Wisconsin Forensics Daily

WDCA Spring Debate Coaches’ Meeting: Save the Date

The Spring WDCA Coaches’ Meeting is coming, Saturday, April 28, 12:30 p.m. at Rufus King High School in Milwaukee.  The Executive Committee is looking for your feedback – click “continue reading” for further details…
If there are issues you wish to raise at the meeting, now is the time to contact me with ideas/agenda items/written proposals.  I will take said information until Wednesday, March 28.  The more information we can process ahead of time, the smoother (and shorter) our meeting will be on April 28. Research — and common sense — indicates that more people are likely to participate in a meeting such as ours if it is brief, to the point, and keeps moving.
I will take your ideas and proposals and flesh them out with the Executive Committee over a week’s time before sending them to the full membership three weeks prior to the spring meeting.

Below, I’ve highlighted some issues that have come to my attention already.  If you have thoughts to share on any of these, it would be helpful to send those along with any additional ideas, so the Executive Committee can deliberate on those before crafting the final proposals for the meeting:

• Replace novice limited topics with a standard novice case or two, each attached to a common evidence packet, which would truly level the playing-field with a finite universe of evidence.
• Unaffiliated judges hired by a school should not be attached to that school.
• Establish clear procedures for judge qualification (means of verifying or assessing experience and knowledge)
• Need more wins than losses to clear to elimination rounds (if it’s worded this way, it allows for more flexibility than explicitly indicating “4-2” if the number of rounds is altered due to weather or other factors). If there are more than eight 4-2 debaters, for instance, a partial elimination “run-off” round would take place to determine who advances.  This change would afford more flexibility to the tournament reacting to debaters’ performance, instead of relying on the number of entries at the beginning.  This past year, debaters with 3-3 records advanced to fill elimination rounds.  In other years, debaters with 4-2 records did not advance.  So, in some cases, this proposal would be more exclusive and in others, it would be more inclusive; however, in the end, it upholds the prestige of the tournament by only allowing debaters with winning records to advance.
• Reexamine the varsity rule of competing at three tournaments (two of which in Wisconsin).  Either: (1) eliminate the rule to increase participation at State; (2) keep the rule, but increase reporting/verification by coaches of tournaments attended; (3) keep the rule, but tighten enforcement (i.e., no substitutes who have not met the rule).
• Better WHSFA-WDCA integration (V4 tie-breaking procedures; a common set of awards)
• Impact of the Milwaukee (Urban) Debate League on local invitationals.
• Location for 2007 WSDT.
• Revisit whether Public Forum should have set sides or continue using the coin flip.  Several states (and the NCFL) have modified this NFL rule.
• Decide the status of digital technology (e.g., computers) in-rounds.

Of course, we are also looking for nominations for president-elect and secretary.

Finally, for schools who volunteered to host tournament this forthcoming fall, please remember to secure permits/contracts (or a written commitment from your administration) for your building by April 15.  Bring this verification to the spring meeting, where we will set as firm a calendar as possible.  Many thanks to Steve Gargo for coordinating this at State!

Click here to access past meeting minutes.

Again, to share your feedback on any of the items above, or to suggest additional issues, please contact Adam Jacobi, president. We look forward to a positive and productive spring meeting!

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