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Delegates celebrate 50 years of FJCL

by Phil Dillinger
Staff Writer
Guests staying at Orlando's Radisson Twin Towers between April 8 and 11 knew something was different. That something was the Florida Junior Classical League, an organization devoted to introducing middle and high school students to the Latin and Greek Languages and Classical Literature. F JCL celebrated its 50th birthday during this year's State Forum. Quasi cursores vital lampada tradunt (As runners (we) pass on the torch of life) was the theme of this joyous, three day birthday party. The annual State Forum is looked forward to and enjoyed by everyone who is lucky enough to attend. That fact was especially evident this year due to the overall excitement inspired the Golden Anniversary. The convention was extremely successful as well as fun, due to the sweat and blood donated by the officers, sponsors, hotel staff, and, of course, the participants.

Friday was registration. For some it went smoothly, but for other, more erroneous individuals it was a mess. Some delegates went to the wrong Twin Tower (myself included), while others' rooms were mixed up. The mistakes and blubbers just aided in getting everyone acquainted and it was all sorted out just in time for everyone to attend the opening assembly. After the traditional opening spirit rally, the delegates heard next year's officer candidates give their speeches. National Certamen Team and That's Entertainment tryouts were held. That night, a toga party (dance) and a pool party took place. Afterward everyone rushed to make the twelve o'clock curfew for fear of being captured and wrestled to the ground by armed guards Well, it wasn't quite that strenuous, but the first day of the Forum was complete and everyone was required to retire to their rooms by midnight in order to attempt to get some sleep before Saturday's activities began.

Bright and early the next morning, testing began on subjects such as Latin grammar, Latin and Greek derivatives, mythology, and Roman Customs, among many others. Also that morning were the costume and speech contests. As delegates left the testing area they were greeted by the Auris Conventus a daily newsletter composed of messages posted by the delegates and sponsors and published by the state Editor and a few more of the same good people who bring you the Uvae Vitis.

Later Saturday was the Bazaar, the Olympika, competitive Certamen, Singled Out, project judging, and That's Entertainment. The Bazaar is a carnival type event where schools bring booths to try their hand at winning a prize for being the most creative and/or the best-planned booth and make a little money at the same time. The booths included everything for palm reading to Stump the Roman, and home made stationary to the ever popular laurel leaf wreath.

The Olympika was more of a wacky Olympics than the one that took place in ancient times. This portion of the day was filled with sack races and a contest where you rip off your clothes! Well, clothes on top of your real clothes. Other popular events at the Olympika included the toothpick game and a pie-eating contest.

That's Entertainment and the Singled Out game show took place together. That's Entertainment was a talent show, which contained performers, with such nuance, such skill, let me put it this way: they were good. The Latin version of Singled Out is based on the MTV Game show of the same name. This show gave delegates a chance to win dates with two 1999 State officers: Jessica Ruhle, '98-'99 President, and Derrick Knudstrup, '98-'99 Historian. Competitive Certamen, a brain bowl over Latin vocabulary and grammar, mythology, and Roman history and customs, was anticipated by many. Congratulations to the winners, as well as all the contestants who qualified for their hard work.

Sunday Morning was the close of a great year for the FJCL. Now all of Florida's Latin students know why the Golden Anniversary is one of the best! At the closing assembly, the new officers were announced and the wonderful and exciting week came to a close with awards, cake, and State T-Shirts, which bore the Forum's theme in purple and gold. May next year's delegates be as fortunate as we were this year at the 50th Anniversary of F JCL! Remember:
Quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt.

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SANDALWOOD HIGH SCHOOL
14th Annual Certamen Competition
Saturday, December 4, 199, 11AM-4:30PM
JACKSONVILLE
Please amve at the school with your buzzers by. 10:30PM for set up. Directions will be sent to~ planning to attend from outside the Jacksonville area alter schools send in registration. If you are coming from out of town and have Latin II or advanced students who are taking the SAT tests, we will start those rounds around 1pm to accommodate the testing. Please check to Find out where the closest testing site will be. They should plan to spend the night in a nearby motel Friday night.
Them is a $12. registration fee per team which will cover the custodial costs, LUNCH and a copy of the rounds of question. Each team consists of 4 or fewer players. There is no limit to the number of teams a school may' enter. A student may. only play on one team, at the level of Latin he is currently enrolled or at a higher level.
Each team will play three rounds. The three highest scoring teams play a final round If the number of teams warrant, a semi-final round may be played Each round of questions will consist of twenty toss-up questions with two boni per toss-up.
Latin I questions will incl. grammar, vocabulary, and derivatives based on the first three units of the 1990 Jenny First Year Latin (except passive forms) and the first three units of Latin for Americans; cardinal numbers to twenty; ordinal numbers to tenth; phrases,mottoes, and abbreviations; and Roman history., life, and mythology as found in First Year Amasco, Second Year Amsco, Johnston's Roman , Hamilton's Mythology, and Asimov's and Boak's histories. Derivatives will be limited to those found in Schaeffer's Latin-English Derivative Dictionary published by ACL.
Latin II questions will incl. grammar, vocabulary, and derivatives based on the 1990 Jenny lst Year Latin and L~n for Americans 1st Book and culture, mythology, and history, from the Latin 1 sources and Johnston's Private Lives of the Roman, Tripp's Meridian Handbook of Classical Mythology, Cary and Scullard's A History of Rome, and The Oxford Companion m Classical Literature. Phrases, mottoes, and abbreviations will not be limited to a specific source although Amsco. Amo Amas Amat and More, and are recommended for study.
Advanced Latin (any student above Latin II) teams need to be omniscient, introductions to third and fourth ),ear texts should not be over looked.
Please postmark the registration form by Nov. 15 to confirm 5,our registration. If a team needs to be dropped or changed, please call Ms. Nancy Allen at 904-725-3448 no later than 9PM on or before Nov. 27 so that the ladder of play is correct for those teams participating.
Included in your registration fee will be two slices from a large pizza and a soft drink for each team member and sponsor. If you wish to purchase extra pizza and drinks, please make a note of that and we will order more at $2. per sen. We will need to know how many other chaperones will be attending in order to have enough pizza. Each school should have one chaperone for ten students or potion thereof. If you are bringing substitutes in addition to teams, please register them as subs and pay for their lunch as an extra team so that we have enough for them to eat. Please note that on your registration form.
We will to provide overnight accommodations only for those schools which would need to drive more than four hours to get to Jacksonville. This will be on a first request basis. Students would need to bring sleeping bags. We need to know how many adults and the number of each sex as soon as possible for the overnight accommodations. Please call ahead before you send registration to check on availability.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

10:00 -11:00 Set up Certamen boards in rooms.

10:30-10:45 Registration

10:45-11:00 Assembly and Instructions

11:05-12:30 Latin I (Preliminary Rounds)
12:20-1:00 Lunch

1:00-1:30 Latin I Semi-final Rounds
1:30-2:45 Latin Il & Advanced Latin Preliminary Rounds

3:00-4:30 Final Rounds

Nancy Allen, Sandalwood High School JCL Sponsor