First, Dolores Brown, our fundraising chairwoman extraordinaire, is planning on selling some special “State” t-shirts at the State tournament this year. We will be buying them in bulk and selling them day-of instead of doing pre-orders, but she wants to have enough available for those interested in purchasing. To help her determine the appropriate number of t-shirts to purchase, please complete this quick Google Survey. The t-shirts will be $15.

Second, Dolores is taking orders for coach merch again as requested by you, the coaches! She will take orders until February 24th! She even added some items after getting feedback from you guys, so check it out here!

Third, State will be using Speechwire e-ballots. Sarah Lichey & Danielle Wilde (along with others!) have been hard at work planning the State tournament, and I trust that in their capable hands, it will be a huge success! Per our by-laws, judges must have judged at minimum of 2 rounds this season in order to judge at State. However, I am aware that with 50% of our tournaments this year being on the MLFA tabbing system, that means some of you may be bringing judges who have never judged on Speechwire. To support these judges, I am hosting a “Speechwire for Judges Review” session on Sunday, March 12th at 3:00 pm. I will record the session and send it out as well for those who are unable to join. Please, share this link with judges who may want to attend. This will be their RSVP and give them access to the link to the session.

Depending on numbers, I think I will be able to have the judges actually practice – or at the very least, I can demonstrate the process live and answer questions. I have also filmed two tutorials & posted those to the judge page of our website. One video reviews how to judge a regular round on Speechwire and the other showcases how to judge a power round.