating in a tournament. If the judge requirement is 1 judge for every 2 teams that you bring, we are required to bring 3 judges. If we can’t meet our quota, we would either have to hire a judge (if the tournament provides them) or not allow some teams to participate in the tournament, despite the fact that they’ve worked hard to prepare.
Judging Public Forum debates requires no specialized debate or topic knowledge. It can be very fun, informative, and fulfilling. We have multiple information sources to help volunteers get comfortable with judging and we will provide at least one training opportunity for volunteers to practice judging a debate(s). Also, some leagues have brief training workshops at the beginning of the season or in the morning before tournaments.
Give your child encouragement and support. Public speaking is one of the most common fears that people have. By participating on the debate team you children are voluntarily putting themselves in situations from which many of us would run. The support and encouragement that you provide helps them turn whatever anxiety they have over public speaking or competing into confidence that they can handle situations these types of situations and (2) if they work hard they will get better at just about anything.
Participate in fundraisers or donate funds. Help provide resources and opportunities for our students. Although our school administration has been very supportive, at present there is no dedicated funding for the debate team. Our expenses include:
· membership fees for the debate associations/leagues in which we are a member; · tournament registration fees; · judging fees for any tournaments where we don’t bring our quota of judges; · administrative expenses; · expenses connected with tournaments and educational programs that we plan to host; · travel expenses; · educational resources to build skills or provide research; · travel, lodging, and food expenses for away trips; and · miscellaneous expenses.
Needless to say these expenses quickly add up. We plan to have a small activity fee this year to cover expenses like student lifetime membership in the National Speech and Debate Association a national governing body in high school debate and honor society for debaters; team items to encourage and reinforce the team (e.g. team shirts, rewards). We also plan to vigorously reach out to community, philanthropic and business organizations for their support. We will do all we can to minimize it, but for travel tournaments, it may also be necessary for the participating student’s/parents to cover some of their travel expenses. That said it is our goal that no student who otherwise qualifies for a tournament ever finds themselves where financial considerations stand in the way of participating.
Encourage your organization to become a team sponsor – If you are the head of a business please consider becoming a partner/sponsor for our team by making financial or in-kind contributions. If you are not, please encourage your work organization or other organizations to consider supporting the ERHS debate team. All donations go into the Debate Team account at the school. All expenditures must be authorized by the principal and all fundraising and expenditures must be tracked and reported to the school bookkeeper. We will gladly provide a copy of our budget estimates and expenditures to organizations that are interested in becoming a sponsor. Sponsors will be highlighted on our team website and/or team events.
Transport your child to practices and tournaments. We generally will have one or two after school practices a week. Our league tournaments are generally in the Washington DC metropolitan area and go from about 8 until 5-6 on.
Chaperone on trips to out of town tournaments. This year, we’d like to participate in some of the National Circuit debate tournaments. The are high school tournaments held at universities or high schools with strong debate traditions. They are generally held over the weekend. A couple of the tournaments are nearby (e.g. George Mason University), but several are a few hours’ drive from here (e.g. Harvard in Massachusetts and Emory University in Atlanta). Going to these tournaments will give our students a chance to compete against some of the top debaters, and a chance to be exposed to some of the best universities in the country. In addition, top finishers at most of these tournaments can earn a chance to qualify for the Tournament of Champions Debate competition at the University of Kentucky (April). In addition, If our debaters qualify, there are also National tournaments this year in Dallas, TX (June) and Fort Lauderdale, FL (May).
Volunteer to help out at tournaments. Debate tournaments have lots of moving parts with lots of planned and unexpected tasks, so there is always room for volunteers to help out. This is especially true where we are hosting tournaments, but help can also be useful when we are debating at other schools.
We try to expose the students on the debate team to as many great opportunities as possible to develop their skills and enhance their educational experience. From a debating standpoint this means providing multiple opportunities where they can compete in situations where they are going to be challenged and grow, as well as providing the information, tools, and support to feel they are well prepared to succeed.
From a life learning standpoint, it means giving them responsibilities, so that they learn accountability and self-efficacy (the belief that they are the primary controllers of their success in debate and life); and providing exposure to new environments that broaden their understanding of what they can aspire to and what it takes to achieve it. It also means providing support and encouragement.