Activities - NJCL Convention - 2002 - Daily Highlights - Tuesday, July 30

Clad in "Classical Bluegrass" t-shirts, aptly colored in University of Kentucky blue, delegates from the host delegation were on hand Monday and Tuesday to help with the arrival of over 1600 delegates from 35 states. Despite the fact that official convention activities did not begin until Tuesday, a majority of attendees checked in Monday, many after trips to nearby theme parks and attractions.

The convention commenced in earnest directly after lunch as Will Weaver, the NJCL President, called the 1st General Assembly to order in the Singletary Center. Introduction of the NJCL Executive Board and the NSCL officers was among the items of official business. University of Kentucky personnel were on hand to welcome the attendees and provide a security overview of the campus. Dr. Terry Tunberg, Head of the University of Kentucky Classics Department, even delivered his entire welcome speech in Latin!

Devin Reid, NJCL 1st Vice President, and Mrs. Penny Cipolone, NJCL Public Relations and Membership Chair, presented the membership report and awards. In 2002, NJCL included 52082 members in 1107 chapters, including inaugural chapters in Iowa, South Dakota, Vermont and Alaska. JCL now boasts active chapters in 48 of the United States (only Idaho and Hawaii are lacking) and three Canadian provinces (Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia). Other membership statistics of note:

• Largest number of chapters: Texas with 125
• Largest number of members: Virginia with 6006
• Number of chapters with over 200 members: 9
• Largest chapter: Klein High School, Klein TX, with 330 members!

The remainder of assembly was devoted to orientation tasks, including announcing the spirit contest criteria, covering procedures for academic, graphic, and creative arts contests and finally reinforcing convention rules and regulations.

As delegates exited the assembly, many suffered through the heat to participate in the "Kentucky Fair" activities on Stoll Field. Including a dart toss, dunking booth, mini-golf hole, and other booths delegates could win carnival prizes - including a coveted Scooby Doo inflatable hammer. Of all the activities, the dunking booth and snow-cone machine seemed to attract the most number of delegates - not surprising considering temperatures hovered in the mid-90's.

Those more interested in keeping cool indoors, attended workshop session I, two sessions of which featured NJCL officers Will Weaver and Amanda Marcellino discussing running a JCL campaign and state spirit strategy respectively. Adults and chaperones were kept captive in Singletary Center with several of their own orientation sessions.

The first rounds of competition began after dinner on Tuesday as Latin Oratory took place in the White Hall Classrooms and the first academic contest session - consisting of Hellenic History, Latin Grammar and Greek Derivatives - was offered in the Singletary Center.

A chance for some downtime followed with a dance and an alternative activity: "Bored? Come play board games!" in the Kirwan-Blanding Commons. The latter saw several groups of students in the midst of card games, Clue, Trivial Pursuit and other favorites.

Convention Ear, Tuesday, July 30, 2002 (requires Adobe Acrobat)