Although judging at tournaments is a great way for alumni to give back to the APDA community and see friends on the circuit, we recognize that older graduates eventually stop judging as regularly and lose many of their ties to the circuit.
Still, we believe that APDA is a great source of friends and professional connections, and we have been told by many alums that they are interested in continuing to meet in a non-debate setting. We also recognize that alums often cannot take a lot of time to travel for an alumni get together, and that tournaments are not necessarily an ideal place to socialize.
For these reasons, the Alumni Committee is currently working on two types of events. We will post more details here and on the APDA forums as we work out the logistics.
Local Meet Ups
We are in the process of planning a series of local events in cities where many alums live. After updating our contact database, we are planning to set up happy hours (or similar events) in New York, Boston, and Washington D.C. If you are interested in helping us host these events or would like help publicizing your own meet up, please let us know!
APDA Nationals Reunion
If there is any occasion when alumni return to APDA, it is to judge at Nationals. For this reason, the Alumni Committee is exploring the possibility of hosting an alumni-specific event at Nationals at Wesleyan, which runs from April 20-22, 2012. Since a large number of alumni will be at the tournament already and there is an established venue, it is an ideal place to hold a larger event.