Saturday, September 12, 2009

Contact the SCASD

Use this form to contact the Speech Communication Association of South Dakota. SCASD will get back to you ASAP!

Friday, August 14, 2009

SCASD Convention Sept. 11-12: Reserve Rooms Now!

Our president Dr. Sackreiter offers a friendly reminder that you need to make your room reservations for the SCASD annual convention at the Cedar Shores Resort by August 20th (that's next Thursday)!!!. For rooms call (605)734 - 6376. Be sure to inform them that you are under the SCASD as there are rooms blocked for either singles or doubles at $79.95 per night. The hotel is located off Exit 260 off I-90. We all look forward to seeing you at Cedar Shores in Chamberlain!

Friday, November 14, 2008

Madison May Drop Mundt Debate Tournament

The Karl E. Mundt Debate Tournament is in the news here in Madison:
  • Elisa Sand of the Madison Daily Leader gives extensive coverage to the school's desire to scale back the tournament and hand over hosting duties to Dakota State University. Sand also gives some good history about Senator Mundt and the tournament.
  • I offer my advocacy and invite some public discussion about keeping the tournament in Madison.
Coaches, teachers, how important are tournaments like Mundt to you? How well does extracurricular competition support your classroom speech efforts?

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Convention Ideas?

We are curious what ideas you might have for panels or other activities at next year's convention in Chamberlain. With the most recent convention fresh in your minds the committee would like your input. Are there panels from the past you would like to see brought back? Is there anything you would like to see changed? Please share your thoughts. Also is there anything you would be interested in presenting next year? Share thoughts and ideas...who knows...maybe a panel will come out of this blog.

Kevin Sackreiter
SCASD President
sackreiterk@northern.edu

Monday, September 15, 2008

From the President: Convention Wrap-Up, Update on What's Next

e-mail to SCASD membership, 2008.09.15:

Dear SCASD Members:

I would like to personally thank each of you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to make the 2008 Speech Communication Association of South Dakota Convention such a tremendous success. Many of the presenters commented how strong the participation was at their sessions. On behalf of the committee we would like to thank you for all of your support this year.

We would also like to thank Teresa Fester for her past 2 years of service as President of SCASD. Her leadership in organizing the past two conventions has been exceptional. The committee, especially the new president, are very grateful for the foundation she has laid over the past two years and will do our best to live up to her example in the years to come. Thank you Teresa.

We would also like to congratulate Tara Melmer, SCASD Outstanding Young Speech Teacher of the Year, and Sharon Prendergast, SCASD Distinguished Service Award. These are both truly well deserved and it was a pleasure to hear the wonderful things said in honor of you. Congratulations once again.

We also had the honor to see Leo Kallis, SDFCA Coach of the Year, Paul Harens, SDFCA Assistant Coach of the Year, and Bryan Haag SDFCA Interp Coach of the Year receive the awards they so deserve. Even though a blizzard delayed their receipt it seemed fitting to honor these individuals in front of, as Paul so eloquently said, “family”.

A final congratulations goes out to Linda Haar, NFSD&TA Award recipient. Another truly deserved award for a wonderful member of our community.

As you begin your year we want you to know the committee (Josh Westwick, Cory Heidelberger, Bryan Haag, Bob Jackson, Jen Bergan, Melanie Sittig, and Kevin Sackreiter) is here to make this organization what you need it to be. We want to support you in your activities by allowing the convention to be the professional development opportunity you feel you need to enhance the wonderful things you already do for your students. In that spirit we have created a blog that we would encourage all member of the SCASD Community to join. The site is: http://scasd.blogspot.com/. Please visit this site on a regular basis and engage in discussions, post articles that you feel may benefit your colleagues, and help to make this a valuable tool for our community.

Finally, on a personal note, it is my hope to stay in communication with the membership throughout the year. Look for monthly email updates about what is going on with the blog, the convention, the membership, and the organization. I also would like to see the 2009 convention in Chamberlain grow. We need your help with this. Encourage your colleagues in the communication community to become active in the organization and attend the SCASD Conference. Consider presenting at the 2009 Conference. Think of an idea for the GIFTS (Great Ideas For Teaching Speech, Debate, Theater, Interp, etc.) session to be held in Chamberlain. I would love to see a strong and active membership in 2009 and look forward to working with all of you for the next two years.

Sincerely,
Kevin Sackreiter
SCASD President
sackreiterk@northern.edu
1-605-626-7706

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Welcome to the Speech Communication Association Website!

Welcome to the new official website of the Speech Communication Association of South Dakota. We are the professional organization of speech educators, oral interpretation coaches, forensics coaches, drama directors, and other supporters of speech education in South Dakota. Your comments are welcome!