Wisconsin Forensics Daily

WDCA Spring Debate Coaches’ Meeting

We are looking forward to seeing coaches this Saturday, May 10 for the WDCA Spring Debate Coaches Meeting. Due to a scheduling snafu with our previous venue, we had to move the meeting to a new location, and given various options, the best geographically-central location to our coaches on such short notice ends up being Rufus King High School (where we met last spring). In the future, we will more proactively solicit hosts from our member schools. The general coaches’ meeting will start promptly at 10 a.m. Delectable and bountiful refreshments will be served. Directions and map will be posted on the WDCA Web site, www.wdca.org. Rufus King’s address is 1801 W. Olive Street, Milwaukee, WI 53209. The meeting will be in room 104 (Adam’s classroom); enter via the 19th Street (west entrance); you may park in the lot adjacent to that entrance, at Hope St.

Tournament hosts: we have only received a few requests for this fall’s calendar. Please complete the online form on the WDCA Web site (Debate menu > Tournament Calendar > Intent to Host 2008), so we will be more adequately prepared to discuss the calendar at the meeting. Part of this discussion will take place under new business in strategically placing tournaments so that opportunities can be maximized for both one-day tournaments, as well as two-day tournaments.

We are also looking for nominations for president-elect and treasurer.

If there are concerns or proposals you wish to raise at the meeting, please contact Laura Maly at: president@wdca.org with ideas/agenda items/written proposals. The more detailed and specific you are in what you send, the more prepared coaches will be to discuss those issues at the meeting. For more complex proposals, I plan to ask committees to refine details as necessary, so our general membership meeting doesn’t get bogged-down in tedious discussion. The sooner you communicate these issues, the sooner we can post information on the WDCA Web site for coaches to consider ahead of the meeting.

Past meeting minutes are posted on the WDCA Web site (Debate menu > Documents/Forms > WDCA Bylaws, Rules & Minutes).

AGENDA

I. Executive Officers’ Reports
President, Laura Maly
President-Elect, Bill Batterman – 2008 workshop suggestions
Past-President, Adam Jacobi
Secretary, Kristi Plamann – approval of minutes
Treasurer, Eric Van Ert

II. Committee Reports
Tournament Practices/Procedures, Michael Traas
Judging Standards & Ethics, Jason Chapman & Neil Young
New Coaches, Dan Hansen
History, Jim Sauer
Media/Communications, Nick Bubb
Middle Level, Cheryl Bachtell

III. Old Business
Approval of Standing Rules revisions
Combined WDCA/MUDI/MDL Evidence Packet - if the MUDI/MDL evidence would correspond to all of the Novice Topics so that kids in the MDL could have information on all of the novice topics. This would allow more MDL integration into WDCA events.
Grievance Procedure - Devising an audit/check system for so-called “blind verification” of tabulation at the State tournament; Drafting a formal “protest” procedure (both for invitationals and State) for lodging complaints and for investigation and due process of appeals (WFCA established this several years ago, and it works well).

IV. New Business – many of these items have been raised on Wisconsin Forensics Daily (wiforensics.com). Some of the italicized annotations are from that post. You are invited to log on to that site to read the ongoing discussion prior to the coaches’ meeting.

Nominations and elections for President-Elect and Treasurer

2008 State venue; complete calendar; Milwaukee Debate League tournaments

Best Practices Guidelines for invitational tournaments - There is often a confusion among tournament directors among how to operate their tournaments and what is the best way to handle particular situations. It would be nice to have a document that recommends how tournament directors should ideally run the different divisions. This would also make it easier for people to begin to host tournaments, because the procedures are explained in the document. For example, if tournaments use the one day switch side model for all policy divisions – should they clear to highest elimination round possible (e.g. octa finals) or rather should they clear to the lowest elimination round (finals) so that people can go home faster?

2 Day v. 1 Day tournaments - More than just our best practices guidelines on how to run these kinds of tournaments, we need to have a serious discussion about how we should design our schedule with these kinds of tournaments in mind. Should there only be three or four big two-day tournaments with more one-day competitions? Or should there be more two-day competitions?

Public Forum Novice - Public Forum was the largest division at last year’s WSDT. This was the case at many invitational tournaments last year as well. At some invitational tournaments (but not the state tournament) it might make sense to split the public forum pool into a novice division and an experienced division. If tournaments do that, how do we handle those novices for the state tournament?

V4 Contingency Policy - Last year at the WSDT the V4 division was the smallest division at the tournament (yes – there were more people participating in middle school policy than there were in V4). It’s the opinion of many coaches that a small division should not constitute a state championship. There was also a problem last year that in theory, the tournament could not run (3 Cedarburg + 3 other teams doesn’t make for a workable division). We need to develop a contingency plan to allow those teams to move into the V2 division should V4 become unviable. A possible solution would be to add a requirement for that division to run, something along the lines of what was needed for LD and PF to be an individual event. I suggest that there must be at least 8 teams from 6 different schools in order for the division to run.

Creating a broader and more cohesive network of welcoming new coaches into the activity.

Tentative CALENDAR

(Waukesha South needs a weekend)

9/13 Workshop & Fall Business Meeting
9/19 & 20 Marquette University High School
9/26 & 27
10/3 & 4 Merrill
Rufus King (willing to move to maximize opportunities — see 2 day vs. 1 day above)
10/10 & 11 Hortonville
10/17 & 18
10/24 & 25
10/31 & 11/1
11/7 & 8
11/14 & 15
11/21 & 22
12/5 & 6 Sheboygan North
12/12 & 13 Wis. State Debate Tournament

An organization like ours exists because of the dedication of coaches like you. We look forward to seeing you on May 10!

Sincerely,

Laura Maly,
WDCA President

Tags: wdca

Posted in News |