Category: Site News Page 1 of 3

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Tomorrow will start the “reboot” of Extemp Central. One thing that readers will see is the release of ten new International and United States extemp questions. These questions will always be posted on Monday as most readers said that was something that they used the most.

The schedule for other things such as quizzes, R&Ds, and the release of local/national results will take place on an as needed (or as able) basis. If you have local results, feel free to send them to me at [email protected]. My aim is to have a weekly column devoted to results at the local level. When sending results, put the name of the tournament, the names of the finalists and their placing, and what school they are from. This makes it very easy to get these results on the site. With this weekend’s Sunvitational, I am also hoping to get something typed up about that tournament, so when results are finalized if someone can send me those I would appreciate it. I am also looking into calculating the standings for the National Points Race and releasing that in the coming weeks as well, possibly by the Barkley Forum in a couple of weeks.

Finally, readers will see a PayPal donation button like the one below affixed to tomorrow’s questions. There is also a donation page that is on the right sidebar as well. If you click this button, you can donate funds to keep this website operating. The more money we raise, the more content can be included on the site. All funds go back into the site in terms of time for resources, the cost of purchasing subscriptions for news content, and the trophy for the National Points Race. My initial aim for Extemp Central was to provide resources for free so I am not keen on putting things behind a paywall. As always, contributions of any amount are appreciated.

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Since the 2017-2018 season kicked off, and a little bit before, I received a great deal of e-mails asking for Extemp Central to return due to its provision of practice resources for extempers and teams across the country.  I have also been asked at many tournaments about the site’s “closure” (although our page remained active for the past year).  As a result, I have decided to “reboot” Extemp Central and a new rollout of content will occur next week.

Do note that the “rebooted” website will not have the constant content updates on a daily basis that veteran readers might be accustomed to.  This is due to my work commitments and I do not want to stretch myself too thin or make promises that cannot be kept.  The weekly IX/USX questions, which were a staple of the website from its inception back in the summer of 2006, will remain, but I do welcome feedback on what other features people would like to see.  You can comment here, comment on our Facebook page, or comment on Twitter.

I will make a post on the weekend about a new content schedule for the rest of the 2017-2018 season and explain some ways that my running of this site can be made better with the help of the speech and debate community.  One thing that you will see is a PayPal button on our weekly questions postings where people can donate funds to the site, which is appreciated for the work that goes on here (and for paying for a National Points Race trophy – and yes, that might return for 2018 assuming that I can gather enough results).  For now, I have spent my post-MBA Round Robin Monday acquiring results for the national title, national circuit, and major championship pages from 2016-2017 and from this year so far.  If anyone has any state tournament results from 2016-2017 (I just need champions), please e-mail them to me at [email protected].

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Over the last several weeks I have given significant thought to the future of Extemp Central.  As our regular readers know, I have had to curtail several content features to start the 2016-2017 season.  News quizzes were suspended part of the way through first semester, news about circuit results were not posted, and no standings were released for the National Points Race.  All of this is due to the fact that I simply have not had the time in light of existing work commitments – which have me teaching three separate AP history courses and other extracurricular duties – and while I like posting questions and R&Ds, I am not currently satisfied with the content that has been released this year.

I thought of trying to rearrange the content schedule to get news quizzes back into the rotation and then try to get our circuit results updated, but every time that I thought about doing so I simply could not find a way that I could rearrange the schedule so that this content could be delivered in a timely manner and with quality.  Anyone who knows me understands that I am someone that prefers to do things the right way and to the best of my abilities and not being able to do a project to my standards is why I have made the decision to end Extemp Central.

This website has had a good run and has hopefully assisted many extempers and teams across the country.  If I could have made a living chronicling the extemp circuit, I would have gladly done it but such a goal is not feasible.  I hate to close down something of educational value, but if history is any indication something will one day rise and take the place of this site.  Prior to Extemp Central there were other significant websites such as forensicsonline.net, individualevents.org, and extemp.net.  Those sites served as an inspiration for this one and more will probably emerge in the future.  If one does, I hope that they will make use of the records that this site has maintained and continues to add to them.

I thank anyone who has contributed to this site over the years, visited, or spoke highly of it to people they have interacted with on the circuit or at conferences.  It is a tough decision to walk away, but I feel that it is for the best.  I hope the rest of the 2016-2017 competitive year goes well and I wish everyone the best on the road to their respective state tournaments and NCFL and NSDA nationals.

-Logan Scisco

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Today marks the beginning of August and with it the beginning of the 2016-2017 season here at Extemp Central.  Much of the posting calendar will stay the same as previous years, with the biggest change taking place with premium content.  No premium content will be offered during 2016-2017 so that the site can provide more coverage of local and national events on the circuit.

In the coming weeks, Extemp Central will be updating the 2016-2017 tournament calendar, the TOC qualification boards for 2016-2017, and will provide the breakdown of the 2016-2017 National Points Race, which will kick off at the Wake Forest National Early Bird next month.

Here is what the daily schedule of content will be like during the 2016-2017 year:

Monday:  United States and International Extemp Questions
Tuesday:  Topic-specific R&D
Wednesday:  News quiz
Thursday:  Topic-specific R&D
Friday:  Weekly R&D that mixes U.S. and International Extemp issues

In addition to this posting schedule, there will be posts about national and local results, qualification board updates, and National Points Race updates as the season moves along.

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Due to a personal vacation, there will be no updates on Extemp Central this week. The exception to this is that the final standings for the National Points Race will be released late on Friday.

During the summer, Extemp Central will be updating our state champions list, putting together the qualification board for the 2017 University of Kentucky Tournament of Champions (TOC) and the 2017 Extemp TOC, and will still release practice questions on Monday’s.

Regular content will resume on August 1, which is the official beginning of the 2016-2017 season.

Extemp Central thanks all of our readers for 2015-2016 and we look forward to covering another great season in several months!

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Due to our coverage of this week’s National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) National Tournament, our weekly content schedule will be changed.  Questions will not be posted, but they will return the following week (the week of June 20).  Quizzes and R&Ds will resume on August 1.

Here is the content schedule for this week:

Monday:  Random NSDA Updates (if they arise)
Tuesday: Release of Octofinalists & Quarterfinalists
Wednesday: Release of Semifinalists & Finalists
Thursday: Final Round Preview Pieces for IX & USX
Friday: IX & USX Final Round Recaps
Saturday: NSDA Tournament Results Write-Up

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To best accommodate elements of my work schedule, the content releases for this point going forward will be the following:

Monday:  International and United States Extemp questions
Tuesday: R&D from Prepd; Weekly news quiz
Wednesday: Premium content topic brief & premium R&D
Thursday: R&D from Prepd
Friday: Weekly R&D from Prepd

Extemp Central will also be posting some brief pieces this week to highlight this year’s National Points Race tournaments and structure, a pre-season top 25, and will gradually work to update the 2015-2016 tournament calendar.

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With the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) National Tournament in the books, Extemp Central will head into its off-season posting schedule until August.  During this time, questions will still be uploaded on Mondays (for any extemp camps that may want to use them or for competitors that want to do some off-season prep) and quizzes will still be posted on Wednesdays.  However, premium topic briefs and R&Ds will not return until August 4 and 5, respectively.  Extemp Central will make a post when the SpeechGeek Market makes 2015-2016 seasons subscriptions available.

We will also finalize our posting of state tournament results in the coming weeks, as well as do a year-end wrap-up pieces to chronicle all of the big stories on the national circuit.  Additionally, a National Points Race write up and standings sheet that encompasses all of this year’s ranked competitors will be released near the end of the week.

Finally, Extemp Central has secured interviews with some of the season’s top competitors.  Interviews with NSDA International and United States Extemp Champions Brian Anderson and Brian Yu, NCFL Grand National Champion Yijia Liang, and MBA Extemp Round Robin and Extemp TOC winner Josh Wartel will be posted in August.  Extemp Central also hopes to do another “season preview” piece by gathering information about some of the competitors to watch next season.