On Friday, Oct. 6, Speech and Debate Club held elections in order to prepare for upcoming club events, such as a tournament at Cumberland Polytechnic High School on Oct. 21.
The club held elections for the positions of president and vice president. The other leadership positions — Lincoln-Douglas Captain, Public Forum Captain, and Speech Captain — were chosen at the end of last year.
Even though Speech and Debate is separated into different individual events, the club requires a president to unify all aspects of both speech and debate. The candidates for president, Erin Darnell and Ethan Ebbighausen, both had major goals for the club for their upcoming years, including making significant changes to the organization of bimonthly meetings. .
Ebbighausen, the new President of Speech and Debate Club, said, “I really would like to take control of [the club] to make it my own and get details smoothed out so we’re better at the meetings, more decisive on topics, and make deadlines–that way it’s easier for people to attend.”
Justin Kelly, the newly elected Vice President, said, “I hope to expand the club to as many members as possible and hope to get a lot of people interested in Speech and Debate.”
Due to the current organization of meetings, which focus on debating strategies, club members wish to see a change to include more strategies for speech. “As of right now, we only debate, and since it’s speech and debate club, I’d like to do a lot more events that focus on building public speaking skills for members as well as continuing debating,” said Erin Darnell, speech captain.
No matter the leadership, Speech and Debate Club remains an amazing club for students to join. “[Speech and Debate] is a really great club that teaches great values and builds on skills that can really impact a student later on in life.” Club members can apply the valuable lessons learned from the club in order to improve skills for later on in their adult lives.
Speech and Debate Club is an amazing clud, which we can enjoy ourselves.