Expectations

1. Being present at practice: Mock Trial is a detail-oriented and labor intensive activity. The teams we compete against have 3-4 or more professional attorneys working with their club, and the law in general contains tremendous detail and nuance. We want to make sure attention is not divided between social media, texting and the work our teams need to prepare. Therefore, club members will either leave their phones in the phone caddy in the LAUNCH space during practice or have another form of monitoring so they are not using phones during practice. Members can use their school computers to work on testimony. We will have a scheduled break during which members can relax and use their devices.

2. Attendance: Mock Trial is also a team-oriented activity. If team members regularly miss practice it puts the entire team at a disadvantage. Unless someone is home sick from school or has an emergency (Ex: Death in the family, wedding), they need to be at all practices. Having a party or going out to eat with family is not a valid reason to miss practice. To build off of this point, the season culminates with the regional tournament. If a member can’t compete in the regional tournament, they can’t compete in the program during the regular season since that tournament is what the entire season leads up to.

3. Communication: Team members need to communicate directly with the coaching staff about any absences, well in advance, that will occur. Telling someone to tell Mr. Vogt is not acceptable, and emailing Monday and Thursday mornings/afternoons is not, either. We’ve had far too many last minute absences recently that have left our teams in tough practice spots. Mr. Vogt has 63 last minute emails in a “BCMT Attendance” folder from last season alone. This one area alone is the most significant area that needs to improve. Members who consistently miss at the last minute, or tell another member to communicate absences with Mr. Vogt will simply not be on a team.

4. LAUNCH Space: We are very fortunate to have this space to practice, and it has become a great location for us to use to grow the program. Members need to remain in that area, however, instead of wandering throughout the school. Obviously someone needing to get a drink of water or use the restroom is allowed, but we’ll have one person go at a time so we ensure they leave and come back in a timely manner. This is a big change from the virtual season, since members could obviously roam about as needed, and it was much more fun to be back in person with everyone, but we are far too busy to monitor where everyone is. (Ex: During tennis practice, team members manage to stay at the tennis courts for two hours). There is very little difference in these two expectations.

5. Professionalism: Members need to maintain the level of professionalism they will bring to the courtroom in terms of their language. Non-school appropriate language will not be allowed, just as it would not be allowed in a courtroom.

Conclusion: These rules are not really new, but with the virtual season of COVID and then coming back to the regular season face to face last year, we fell a bit out of practice with the norms since we had many new members and veterans who spent most of their career in the virtual format. We will make a point to schedule phone breaks each practice where club members can take the time to relax, have fun and socialize. We’ll also have team building activities during practice as well as some opportunities outside of that time as well. Lastly, we will schedule in some phone/social media breaks where members can take a break to recharge and enjoy the time with their teammates.