Official Minutes of the

National Debate Tournament Committee Meeting

November 3, 1999

PDR 4, Hilton Hotel and Towers, Chicago, Illinois

Committee Chair John Fritch called the meeting to order at 12:05 p.m., with Frank Harrison serving as Secretary and David Hingstman as Parliamentarian.

Members present in person or by proxy were: Shawn Whalen (District I); Kelly McDonald, proxy for Glenn Frappier (District II); Joel Rollins (District III); David Hingstman, proxy for Heather Aldridge (District IV); Steve Mancuso (District V); Mike Janus (District VI); Mike Berry (District VII); Tim Mahoney (District VIII); Ken Strange (AFA East); Ross Smith (AFA South); Kelly McDonald, proxy for Greg Achten (AFA West), and Donn Parson (Tournament Director).

Also present were the 2000 Tournament Host, Linda Collier (University of Missouri, Kansas City); two members of the NDT Board of Trustees: Bill Balthrop (Treasurer), Brett O'Donnell, and AFA President Jim Klumpp.

MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING

It was MOVED by Berry, second by McDonald, that the Minutes be approved as distributed. CARRIED unanimously.

REPORT OF THE TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR

Parson suggested the following dates for At-Large bids and District procedures:

FIRST ROUND AT LARGE

Committee calls to Director: February 12-13, 2000

Director announces: February 14, 2000

DISTRICT PROCEDURES

Declaration of intent to attend District: February 15, 2000

Announcement of District bids: February 16, 2000

SECOND ROUND AT LARGE

Must be received by Committee members: March 2, 2000 (5 p.m., CST)

Committee calls to Director: March 4-5, 2000

Director announces: March 6, 2000

MOVED by Mancuso, second by Smith, to approve the schedule. CARRIED unanimously.

Parson reported that it may be possible to utilize up to six categories in the Mutual Judge Preference system at this year's tournament. Rich Edwards is working on various possibilities. Whatever system is adopted will be employed in both preliminary and elimination rounds.

The Director's written report is attached to these minutes.

REPORT OF THE TOURNAMENT HOST

Collier reported that the principal tournament hotel will be the Marriott Crown Plaza, 4550 Main Street in Kansas City. The rate will be $86. for up to four persons per room. All rooms will be "double doubles" or "kings" with a foldout couch. 200 rooms have been reserved in the NDT block, and that number may be expanded to 250.

There are two alternate hotels. The Wyndham Gardens, across the street from the Crown Plaza, will have a rate of $82. per room with 100 rooms in the reserved block. The Seville Plaza, 42nd and Main Street, will have a rate of under $70. per room, also with 100 rooms reserved.

Computer labs on the UMKC campus will be available to participants at no charge. A Host web site, which is expected be up by February, will provide additional information on this subject.

Efforts are continuing to secure a prominent banquet speaker.

There will be four parking lots across the street from the competition buildings and the

University Center, where the "tab" room will be located and tournament announcements will be made.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Balthrop reported that the Board had scrutinized the "direct" cost per team, which is complicated by the need to provide meals on the UMKC campus. There will be two banquets, on Thursday and Sunday evenings. The Host will cover the cost of one; the per person cost of the other may be as high as $30. Breakfast cost will be $5. per person for four days; lunch will be $10. per person for three days. The total per person cost is, therefore, $80, which times 3.5 (two debaters, one and one half judges) comes to $280. When trophies and administrative costs are included, the direct per team cost rises to $485. Some of this cost can be defrayed by the Ford Foundation contribution and may be further reduced by UMKC's fundraising efforts. Since the extent of that fundraising cannot be determined at present, the Board recommended that registration fees for this year's NDT be authorized "not to exceed $375." In addition, individual food function tickets can be purchased for $125. MOVED by McDonald, second by Mancuso, to approve the fees as recommended. CARRIED unanimously.

REPORT OF THE CHAIR

Fritch reported that the Board of Trustees would report by email on hosting arrangements for 2001.

The Chair thanked the following individuals for agreeing to serve on ad hoc committees:

Compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act: David Hingstman, Dallas Perkins and David Berube.

Alumni Data: Ed Panetta, Steve Mancuso and Rich Pineda

He also reported that there has been some confusion over the status of those schools who do not pay their NDT membership dues until the tournament. The dues, which are then added to the registration fee, are for the current year, not for the ensuing year.

Fritch further reported that he had spoken with Jim Klump regarding the Committee's resolution to "seek an amendment to the AFA Code of Ethics to establish December 25 as the date for separating between the spring and fall semesters." Klump advised him that the request must be referred to the Educational Practices Committee, and urged him to defer consideration of the issue until next year, when that committee will conduct a full review of the entire Code. Further, Klump told him that since the Educational Practices Committee had met that morning, and not considered the issue, there may be no alternative to be deferring it until to next year.

He appointed the following committees of the Board:

Bid Allocation: Mancuso, Chair, Aldridge and Achten

Judge Philosophy Booklet: Berry, Chair, Cate Palceweski and Achten

Tournament Advisory: Strange, Chair, Frappier and Janus

Appeals: Smith, Chair, Rollins and Whalen

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Berry reported that he hoped to publish the philosophy booklet on the worldwide web in "downloadable" form. It can be located at "www.King's.edu/debate.html" or on the NDT homepage. There will also be a hardcopy available for distribution at the tournament.

Mancuso volunteered to investigate the complaints of excessive "scouting" at last year's NDT and to draft a normative code in response to the problem. Strange offered to assist in the effort. He stated that details of the bid allocation process would be reported at the Northwestern meeting.

OLD BUSINESS

None.

NEW BUSINESS

Approved Joint Programs

It was MOVED by Strange, second by Smith, that the following be added to the Standing Rules as II.A.1.h:

Teams comprised of debaters from different schools may be permitted to participate in the NDT if they represent an Approved Joint Program. An Approved Joint Program is one receiving such recognition at any of the three NDT Committee meetings preceding the NDT in which they wish to participate (these would currently be the prior year's NDT, the NCA, or the Northwestern Committee meetings). The Joint Program's District representative at the Committee meeting must submit them to the Committee for approval, and approval will require a majority vote of the Committee. Approval must occur for each NDT in which the Joint Program wishes to participate. The Committee should use the following standards in approval of the Joint Program:

1. A Joint Program will consist of one "host" school and one "guest" school which operate as a single program throughout the academic year.

2. A Joint Program may not have operated as such for more than a five year period. They may submit for NDT participation during any or all of those five years.

3. A Joint Program should provide evidence that their operation will lead to independent programs at both schools.

4. The guest school may NOT:

A. be more than 50 miles distance from the host school.

B. be in a different NDT district from the host school.

C. have had a paid staff or faculty supervisor of debating for the five years prior to the beginning of the joint program.

D. have had participants in any policy debate tournaments for the five years prior to the beginning of the joint program.

E. have median SAT/ACT admissions scores more than 10% below those of the host school.

After extensive debate and the acceptance of several friendly amendments, the proposed amendment was revised to read as follows:

Teams comprised of debaters from different schools may be permitted to participate in the NDT if they represent an Approved Joint Program. An Approved Joint Program is one receiving such recognition at any of the three NDT Committee meetings preceding the NDT in which they wish to participate (these would currently be the prior year's NDT, the NCA, or the Northwestern Committee meetings). The Joint Program's District representative at the Committee meeting must submit them to the Committee for approval, and approval will require a majority vote of the Committee. Approval must occur for each NDT in which the Joint Program wishes to participate. The Committee should use the following standards in approval of the Joint Program:

1. A Joint Program will consist of one "host" school and one "guest" school which operate as a single program throughout the academic year; it does not include hybrid teams from two independent subscribing schools. The host school must be a subscribing school in accordance with Article II of the NDT Charter.

2. A Joint Program may not have operated as such for more than a six year period. Teams with members from the guest school may submit for NDT participation during any or all of those six years, but may participate in no more than two NDTs.

3. A Joint Program should provide evidence that their operation will lead to independent programs, and possible attendance at the NDT, at both schools.

4. The guest school may NOT:

A. be more than 100 miles distance from the host school.

B. be in a different NDT district from the host school.

C. have had a paid staff or faculty supervisor of debating for the five years prior to the beginning of the joint program.

D. have had participants representing exclusively the school in any policy debate tournaments for the five years prior to the beginning of the joint program.

5. A host school may not operate as an Approved Joint Program with more than one guest school at a time.

A proposed AMENDMENT by Berry, second by Mancuso, to change "majority vote of the Committee" to "2/3 vote of the Committee" FAILED by voice vote.

The motion then CARRIED on a roll call vote of 6 to 5. Voting in the affirmative: Whalen, Rollins, Janus, Mahoney, Strange and Smith. Voting in the negative: Frappier by proxy, Hingstman, Mancuso, Berry and Achten by proxy.

NEW BUSINESS was suspended, by unanimous consent, to take up the following business.

REPORT OF THE RANKING DIRECTOR

O'Donnell reported that the first written report would be published on November 15th. Updated reports are always available on the worldwide web at "www.Lib.edu/debate" or on the NDT homepage.

REPORT OF THE CHAIR, continued.

AFA President Klumpp entered the meeting and advised the Committee that he had charged the AFA's Educational Practices Committee to conduct a full review of the standards for competitor eligibility and report back at the 2001 Convention. He would prefer that the NDT Committee's request for a change in the definition of "time blocks" be deferred until that time. However, if the NDT Committee wishes to proceed now, he will consult the Chair of the Educational Practices Committee as to how that might be accomplished.

It was MOVED by Whalen, second by Rollins, to ask the AFA to consider the issue today. CARRIED unanimously, with Hingstman abstaining.

The Committee then returned to NEW BUSINESS

Participant Eligibility

It was MOVED by Mancuso, second by Whalen, that Standing Rule II A 1 g be amended to read as follows:

g. To be eligible debater for the National Debate Tournament, a student must provide, by February 8th to the NDT committee chair, an official document from appropriate university officials verifying that he/she is registered as an undergraduate student and is in good standing at the school, for which he/she is participating, as of February 1st immediately preceding the NDT in which he/she wishes to participate. The Chair of the NDT Committee shall promptly notify the applying program director of any application which does not meet the above criteria. The program director may then appeal the eligibility of the debaters by contacting, and submitting all relevant documentation to, the NDT Committee Chair not later than one week from the date of notification. The appeal will then be forwarded to the Appeals Committee. The Appeals Committee may conduct the appeal by means of telephone calls, email or conference calls. The Appeals Committee may grant an exemption when the student's school provides written documentation explaining why a student may be officially enrolled but may not be in good standing, for example, if the university/college defines "in good standing" by criteria other than satisfactory academic performance.

The motion CARRIED unanimously.

It was then MOVED by Hingstman, second by Berry, that:

The NDT Committee would like to express its sincere appreciation to George Ziegelmueller for his leadership and service as the Director of Forensics at Wayne State University. The Committee wants also to recognize George Ziegemueller, Sue Nine, Deen Grew, Wayne State debaters, staff, administrators and alumni for their support in hosting the 1999 NDT, one of the NDT's most enjoyable and successful national championship tournaments.

The motion CARRIED unanimously.

Smith asked the Committee to address the "grandfathering" of the 10 semester rule. After brief discussion, it was MOVED by Smith, second by Hingstman, that the sense of the Committee is that competition in CEDA tournaments prior to the Fall, 1996, semester should not be counted in computing the ten semesters. CARRIED unanimously.

ADJOURNMENT

The Committee adjourned, by unanimous consent, at 4:03 p.m.


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