Caroline Upthegrove (ORU)
In Fall 2019, students in OIL looked forward to seeing the Oklahoma City Skyline on their way to the session, the five-day competition at the Oklahoma Capitol. However, Fall 2019 was the last regular session OIL was going to have in a long time.
COVID-19 disrupted the entire world, and the pandemic hit the United States in mid-March. Since then, colleges have had to meet via zoom and have taken the initiative to wear masks and social distance. OIL decided to cancel the session in April, and the fall 2020 session opened up with every competitor meeting in zoom for joint session.
Zoom, the digital meeting format, opposes various challenges such as unstable connections and potential awkward interactions. The madam governor for OIL, Lacey Hickey, spoke on how one can make the most of the week-long session.
“So as we dive into this week-long session, I have one challenge for each of you to make a new friend,” Hickey remarked.
Friendship will be vital in the new digital format, and apps such as GroupMe and Google Drive will are utilized to push the five-day process. OIL competitors will have to learn to work together in zoom to make the competition a successful one. There are different skills every team member has that they can contribute to a committee. Joshua Harris, a Democratic party chair, talked about good team member dynamics.
“Looking into their toolbox and saying, ‘I’m good at social media, and this is how I can help the writing that is happening,” Harris concluded.
Platforms such as the OIL website and Facebook are the two resources the session will send updates to all the participants. Participants from the same university need to value one another’s skills to succeed individually. For example, if a person has excellent debate skills, the individual can pass on helpful tips to another student competing in moot court.
OIL session on zoom is a temporary situation, and eventually, the competition will proceed to be in-person again. However, until there is a safe option for an in-person session, zoom will be the meeting format. The online session brings direct challenges, but through friendship and utilizing one another’s ingenuity the 52nd session of OIL will be a prosperous one.