7/10/08 Meeting

Note: Before I begin recapping the events that occurred at the previous meeting, I would like to note a few things.

1] Due to my writing experience in the Sutter Middle School Publication's Class of 2006-2007, I (Cassi Barker) will be posting recaps of the previous West Campus Highschool Speech and Debate Meetings.

2] These posts will be written in third-preson in order to maintain professional journalism status.

3] I have spelling issues. Please do not judge based on my inability to spell correctly.

4] Please continue to check into this post as it will be updated weekly.

5] Words with a "*" next to them means there is an explantation provided at the bottom of post.

6] Forums do not allow tradition paragraph posts, therefore each paragraph will be seperated by a space.

7] If you have any questions about previous meetings, feel free to message me at any time. I promise i will always respond.


On Thursday, July 10, 2008, the third West Campus Highschool Speech and Debate Meeting was held. There was some confusion on whether or not this meeting was exsisting or not, due to a mis-conseption. A total of five students were present at this meeting, however, the meeting was a successful meeting none the less.

To start off the meeting, the first thing that was discussed was the highly-anticipated car wash. With less than two-hundred and seventy dollars in hand, it has become evident that the Speech and Debate team is broke, therefore a fund-raising car wash is highly needed. Originally, the car wash was planned to take place on Saturday, July 12, 2008; however, due to the high levels of smoke in the Sacramento air, the Speech and Debate team has concluded that the car wash will most definatley not happen on Saturday, July, 12, 2008. At this point, the location and time of the car wash is yet to be announced.

The five students that attended this meeting were able to participate in a practice parli debate round. The teams were divided into two sets of two people and are as follows:

1] Dominic Meroux & Isabel
2] Kristi Hancock & Cassi Barker

Judge: April Rubio; an obvious lay judge

Before the debate began, possible topics to debate over were discussed. The following topics are as follows:
- military drafting
- prisoner voting
- native american reservations
- walmart

The original topic chosen was "Walmart is good" with team 1 being pro, team 2 being anti; however, it was then decided that the resolution would be "Walmart shouldn't be banned" with team 1 being pro, team 2 being anti.

The flow of the debate round went like this:

pro(5 min) con(5 min) pro(5 min) con(5 min) con(3 min) pro(3 min)

With Dominic and Isabel being pro-walmart, Kristi and Cassi being anti-walmart, the debate round began.
Dominic was first to state his position and his contention went as follows:

1] Walmart provides low prices.
-The prices in today's soceity is costly; however walmart provides products at the lowest prices.
2] Walmart provides jobs for millions of people.
-Without walmart millions of people would be at a loss of work.
3] Walmart is econimically friendly.
-Uses hybrid trucks and lowers waste by thirty percent

Value: Justice
-"*talatarism: the greater good for the greater people," as stated by Dominic

Next to state their opinion was Kristi(contention is as follows):

1] Walmart has small walkways and doors.
-Obese and over weight people get stuck in the doors.
2] Walmarts products are unreliable.
-Wheels fall off and chairs break.
3] Walmart gets thier products from foreign places, which is helpin inflation.
-inporting goods from China & Japan is more costly than if Walmart got their goods from America

Dominic and Kristi were first & third speakers, therefore Isabel and Cassi provided as second speakers, backing up their partner's postition. In the end, it became evident that many mistakes were made, but many lessons were learned. Team pro-walmart ultimatley won the debate seeing as Kristi and Cassi failed to address the value and made invalid contentions. However, Dominque made the mistake of mixing "talitarism" with "utalitarism" and Cassi made the mistake of mixing "*infatuation" with "inflation". Luckily Krisiti was there to correct her before she mixed up the whole debate as Dominic did.

After a rousing round of parli debate, the team decided to move onto improtu speeches. First to do an improtu speech was Dominic Meroux. Dominic received a card about guns, and intellectually twisted it into a speech about acheiving one's dream. Dominque cleverly provided examples such as Kelly Clarckson and Chris Garner from "The Pursuit of Happyness" to get his point across.

Next to volunteer for an impromtu speech was Cassi Barker. Members who attended the first meeting may remember how Cassi Barker provided a ludicrous, yet hilarious improtu speech about dresscodes and skin tones. this time; however, Cassi Barker provided a speech about names and what they represent to the person beholding the name. This speech was definatley not the best though, because Cassi decided to critisze one of her judges, Dominic Merouz, by calling him a gay girly-girl. Dominque responded to these acusations with a friendly threat: "I'll get my homies at the bus stop to beat you up!!!! Go oboma girl!!!"

After the comidic display from Dominic and Cassi, it was April Rubio's turn to give an improtu speech. April provided a speech on jewelry and stated that "jewelry is a girls best friend". April backed up this statement by saying, "You can take your friend's ashes and blast them with carbon [in order to make it into jewelry] and then wear it! So its like you can take your best friend anywhere!"

It was then when the clock struck five and the meeting was ajourned.

The following is a summary of the meeting:

1] Carwarsh location and time is yet to be announced.

2] A practice Parli debate about Walmart occured.

3] Three improtu speeches were made.

Mistakes made:
- mixing "talitarism" with "utalitarim"
- mixing "infatuatuin" with "inflation"
- providing invalid arguments
- critized a judge by calling them a "gay girly girl"

Lessons learned:
- know your vocaubulary
- make sure your contnetions correspond with the value
- do not make fun of your judges

*talitarism does not mean "the greater good for the greater people". Dominic meant to say "utalitarism" which means "the greater good for the greater people"

*infatution means "a great passion towards someone or something". Cassi meant to say "inflation" which is when the value of a dollar goes down and the prices of products go up.


Well that about sums it up! If you have any further questions ask feel free to ask me!

-xoxo Cassi