Hill-Weld,+Judith

I am a parent judge and recently hired assistant coach for Nevada Union, a rural public high school policy team in Northern California.

__As a judge:__ 2014-15 is my third year judging, and I have judged a variety of events including novice policy, PF, Parli, Congress and some IEs.
 * I can handle some speed, but please don't sacrifice clarity.
 * I tend to take extensive notes but am not very skilled at flowing yet.
 * My grasp of debate jargon varies, so don't rely on it too heavily.
 * I don't have any strong opinions about the types of arguments you might run. However, I do want novice debaters to understand their own arguments and to know the content well.
 * I appreciate signposting as much as possible.
 * I base speaker points on a combination of fluency, clarity, volume, correct word usage and ability to speak articulately and logically in cross-ex and rebuttals.
 * Please don't use racist/homophobic/sexist/ableist vocabulary or arguments.
 * Please feel free to be assertive but not rude or disrespectful to your opponents.
 * I will do my best to disclose my decision when tournaments allow it, but will not provide extensive RFD's in person. I will try to provide specific and helpful comments on my ballots.
 * I will award low point wins when necessary, since I think argumentation trumps speaks.
 * I have non-debate experience reading philosophy and critical theory.

__As a coach__: Put the emphasis on assistant rather than coach. I spend a ton of time around policy debaters but my argumentation coaching skills are limited by my lack of experience as a debater myself and my informal study of policy debate over the past two years.

Further questions can be directed to my son Teddy Hill-Weld: hillweld32@gmail.com