SOUTHERN OREGON NFL NEWSLETTER

November 1, 2007

Greetings to all, and I hope your year has started well.  I know that for me, it seems like to 1^st quarter has just begun, yet I’m supposed to turn in grades this week.  It seems like a good time, however, to fill everyone in on some of the happenings in the National Forensic League, both local and national.  If you are an NFL school, you know about some of this.  If you aren’t, you might consider becoming.  The National folks are really working hard to make the NFL more than just another tournament.  While student membership fees have gone up this year (from $10 to $15), they are trying to give you all more for the money.  Of course, if you need more convincing or have comments, complications or commitments, you can contact me anytime.

Local Tournament Issues

· The National Congress Qualifier is scheduled for March 8, 2008 at Roseburg High School. 

· The South Oregon NFL IE and Debate Qualifier is schedule for March 13-14, 2008 at the University of Oregon.

· We will do entry on-line this year, so please look over the invitation carefully when you get it in February.

· We will probably use Joy of Tournaments software to conduct the IE/Debate tournament.

District Size/Status

· Currently, we are a “red status” district.  This means that if we don’t have 16 chapter schools in our district by the date of the congress, we will qualify only 1 speaker to Nationals in each event (we typically send 2).

· We only have 15 chapter schools assigned in our district.  I am asking all chapter schools to renew this year and am hoping to welcome Hood River and North Bend as chapter schools (up from affiliates) so we can move out of “red status”.  Please contact me right away if you are not planning to renew your membership this year, as I need to start looking at alternatives.

National NFL Offerings

· All NFL schools can request a copy of last year’s final rounds in HI, DI, and Duo.  Go the www.nflonline.org, then click on “resources”, “coach resources”, and then scroll down the page to the “Licensing Agreement”.  Fill that out and send it in.  Eventually you’ll get the DVD, which are very well recorded this year (some years in the past they were not).

· The new website is voluminous.  There are a lot of teaching resources, from lesson plan ideas, to an LD textbook, to coaching, just to name a few.  Check them out, mostly in the coach resources section of the website (and you don’t have to be an NFL school).  Look around, you’ll find more than I can mention.

· The NFL is now conducting online chats with noted coaches and national level speakers.  So far, they’ve covered Oratory, Extemp, and Interp among other subjects.  You can find most of the archived chats, and a schedule for future chats in the “NFL Community” tab on the website.

· NFL has also released a dvd called “NFL Showcase” which has good quality National final examples of all NFL main events, plus prose and poetry.  This can be requested on loan from the NFL, or I have a copy of it as well.  It includes commentary from a good coach about the event and a really good example speech or debate.

· This year, the NFL is also releasing a topic analysis for LD as the topics are released.  You can find than on the same page as the current topics.  There is talk of doing something similar for Public Forum at a later date.

Although I know that NFL is in March, so it may not be on your mind right now, a little attention to it throughout the year pays off in the end.  Remember, log those points and get those members.  The more degrees you have in your school,  the more entries you can have at the district tournaments.  The more entries and more degrees we have as a district, the stronger we become.  If you have any issues, you can always contact me or one of the other district committee members: Marcia Stewart-Warren from Butte Falls, Ellen Howard from Bandon, Rob Bingham from Willamette, and Trudy Poling-Lloyd from Eagle Point.

Keep your expectations high, and see you soon --

 Rob Moeny, North Valley

W: 541-479-3388