Scholium: How does vestry decide who speaks in chapel, and how do you find them?
Carly: Basically, we all brainstorm and see who people know, who would be an interesting speaker, and who can relate to the theme and also have a faith-based speech.
Collin: Students and alumni ask us to speak in chapel and a lot of people come to us with someone who they think would be a good chapel speaker.
S: Does their speech have to be faith-based?
Carly: Not necessarily, but the content of the speeches should either be faith-based or otherwise connect with the chapel theme.
Collin: The speakers show us their speech before chapel and we try to have the speeches be faith-based and relate to the theme. If their speech isn’t faith-based and they don’t want to change it after they show it to us, then we usually put them in the auditorium to speak.
S: Is each member of vestry required to bring someone in every year to speak?
Carly: No, each member is expected to either contribute ideas or reach out and actually contact someone to speak.
S: Do you mostly ask speakers that someone on vestry or the faculty know personally?
Carly: Yes, family friends or teachers, or groups at school like SDLC. When they come back from their trip they will speak at Chapel. We also try and tie in what is going on in the community at the time. We do like it the most when students speak because it seems like the community pays attention to those speeches and they seem to get more out of those types of speeches as opposed to someone who isn’t part of the community coming in to speak.
S: How far advanced do you have the chapel speakers planned?
Carly: I would say we usually have chapel planned two months in advance. We’ll meet once or twice in the summer to get organized for the school year. We are usually pretty far ahead, which is good and bad because at the end of the year when seniors want to speak there is usually not enough room, which is unfortunate.
S: Is it first come first serve for speaking dates?
Collin: For seniors it’s first come, first serve, but for people who come to speak outside of the community we work with their schedules.
S: How do you decide where the speeches take place?
Collin: We talk about it as a group, and Reverend Squire asks us all for our feedback.
Carly: It’s a sticky issue because of the past talks that have been in the chapel and then the other ones that have been in the theatre. If the chapel speech is perceived as something that is controversial, and it doesn’t have a faith element, then they might put it in the theatre. And another reason speeches might take place in the theater facilitates discussion and reflection on other parts of the campus.
S: After John Steele’s speech last year, many people were confused about what the protocol is for the location of speeches. How is vestry dealing with this issue?
Collin: When John Steele showed us his speech, we determined that it wasn’t faith-based and decided to have him speak in the theatre.
Carly: We don’t want to be unfair or inconsistent. I know there was also some talk after Brian Simms spoke. People were wondering why he spoke in the chapel. What we want to say is instead of complaining about a speaker or a situation, maybe do something about it. If anyone has ideas for a speaker, they’re so welcome; we would love to hear those ideas. We want to be able to use the criticism in a constructive way to make chapel better.