Elections

Candidate Statements

President:

Cecilia Granda-Scott

Hi! For those who don’t know me, my name is Cecilia (Ceci) Granda-Scott. I’m originally from Miami but am now a Political Science major at Amherst College. I’ve served for 2 years as the President of the Amherst College team and have spent the past year serving the league as a Member-at-Large and as the board liaison to the Gender and Sexuality Empowerment Initiative, in addition to working on the unofficial APDA History initiative. I’m running for President because I truly love this activity and want to make it an amazing space for everyone who participates. 

What would I want to see next year?

• Last year, we implemented a progressive dues system. I wholeheartedly believe in this dues methodology, and want to use our Board money more aggressively next year in order to fund more events for the GSEI and DI committees at tournaments, and cover registration costs for expansion schools in order to facilitate increased participation. 
  • Now that there is an official Webmaster position and a Tech Committee, I’d also like to fund any necessary updates for running our websites smoother. 
• I want to organize panels at tournaments – especially at novice tournaments, URMs, and unopposed – from prominent APDA competitors and dinos. I think there is a wealth of knowledge and discourse, often untapped or gatekept, that many individuals in the league are missing out on. At novice tournaments, this can look like introducing novices to league resources and answering any questions about APDA that varsity from less established teams might not know. At URMs, I would love to facilitate discussions about unequal rates of participation/success, cultural issues felt in the league, and possible solutions. 
• Continue working on the History initiative in order to write a full timeline of what APDA was like, from 1981 all the way to 2025. I believe that connecting APDA to our history gives us an institutional memory that in addition to being quite interesting, has positive externalities like 1) spurning interest from expansion schools that can get a sense of APDA’s historical prominence and notable alumni and 2) retaining dinos who feel part of a broader community that doesn’t end when they graduate, making people more likely to come back to judge. This is not just about reaching out to significantly ‘older’ debaters, but also looks like updating Alex Johnson’s Dino database to serve as a network for schools, especially when hosting tournaments. 

I’m not just focused on concrete goals, but promoting a welcoming and friendly environment in the league. I think that this is one of the most important unofficial roles of the President since they serve as such a prominent ‘face’ of APDA, and I’m excited to meet the new faces on the circuit and continue the traditions that make us fun, like co-writing the Brown Novice Musical or running Northern APDA Feud 2026!

If you have any questions about my candidacy, please reach out to me on Facebook Messenger, email me at cgrandascott26@amherst.edu, or come up to me in person at the BU, Wellesley, or Princeton tournaments!

VP Operations:

None

VP Finance:

Raina Batra (Amherst)

Hi everyone! My name is Raina, and I am a sophomore at Amherst College studying Political Science and Co-President of the Amherst Debate Society. I am also an active member of EOF as well as a member of the APDA History Project.

In my capacity as Co-President, I have been responsible for handling our team’s budget in the wake of budget cuts and was successfully able to keep the team afloat while still sending teams to worlds and other major tournaments.

If elected to this position, there are a few things I would immediately want to do.

The first is regaining access to the APDA bank account so that board can spend money the way it sees fit. Last year’s progressive dues amendment has opened up the capacity for board to do so much more with our money, but this is not possible without access to the bank account. My first priority would be to work with the bank to get access to this account.

I also want to restructure some of the ways APDA handles finances to prevent a loss of crucial financial information from happening again. When the VP Finance changes almost every year and has all the information, it is very easy for things to get lost in the transition. I would push to have the trustees, who serve two-year terms, as co-account holders on the bank account and financial information so that there is more continuity in the transfer of credentials.

Additionally, I want to start fundraising from our APDA alumni. After doing extensive dino outreach for both the Amherst team and the APDA history project, I think this is a very viable way to gain access to more funds to fund the work our committees do. These additional funds could go towards things like subsidizing travel and reg for schools, absorbing nu-tab costs for host schools, and funding dino judges. Having worked with large, international nonprofits such as the UN Foundation on fundraising, I know that even small fundraising initiatives (such as a Facebook donation link on Giving Tuesday) can be incredibly successful and have very little downside.

Lastly, I want to increase financial transparency. I want the body to be able to understand how we are spending our money and why. I plan to actively solicit input on what the body feels money should be put towards.

This is not an exhaustive list at all, and I welcome any feedback or questions. I can be reached via Facebook messenger or by email at rainabatra@gmail.com. Thank you for your consideration!

Member-at-Large:

Yuki Nakano (GW)

Hello everyone! My name is Yuki and I’m currently a sophomore at GW and the VP Finance of GWPDS! 

I’m quite passionate about debate, and have probably spent too many of my college hours thinking through rounds, case ideas, and the way we engage with apda. My unique contribution that I would like to make by being on board would be to grow the south. Through my 2 years on APDA, I’ve noticed that Southern tournaments tend to be small and quite dense – often hitting the same debaters in the bubble every tournament and having to go through a TOTY running team or 2 to try to get points. A few ways I think we can work to repair this–first, is a focused effort on novice retention at southern schools–I think we need to look into why less debaters are retained in the south from the most proximate people–novices, and find out what keeps people retained and what unretains them. Second, a focus on expansion specifically in the south, bringing more schools to tournaments, I think most expansion efforts are focused in the north, where tournaments are already often large. Expansion as a whole is good for the league, but specifically for the tiny southern tournaments, they become more accessible, offer more points and qual more people–especially novices, which is good for growth and development (and in turn, retention). Finally, a redistribution of board resources towards southern schools and tournaments can help grow southern tournaments. 

I know this sounds hyperspecific to the south–however, I think retaining more novices and expansion schools on the league benefits everyone! 

Robbie Safran (Georgetown)

Hello, everyone! I’m Robbie Safran, sophomore at Georgetown. Many people within APDA South probably already know me on some level. However, for those to whom I am less familiar, I hope this post can serve as a window into why I would be a great candidate for Member at Large on APDA Board. In terms of APDA experience, I have debated or judged almost every weekend since I arrived at college, and I have served on the board of the Georgetown Parliamentary Debate Team since the spring of my freshman year. I began as the VP of External Affairs before switching to the role of treasurer at the beginning of my sophomore year. As treasurer of the Georgetown team, I have been successful in paying down sizable outstanding debts at the start of this year, managing the budgeting and food operations for Georgetown’s two tournaments, and coordinating regular registration payments. In addition, toward the beginning of this year, I joined EOF and have been grateful for the opportunity to serve as an equity officer at several tournaments this year. 

I love APDA and the community it brings, and I get a lot of value from spending time with you all every weekend. I truly believe APDA is a special group of incredibly interesting and intelligent people with many valuable ideas and perspectives, and I am grateful to be a part of it. If elected to the position of MAL, I would be able to focus a sizable amount of my time and energy for APDA into the role, which primarily involves outreach and forming connections between schools. Being a MAL requires good communication skills, which I already regularly employ in my role as treasurer of the Georgetown team. One of my primary goals in this sense is to try to incorporate more schools into our league, especially in places like APDA South and more generally among schools with heightened financial and administrative barriers to participation.

I have already demonstrated that I am happy to incorporate feedback from the community at large about how to make APDA a better community. For example, after several people (correctly) pointed out on the forum that teams should try to comply with BDS in their food orders for their tournaments, I (along with the rest of GU board) ensured that Georgetown’s spring tournament offered BDS-safe food. The APDA board should not be an insular institution, and I look forward to incorporating many of the thoughts and ideas that originate from the general body into regular administrative duties. 

Above all, thank you all for your time and consideration, and best of luck to all candidates!

Alex Elstrodt (UVA)

Hello everyone, my name is Alex Elstrodt and I am currently a second year at the University of Virginia and a current member of EOF. I am a Government major with a minor in Social Entrepreneurship. I have been grateful to serve APDA throughout my two years on the league and especially have adored spending my time with some amazing people, whether it is through competing, judging, and/or being an Equity Officer at a tournament, I love the atmosphere that APDA brings and would be honored to be able to give back to the league. 

One primary issue that I care about is growing the league. I have been very grateful seeing the league grow a ton this year in comparison to last year especially, however especially within the South, there is much work to do. I believe this work lies within a lot of individual teams, but the most important thing we can do as board is to work on Expansion and to ensure that more schools are coming to the league and the schools that we have gotten on the league, we need to do better at keeping them on the league. This can exist through many ways, including reg breaks, better outreach as board members, and something I want to draft up is creating a special Expansion Tournament, that way we can host expansion schools, acknowledge the high barriers of entry that exist as the league is right now, and bring more schools on the COTY board. Furthermore, it provides a vehicle to lessen the barriers of entry, as new teams are not having to have their Round 1s being against a TOTY team then being in the down 2 before they can even blink. I think this would do a lot to build up the atmosphere of APDA and promote retention in the same way that Novice Tournaments and Pro-Ams have done historically. 

Another issue that I think is prevalent is the shortage of people on committees. I have seen this on EOF and this was a large reason as to why I ran in the first place. However, I think we as a board need to do outreach and promote all of our committees more and use them as a vehicle to better out league. Everything runs smoother when our committees do. As a MAL I would be active in promoting our committees, reaching out to schools to gauge interest in getting members to join a committee, and promoting more activities through these committees to help APDA run smoothly. 

I want to thank everyone for their consideration and would be honored to have your vote. I am fully focused on being transparent and communicative with everyone, so if you have any questions about my platform or anything else, please reach out to me on Facebook Messenger or post on the forum generally and I will answer everything.