Minutes from the November 22, 1996
National Debate Tournament Committee Meeting


NOTE: The following minutes at times refer to various attachments. Those attachments are not available in the electronic version of the minutes.




The meeting was held at the Speech Communication Association Convention in San Diego, California

Arnie Madsen, Committee Chair, called the meeting to order at 12:15 p.m. Tom Jewell serving as Secretary. David Hingstman serving as Parliamentarian.

Committee Members Present: Miller for District One, Fritch for District Three, Hingstman for District Four, Brossman for District Five, Smith for District Six, O'Donnell (proxy for Decker) for District Seven and as Tournament Host, Strange for District Eight, Bjork for District Nine, Frank as AFA Eastern Representative, Warner as AFA Southern Representative, Madsen as AFA Midwestern Representative, Jewell as AFA Western Representative, Parson as Tournament Director.

David Cheshier present as Ranking Director. John Gossett present as Board of Trustees Member

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The minutes from the March 28, 1996 NDT Committee meeting in Winston Salem were approved without objection (Smith motion, Bjork second). The minutes from the September 21, 1996 meeting of the NDT Committee at Cedar Falls were acknowledged by the Chair but no action was taken because the meeting was not official.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE CHAIR (Madsen)

The Chair reminded the Committee of the members of each subcommittee (Appeals, Tournament Procedures Advisory, Bid Allocation, and Judging Philosophy) and invited Committee members to request changes in subcommittee assignments if desired (see Attachment #1).

The Chair clarified the status of District II by explaining that NDT subscribers from that District (currently Lewis & Clark, Pacific Lutheran, Western Washington, and Whitman) are free to establish their qualification procedures within the guidelines of the NDT Constitution and Standing Rules. The Chair also provided the Committee with a copy of the letter sent to all known potential District II debate programs (see Attachment #2).

The Chair provided the Committee with a list of current subscribers to the NDT as of October 7, 1996 (Attachment #3). The Chair also stated that he will recommend that all future subscriptions be handled by Jim Pratt, Secretary of the AFA, rather than the dual system which has Pratt and the NDT Board of Trustees both receiving subscriptions.

The Chair informed the Committee that he had been in touch with UC Berkeley officials regarding alleged eligibility issues and that he was satisfied that Berkeley officials were dealing with any problems in an acceptable manner. The Chair recommended that the Committee take no further action regarding the issue at this time.

The Chair informed the Committee that all available minutes from past NDT Committee meetings had been accumulated, and that minutes from 1983-1985 and some from the late 1980s were missing and are not likely to be found.

The Chair informed the Committee that some old tapes of NDT final rounds are available and will be placed in the NDT archives at the University of Massachusetts.

The Chair distributed lead pages of the NDT Home Page and invited any comments from Committee members.

REPORT OF THE 1997 TOURNAMENT HOST (O'Donnell)

Brett O'Donnell, 1997 Tournament Host, provided Committee members with a Host Information Sheet that was mailed to NDT, CEDA, and other schools for which he had addresses (Attachment #4). O'Donnell emphasized the special airline discounts available from U.S. Air, and that U.S. Air is helping to sponsor the NDT Tournament based on the number of tickets purchased through their Gold File number 45210083. He also mentioned the special van rental rates available from Advantage Vans, the NDT Golf Tournament on Wednesday, March 19, and that schools who contact him may reserve rooms for pre-tournament preparation on the campus of Liberty University as long as they last.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

No report given.

UPDATE ON THE 1998 TOURNAMENT HOST

A prospective host for the 1998 NDT has been identified, but no announcement will be made prior to the action of the Board of Trustees.

REPORT OF THE TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR (Parsons)

The Tournament Director submitted a report of the 50 or so evaluations which were received regarding the 1996 NDT. The general reaction was positive and special efforts for the 50th anniversary were praised (Attachment #5)

The Tournament Director also suggested dates for submission forms for first and second round at large bids to the NDT (Attachment #6). O'Donnell informed the Committee that adopting the Director's dates for second round applications might make it difficult for successful applicants to receive favorable air fares, that the late date would significantly increase the cost of the printing of the Tournament Booklet, and would create ill-will with the host hotel because of the likelihood of late changes in the number of rooms booked for the tournament. Extensive discussion occurred, including consideration of the Host concerns, the need to provide District tournaments with an option of more than one weekend, the problems of moving the application process forward too far, and the desire to allow traditional CEDA schools to attend both Heart and District tournaments. A motion was made by Smith and seconded by Hingstman to adopt the Director's dates, and passed by a vote of 7 in favor and 4 opposed.

Bjork's motion (seconded by Brossman) to allow teams submitting bids to use electronic means to transmit their applications passed by a voice vote. First round applications must be received by 4:00 p.m. EST on February 12, 1997. Second round applications must be received by committee members 3:00 p.m. EST on March 3, 1997 and will be announced at 1:00 p.m. EST on March 4. This schedule allows two possible weekends for district tournaments: February 21-23 and February 28-March 2.

REPORT OF THE POINTS DIRECTOR (Cheshier)

David Cheshier is ranking all schools attending tournaments for which he has results and intends to continue doing so until the last report, at which time only schools who have paid NDT dues will be counted.

OLD BUSINESS

A discussion of the confirmation of standing rule changes necessitated by the adoption of the CEDA topic at the Wake Forest meeting resulted in a motion by David Hingstman (seconded by Tom Jewell) to amend rule "VIII: Topic Selection." to begin with "In any year that the CEDA topic selection process includes the following elements:" The motion was made to clarify any ambiguity about the intent of the action taken at the Wake Forest meeting and is consistent with the minutes of that meeting. The motion passed unanimously.

NEW BUSINESS

On behalf of Star Muir, a motion was made by Frank and seconded by Bjork to strike Rule V.C.I. of the Standing Rules of the NDT and substitute the following:

"All teams with a win-loss record of 5-3 or better shall qualify for the elimination rounds, up to a total of 32 teams. If the number of qualifying teams exceeds 16 but is less than 32, a First Elimination Round will be held with a partial bracket so that the number of remaining octafinalists will equal 16."

Star Muir was recognized to provide his rationale for the motion (Attachment #7).

The motion passed unanimously with one abstention.

On behalf of Star Muir, a motion was made by Fritch and seconded by Warner to add Rule V.A.3 to the Standing Rules as follows:

"After the first two preliminary rounds, there will be no fewer than two high-high power matched rounds."

Star Muir was recognized to provide his rationale for the motion (Attachment #7). Under current procedures, the Director determines how power-matched rounds are to be paired and accepts advice from the NDT Committee. At recent NDTs, only round five is paired high-high.

The motion failed.

A discussion ensued regarding NDT participation in the CEDA topic selection process. The Chair suggested three options: that NDT could request a seat on the CEDA topic committee that a joint NDT/CEDA topic committee might be formed that NDT simply adopt the next most-favored policy topic if a non-policy topic is selected

Smith made a motion, seconded by Hingstman, to offer, at CEDA's will, the services of the NDT Topic Committee Chair, David Hingstman, to the CEDA Topic Committee in an advisory capacity. The motion passed unanimously.

It was also suggested that any member of the NDT community who is also a member of CEDA can participate in the topic writing process by submitting topic papers and ideas to the CEDA topic committee or by volunteering or running for office as a member of the CEDA topic committee.

The Chair suggested the formation of a subcommittee to examine possible alternatives to the way power matched rounds are paired at the NDT Tournament. Potential members of the committee include: Ross Smith, Arnie Madsen, Rich Edwards, and Gary Larson. This committee would be advisory to the Tournament Director.

NEXT MEETING

The next meeting of the NDT Committee will take place at the Northwestern Tournament in February.