Blogging is truly a whole other world. I have spent a while (probably the last hour and a half or so) exploring different ways to increase participation in my blog, things to include in my sidebar, etc. Its amazing the number of blogs out there and I’m amazed that someone has not already started a more comprehensive blog on competitive speech and debate. Considering the outreach efforts of the Urban Debate Leagues to high schools and the increased outreach by CEDA, AFA and other organizations, its amazing we haven’t had someone start a blog that follows a season of competition or provides different resources for new coaches, etc. So, maybe I do have something here that will be useful to some people out there.
As an example, I attended a workshop at the last NCA on fundraising for speech and debate programs. It was full of incredibly valuable information about fundraising, development, etc. But, it was somewhat overwhelming - eight hours with tons of ideas and probably enough stuff to take up my time for years to come. But, with a more coordinated, long-term effort in fundraising (e.g. a weekly snippet in the blog with guest writers contributing their ideas, recent successes, recent challenges, etc.) it may be something that would seem more attainable.
I think that blogging is a great way to provide and receive information in today’s fast-paced society. I hope to be providing a service that some will find helpful in the coming months (years?) with this blog. We’ll see where it goes….
On a totally different topic, I was just catching up with some past salon.com issues and came across an article about Bush that mentioned a new documentary that debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival a couple of weeks ago. You can watch the trailer here: http://www.version2.net/PR/Taxi/ It looks good, if depressing. I will keep my eye out for it in theaters. It seems like it would make a good movie to discuss/debate!
