In the past, Extemp Central has gone dormant during the six weeks between the end of NFL Nationals and the first full week of August, but since there are many extempers that keep working after their season ends we have decided to continue updating content during the summer months.
There are two features of the site that will be continually updated during the six weeks of the off-season, before the kick-off of more continual content updates the first week of August:
(1) The extemp questions for USX and IX will continue to be released on Monday’s at midnight CST. These questions will allow extempers to do practice speeches during the summer on their own time, work on outlines, read about issues that are at the heart of these questions, and/or provide some free questions to summer institutes that are hosting extemporaneous speaking sessions.
(2) We will be using our Twitter feed to provide 10-12 news stories daily for extempers to read. These will be retweeted posts from thinks tanks, news magazines, newspapers, and other resources. If you are going to an early tournament like the Wake Forest Early Bird in September, this might be a good way to start categorizing materials early. Following us on Twitter will give you access to these tweets and will also alert you of new content on the website, since we will also post links there and on our Facebook page.
There are also some “irregular” updates that will take place during the next six weeks. Some of these irregular updates are:
(1) A categorization of all past strategy pieces on the website like we have done for the topic briefs.
(2) Further updating of the 2014 Extemp TOC qualification board. This is contingent upon receiving full results from the Kansas and Hawaii state tournaments and any other state tournaments not included under category 2C (state tournaments held after April 2, 2013).
(3) The creation of the 2013-2014 season calendar. I will scrounge around and find the dates for Extemp TOC qualifying tournaments, but will post a list of tournament dates that I need here. If you know that your tournament is an Extemp TOC qualifier, please e-mail me the dates of that tournament at logan.scisco@topper.wku.edu.
(4) The posting of a few new, short strategy pieces.
(5) The posting of a couple of topic briefs over major topics that might carry over into the 2013-2014 season.
Also, when the regular season gets underway, we will provide readers with an interview with Harry Strong, the coach of Des Moines Roosevelt High School in Iowa. We also hope to provide interviews with this year’s graduating CFL and NFL national champions if those individuals are amenable. This is in addition to a more regular topic brief schedule, the debut of a “where are they now?” feature about past extempers, analysis of major national circuit results, posting of local results, and other information.
Is there a feature on Extemp Central that you would like to see more of next year? If so, please send any feedback to logan.scisco@topper.wku.edu.
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