Minutes of the February 1995 National Debate Tournament Committee

Note: The following minutes at times refer to attachments which are unavailable in electronic form

The meeting was held at the Wake Forest University Debate Tournament in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Committee chair Frank Harrison called the meeting to order at 8:20 am. Brett O'Donnell serving as secretary. Arnie Madsen serving as Parliamentarian.

Present: Leeper (proxy for Backus) for Diestrict Three, Palczewski for District Four, Hinck for District Five, Patterson for District Six, O'Donnell for District Seven, Pickering for District Nine, Katsulas as AFA Eastern Representative, Panetta as AFA Southern Representative, Hingstman as AFA Central Representative, Parson as Tournament Director, and Harrison as Chair.

Minutes

The minutes from the NDT Committee meeting at the Speech Communication Association Meeting at New Orleans, LA were approved without objection.

Report of the Chair (Harrison)

The Chair corrected his announcement about submission of district constitution. It was clarified that district six, not district eight, needed to supply a copy of their district constitution.

The district six representative, Patterson, informed the Chair that a constitution was in process and would be forwarded tot the Chair upon its completion.

The Chair called the committee's attention to the memo from Jim Pratt, Executive Secretary of the AFA, concerning meeting times for the SCA convention in San Antonio, Texas. The committee agreed that the NDT Committee meeting will again be schedule for the Friday before the convention begins (Friday, November 17, 1995). See the attached copy of the memo.

The Chair distributed a current subscription list of the NSDT. An appeal was made to urge schools to pay their subscription fees.

The Chair noted that Chester Gibson had proposed that an award be established for the coach of the winning team at the National Debate Tournament (see attached letter). The Chair noted that this issue must be considered by the NDT Board of Trustees. The committee informally approved of the award.

The issue of the NDT and CEDA moving toward more common ground was briefly discussed. The Chair announced that a school without a NDT debate program in St. Louis might be interested in hosting the NDT and that former NDT programs in district two might be interested in returning to the NDT.

Report of the 1996 tournament host (Louden)

It was reported that the funds to host the 1996 National Debate Tournament have been secured by Wake Forest University.

Report of the 1995 Tournament Host (Daniel)

It was reported that there may be a problem with the phone connections for the Lexis/Nexis service. It was explained that lines must be connected to establish a local contact for the service and these connections were expensive. The host is attempting to have these lines donated by the local telephone company. However, there may be a charge to programs for the use of a telephone connection at the tournament. It was reported that all other plans for the tournament were proceeding smoothly.

Report of the tournament director (Parson)

The Tournament Director clarified the dates and times for the first round ranking and announcement procedure. Addresses and phone numbers of committee members were also verified for mailing bid applications.

The need for hired judging was discussed. Requests for hired judging will be routed through the district chairs.

It was announced that judge philosophy forms and district qualifying packets will be mailed to the district tournament locations as soon as the number of district bids was determined.

It was determined that all districts except district eight were having district qualifying tournaments.

The Tournament Director announced that the computer program has been modified to drop diestrict affiliations for scheduling elimination round judging. The program has also been modified to mark teams that have been pulled up or down and not to mark those teams again until all teams within that particular bracket have been marked once.

The director announced that an uneven tournament should not be a problem as west Georgia college has agreed to provide a swing team should one become necessary.

The director urged the committee to discuss that issue of awarding double wins or losses at the national l debate tournament. The director clarified that there much be a decision (one winner and one loser) in each debate at the national tournament.

The director presented a proposal from Dallas Perkins (absent at the time of its consideration) suggesting that a statement be signed by judges judging that the national debate tournament agreeing to abide by the tournament rules. A lengthy discussion of this issue followed the perkiness proposal. Pickering reported the effects of the double win/loss at the GSL Debate tournament. Some committee members advocated both a preventative and punitive system to warn judges against such behavior an to inform them the penalty of such action. A discussion occurred over whether or not the judge or the teams from the school that the judge represented should be disqualified from the national debate tournament. One idea discussed was that the judge should be removed from the tournament, the judge's school be charged for the hiring of judging to cover the remaining judging obligations, and the director be allowed to facilitate the normal functioning of the tournament by any means necessary. Other committee members suggested that teams from a judge's school who violates this rule not be punished.

The chair added that any statement should also include that format of each debate.

Parson suggested that a statement be issued to all judges participating in the National Debate Tournament as a solution until a permanent rule change can take effect at the 1996 National Debate Tournament.

Hinck moved the following (Pickering second):

"The NDT Committee has instructed me (The Tournament Director) to inform you of my determination that nay ballot which does not specify one and only one winner and one and only one loser will not be recognized as a "decision" within the standing rules of the NDT."

"The NDT Committee has determined that judges who do not intend to ward a win and a loss in each round to which they are assigned are not intending to fulfill the responsibilities of judging, and that forcing the tab room to substitute a coin flip for the decision of a judge is undesirable if it is avoidable."

The motion passed unanimously. Parson announced that this statement will be distributed to the districts prior to their district tournament to inform those teams and their judges that qualify to the NDT.

Topic Selection Committee (Hingstman)

It was announced that an election to fill the student representative position on the topic selection committee created by the NDT Committee at the New Orleans SCA meeting would be held during rounds seven and eight of the Wake Forest Tournament.

The results of the Northwestern topic meeting survey indicated that the foreign policy topics were favored over the other alternatives.

The issue of the number of topics to e placed on the topic ballot was discussed.

Katsulas moved that if topics were all of the same category, only three topics should appear on the ballot. (Panetta second). The motion passed unanimously.

New Business

Pickering moved the following:

"That the National Debate Tournament be held as an open tournament for a two-year time period, beginning in 1996 (at the host's option) or no later than 1997."

The motion died due to lack of a second.

Leeper introduced the following motion to amend Standing Rule IV D 1 to read:

"Judges decisions, which must be on the prescribed ballot form and must specify either the affirmative or the negative as the sole winner of the debate, must be turned in to the Director by 2 hours and 45 minutes after the official starting time for each preliminary round of debate."

Amend Standing Rule IV E by inserting the following new section 1 mad renumbering existing sections accordingly:

"Each judge in an elimination round shall render a decision on the prescribed ballot form which shall specify either the affirmative or the negative as the sole winner of the debate."

Katsulas second.

Madsen through Palczewski introduced a similar motion to amend Standing Rule III H (see attached motion) and to amend Standing Rule VII B to allow a double loss to be issued if both teams have violated the evidence integrity rule according to procedures outlined in Standing Rule VII B.

A discussion occurred as to which rules should be amended. The Committee decided unanimously to vote on amending the rules at both places in the Standing Rules because of the seriousness of the issue.

Katsulas offered an amendment to Madsen's motion that "All judges refusing to adhere to Standing Rule III H will be disqualified from judging at the tournament and the teams from that judge's school will be disqualified."

Patterson moved to amend "will" in the Katsulas amendment to "may." (Hinck second). this amendment failed on voice vote.

The Katsulas amendment passed unanimously.

The main motion (Leeper and Madsen) passed unanimously. The Chair announced that since the motion passed by more than two-thirds majority, no second note was required and the motion will take effect at the 1996 National Debate Tournament.

The Chair directed the Parliamentarian to revise the Standing Rules according to these two motions.

Panetta announced that copies of the AFA Tournament Standards will be distributed at the 1995 National Debate Tournament.

Patterson moved the following change in Standing Rule II C 2 c (4):

"Participation in the district process shall be a prerequisite for receipt of a Second Round At-Large selection."

The motion is to strike out the phrase "unless the District permits only one or two teams from a school to enter." This motion would require all teams intending to qualify for the NDT (except those given first round at-large bids) to be a part of their district's qualification process.

A discussion of this motion followed. It was argued that this motion would prevent teams from sending their weaker third team to the district tournament and holding out their stronger second team for a second round bid. It was also argued that many districts have rules prohibiting third teams from attending their tournaments and this rule would in effect dictate policy to the individual districts, an action that had been determined earlier as undesirable for the NDT Committee.

Leeper moved that the motion be tabled until the NDT Committee meeting at the NDT to provide districts the opportunity to discuss the motion. Hinck second. The motion to table passed unanimously and will appear as Old Business at the next NDT Committee meeting.

Patterson raised the issue of handicapped access at the National Debate Tournament.

Panetta moved that the bid selection cite have a sufficient number of handicapped accessible rooms and facilities and that all tournament activities be held in handicapped accessible facilities.

The motion passed unanimously.

Katsulas inquired about the NDT archivist. Parson clarified that the archivist was at the University of Massachusetts and was receiving materials regularly. Madsen suggested that short form ballots were unnecessary due to the computer tabulation sheet.

Pickering raised the issue of an NDT and CEDA merger. A brief discussion followed. One suggestion made by Allan Louden was that CEDA move under the AFA so that both organizations could better cooperate. Louden asked for volunteers for an SCA panel discussion on the topic. Harrison and Pickering volunteered to participate on the panel. Panetta suggested that the interests of the American Debate Association also be discussed on the panel.

The Chair announced that the next meeting will occur on the Thursday before the National Debate Tournament at the tournament location.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:30 am.