Two things for people to do - New Voices at the Capitol AND UIL journalism

New Voices Day at the Capitol

David Doerr, our Legislative and Policy chair and New Voices Texas adviser, needs our help:

It’s time to let your voices be heard at the Texas Capitol in Austin to demand that lawmakers support a New Voices law in Texas! 

We are working on scheduling appointments with lawmakers on Monday, March 13 to allow supporters to speak directly to lawmakers and their staffers, especially those on the Texas Public Education Committee. We have assurances that a lawmaker will announce a New Voices bill this week ahead of the March 10 bill filing deadline. Once the bill is filed, it’s our job to put pressure on lawmakers to pass it.

In particular, lawmakers need to hear from students so they understand that there is demand for this type of legislation in Texas. They don’t often get young people to visit their offices so your talking with them in person will make a lasting impression. 

We realize that timing may be difficult for you to attend with this late notice, but we are hoping that many of you are on Spring Break and will be able to travel to Austin for this important effort. 

Our plan is to meet outside the Capitol at 9 a.m. to train attendees and help everyone learn how to navigate the Capitol complex and where lawmakers’ offices are located. After meeting appointments with various lawmakers, we plan to finish our meetings by 2 p.m. and finish up with a debriefing by 3 p.m.

For now, we need students, teachers, parents and other supporters to sign up on our Google Form so we know how many to expect and to help us set up appointments with the lawmakers that represent you in the Legislature in addition to members of the House Public Education Committee.

We will send out more details later this weekend, but for now you should know that there is a low-cost parking garage for Capitol visitors and that we will meet up at the African American monument near the southern edge of the Capitol complex. See this map to find the meet-up spot.

If you can come, we recommend that you buy a New Voices Texas t-shirt from Bonfire so you can make a visual statement while walking the halls of the Capitol. We will have some expenses to pay for our lobby efforts so please consider making a financial contribution to help us pay our bills. 

Thank you all for your continued support of New Voices Texas. See you at the Capitol!

UIL

District tournament is Friday, March 24 at Johnson High School in Buda

Entries are due this Friday, March 10. We need 

Schedule for Friday, March 24

CONTESTS ARE IN THE FOLLOWING AREAS - you can compete in multiple and we will need 3 people per contest. I will provide some training to you before the end of the week so you are prepared. I need to fill each team. You will be cleared from school from my class on. You can drive yourself, and I will be there throughout the day. I can also provide transportation for those without a car, but you may have to go down early and stay for a bit. I will do my best to get people back and forth so you can be in some classes if you need to be.

Copy Editing - 1:30 pm (30 minute contest)
News Writing - 2:00 pm (1 hour contest)
Feature Writing - 3:00 pm (90 minute contest)
Editorial Writing - 4:30 pm (1 hour contest)
Headline Writing -5:30 pm (30 minute contest)