meeting minutes are the pinnacle of VJCL goodness, there is one downside to them: they cannot capture the new sparks of JCLove. The virtual dance was a fun mash-up of crashing Zoom audios, multiple group chat links, and playing Discord jams until midnight. These are trying times, there is no denying that. We spent all week competing with our fellow states, but we also spent all week reciprocating the enthusiasm and zeal for the classics shown by fellow JCLers. The bonds created by JCLove were truly strong on night two of convention.
day
three
Hey you! Yeah, you! Have you been submitting to spirit contests? As of today, Virginia was marked fourth place overall in spirit with California leading by seventeen points. Each day of convention featured a new virtual spirit contest for delegates to submit to. In honor of day two’s spirit theme, "Clamate!", our Second Vice President Josh Liberman led us through the "VA Beat" during morning fellowship. If you thought you were going to get though convention without
learning at least one of Virginia's iconic spirit cheers, you thought wrong. On the topic of spirit, it was announced during GA #3 that Virginia won first place for roll call! Major thanks and congratulations to Thomas Donohue, who was featured in the video.
day
four
On the fourth day of NJCL Convention we showed Jack our support and unconditional love by wearing purple and gold ties during fellowship. Speaking of morning fellowship... did you think the cheers were over? Of course not! We are Virginia, after all. During morning fellowship, our beloved former Second Vice President and current President Savvy Thompson lead us through the cheer "Virginia's Got That Flair". (Thanks for the warning guys. It was too early for that...)
Just like in-person convention, That’s Entertainment! was the focal point of the evening. Honorable mentions include the Modern Muse herself, Lucy Dasher strumming her ukelele, as well as our Parliamentarian Ethan Robertson surprising us all with a piano rickroll and Caroline Stephens for her amazing act as well . Funny story, for two straight weeks after That;s Entertainment!, Ethan would not stop rickrolling the rest of the VJCL Board. Thankfully it wasn't just the officers that were rickrolled by our Parliamentarian on that day. Additonally, if you didn't catch it the first time (or just want to watch That’s Entertainment! again), the NJCL also posted the livestream on their YouTube channel.
day
five
On the fifth day morning fellowship continued as usual. Today was a break day for our certamen teams. While our intermediate and novice teams did not progress to finals, we are ridiculously proud of them nonetheless. Thank you to all our coaches- Matt Nelson, Will Sigmund, Simon Van Der Weide, Ms. Lewis, James Wilusz, Mr. Kim, and Tashi Treadway- who worked nonstop for weeks to prepare our teams. We're so grateful for all you did for our teams!
Before moving on from talking about certamen, I should mention that our advanced certamen team made it to finals! We wished them all good luck and congratulations during fellowship. Luckily our team brought home nothing but W’s and placed second overall!
day
six
Unfortunately, Nationals has to come to an end eventually. So I may have left out some crucial information up until now- there were also two weeklong service projects taking place during 2020 NJCL Convention. These service projects were to write or call a local representative with issues you are concerned about and drawing coloring pages featuring classical themes for children’s shelters and the waiting rooms of doctors’ offices. It would truly be a shame if
one person was to stay up all night writing letters and drawing cartoons for spirit points in order to catapult Virginia into the first place spot in the Spirit Contest (we are all so grateful for your contributions!). Over the course of one night, our state pulled together enough Spirit and Service points to win first place overall in Spirit AND surpass California’s seventeen point lead! Thank you to everyone who contributed. It may not have been the same prop making and cheer screaming that we are used to, but it was definitely something! The last GA of the week ended Nationals. Always remember, much like the classics, our cherished memories will live on forever.
Sending JCLove from six or more feet apart, here’s your Secretary signing off.
Written by VJCL Secretary Nikki Tosh
9