UIL Speech Judges

If you have corrections, questions or comments regarding this information, please notify The UIL Speech and Debate department at speech@uiltexas.org or 512-471-5883.

Jo Beth Meadows (formerly Tonne)

Current high school:
None

Currently coaching?: No

Conference:

Number of years coached: 16

Number of tournaments judged: 1

High school attended:
Reagan Co HS

Graduated high school: 1975

Participated in high school: Yes

Participated in college: No

Judging qualifications:
I am a retired debate coach, with 16 years experience coaching and about 25 years judging. Many of my students from Wall HS and Winters HS went to state UIL. We often placed. I am old fashioned. I believe that debate should still be an exercise in communication and persuasion. Thus, good use of quality evidence with sound reasoning trumps piles of mediocre evidence read at machine gun speed with outlandish reasoning. I am not into "cute" uses of evidence. Quality above quantity. I suppose I am a stocks judge, but I kind of go where the debaters tell me to go if they are convincing enough. However, I would never go so far as to say I'm tabula rasa..

Judging Philosophy

CX

Rounds judged: 2
Judging approach: Stock Issues
Policy priority: Communication skills and resolution of substantive issues are of equal importance
Evidence philosophy: Quality of evidence is more important than quantity of evidence
Paradigm: I believe debate is an exercise in reasoning, research, communication and persuasion. Of course evidence is necessary, but I do not want to hear huge amounts of questionable evidence (that the reader does not even understand) read at machine gun speed with points yelled at me. Explain why your evidence is important. Link it to your arguments, clash with your opponents. Make sure you know and use your stock issues. Dropped arguments are lost arguments.

LD

Rounds judged: 3
Approach: Communication skills and resolution of substantive issues are of equal importance
Philosophy:
This is NOT CX. Do not try to make it CX and solve a problem with a plan or require your opponent to do so. AFF construction and half of Neg construction may be "canned." The rest should be quick thinking, prior prep and organized persuasion. I like core values and lots of clash.

Contact Information

email: Jo.tonne@gmail.com
cell: 469 7718124
office:

Availability Information

Meet types:
Invitational District Regional CX State State Meet

Qualified for:
CX
LD
Extemp
Prose/Poetry

Travel

Region of residence:
8

I will travel to: 2 7 8