1. We’ll effectively end the sweepstakes award. I don’t think it brought much value. Mike has volunteered to continue calculating a sweepstakes point total system so he’ll still post rankings but it won’t be anything official.

2. The executive council will be ended – it really didn’t function as I hoped and there wasn’t a very big need to make decisions. By eliminating sweepstakes we all but eliminate the need for the council anyway.

3. Authors - I’ve added a few authors. Right now we have 7 authors: myself, John Boyer, Kasey Gardner, Michael Marse, Tariq Bruno, Nick Matthews, and Michael Miller. If you would like to contribute as an author please email me a letter of interest to info@socal-ld.net and I’ll consider adding you. I hope to have input from many perspectives so coaches, students, alumni, etc… are all invited. Your location doesn’t matter either – as long as you support the growth of NFA-LD in Southern California you’re more than welcome.

Looking forward to a great year debating China!

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… The NFA-LD committee has just finished receiving results from the 2010-2011 coaches NFA-LD survey that was sent out two weeks ago to all active NFA member schools. Apparently, preliminary results indicate that a majority of debaters have decided against engaging the substantiative issues of the mental health topic all year. Beyond one or two cases debaters have generally resorted to topicality arguments instead of key issues identified in the topic paper for last year …

I won’t quote the whole thing detailing what’s going on this year – just read it on the IE-L or watch this video message from the committee. I must say that I have to agree based on the word on the street. The real issue though is the course of action the board has decided to take:

Therefore, we stand resolved that in order to debaters to really learn about mental health policy in the United States (AND NOT OTHER COUNTRIES/PLANETS!) we are hereby suspending all balloting for the 2011-2012 topic. Instead, we will repeat this topic for next year in the hopes that debaters will really research the 3-4 case areas available to them and not only 1-2.

Your thoughts? Read more information here.

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Azusa Pacific is the first big NFA-LD tournament this semester – register on forensicstournament.net

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here is a recap of the award winners:

Lincoln Division (Highest % of adjusted wins in at least three tournaments)
1 Biola University
2 University of California, Los Angeles
3 California State University, Los Angeles
4 Pasadena City College
5 Mt. San Antonio College
6 Pt. Loma Nazarene University
7 Irvine Valley College
8 Azusa Pacific University
9 California Baptist University
10 Riverside Community College
11 El Camino College
Douglas Division (Highest number of adjusted wins in at least three tournaments)
1 Biola University
2 El Camino College
3 Irvine Valley College
4 California Baptist University
5 Pt. Loma Nazarene University
6 California State University, Los Angeles
7 Pasadena City College
8 Riverside Community College
9 Mt. San Antonio College
10 Azusa Pacific University
11 University of California, Los Angeles
Top SoCal-LD Debater (Highest Win Percentage in at least three tournaments)
1 Biola VanHuystee
2 Biola Hensley
3 CSULA Swanson
4 Biola McCurley
5 Biola Reynolds
6 Cal Baptist Lamascus
7 El Camino Maxwell
8 UCLA Matthews
9 Cal Baptist Rose
10 Biola Scofield

So my question to all of you: your thoughts?

Should we have a season sweepstakes this year? Are there any changes to the divisions, formulas, etc… you think we should introduce?

This will be a task that the executive committee will ultimately decide but I wanted to get community input first before we start drafting the rules for this year’s sweepstakes (if we proceed with it again).

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A total of 17 ballots were cast and using an IRV vote system the two members are:

Robert Maxwell (on the right)

David Saulet (on the left)

So the new executive committee will be: Danny Cantrell (Rio Hondo), Mike Marse (Cal Baptist), Michael Miller (Glendale), Robert Maxwell (Concordia-Irvine), and David Saulet (El Camino). Thanks to Nick Matthew and Jesus for offering to serve!

First order of business will be to draft governing documents – We’ll try to post those in the next few weeks.

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Four students were interested in serving on the board for next year. Thus, we will need to have an election. The qualifications to vote are that you must be a student from Southern California, competed in at least 1 NFA-LD tournament last year (2009-2010 season), and be interested in participating in NFA-LD next year. Please email me at info@socal-ld.net with your ballot ranking the following four students 1-4. Please rank all four students or your ballot will not count. We’ll use Instant Run off voting system with the ballots (video demo).

2010 Ballot

Your Name: _________________ Your School: ____________
Tournament you competed at last year: _________________

Rank: ___ David Saulet – El Camino
Rank: ___ Jesus Caro – CSU Long Beach
Rank: ___ Nick Matthews – UCLA
Rank: ___ Robert Maxwell – Concordia-Irvine

You can read the candidate statements in the comments to the previous thread. Ballots are due in two weeks by June 24, 2010 to info@socal-ld.net On your ballot please indicate your name, school, the tournament you competed at last year, and your votes in preference order.

So far about 15 people have voted.

Good luck!

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The duties of the executive committee are to:
1) Write a constitution for the group
2) Iron out season sweepstakes procedures for 2010-2011
3) Help plan and administer the 2011 Southern California LD Championship.
4) meet twice each year – perhaps at Fall & Spring Champs although the group can decide its meeting time
5) contribute at least 1 post per week to the website

The membership will include 2 active coaches, 2 active students, and me as founder of the site. My hope, however, is that my level of involvement will be minimal and that the 4 other members will decide through consensus. If there is a 2-2 tie I’ll vote to break the tie.

Each member (the two coaches and the two students) will serve a 1 year term from July 1, 2010 through May 1, 2011. May and June will be the months to nominate and elect new representatives.

Coaches

Two coaches indicated their interest to serve so we will not need to have an election.

Mike Marse - Cal Baptist

Mike has been a regular contributor to SoCal-LD since the very beginning in October 2006. His students have consistently won awards in NFA-LD over the past 4 years. Thanks Mike for serving.

Michael Miller – Glendale

Michael Miller has been a contributor to the blog through numerous comments and suggested links for research for the past two years. His dedication to debate is evident in his tireless advocacy and promotion of the best skills of NFA-LD including eloquence, argumentation, and research.

Students

Four students were interested in serving on the board for next year. Thus, we will need to have an election. The qualifications to vote are that you must be a student from Southern California, competed in at least 1 NFA-LD tournament last year (2009-2010 season), and be interested in participating in NFA-LD next year. Please email me at info@socal-ld.net with your ballot ranking the following four students 1-4. Please rank all four students or your ballot will not count. We’ll use Instant Run off voting system with the ballots (video demo).

2010 Ballot

Your Name: _________________ Your School: ____________
Tournament you competed at last year: _________________

Rank: ___ David Saulet – El Camino
Rank: ___ Jesus Caro – CSU Long Beach
Rank: ___ Nick Matthews – UCLA
Rank: ___ Robert Maxwell – Concordia-Irvine

I will let each of the students speak for themselves in the comment section why they should be elected. Ballots are due in two weeks by June 24, 2010 to info@socal-ld.net On your ballot please indicate your name, school, the tournament you competed at last year, and your votes in preference order.

Thanks!

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Executive Committee Me (Danny Cantrell), 2 students and 2 other coaches. I would not vote on any executive committee decisions except to break ties. My hope is that the committee would work through consensus (ie, making decisions that are 4-0 rather than 2-2). The committee would come up with a constitution to spell out it’s functions but right now I’m thinking…

Duties

1) Run and Manage the Southern California LD Championships
2) Create, Administer, and Award the Sweepstakes
3) Post regularly to the site (1 post/week per member).
4) Promote and encourage schools to participate in the event

If you have additional ideas or thoughts please post them in the comments. Given the site is geared towards Southern California only coaches and students from programs in Southern California will be eligible. If we have more than 2 coaches or 2 students run we’ll have elections.

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In order to be accepted for consideration, the topic area must be in the form of a 1-2 page brief which includes:
1. A statement of the significance of the topic area in current events;
2. A statement of why the topic is interesting, challenging, and/or provocative;
3. A statement of the perceived educational value of the topic area for debaters;
4. A brief bibliography of selected readings (5-10) that capture the nature of the controversy surrounding the area; and
5. Contact information should the committee need further clarification.
Remember, in order for a brief to be accepted, it must meet all of the above qualifications.

I think the best thing we can do now is start searching for the 5-10 readings that capture the nature of the controversy in space exploration right now. Once we have those 5-10 we should be able to craft 1-3 pretty easily. Nick has actually already done a lot of the work in his comment to the poll post. Remember that you are limited to 1-2 pages so this needs to be brief rather than exhaustive.

I know that the high school topic in 1990-91 was “Resolved: that the United States Government should significantly increase space exploration beyond Earth’s mesosphere.” That year, if I remember correctly, the topic was amended after it was announced to add “mesosphere” because the literature base was just too much without “beyond Earth’s mesosphere.” But remember that at this step we’re not proposing a resolution – just a topic area.

If you find a particularly good article regarding space exploration please post it in the comments.

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Nick recommended space exploration
Mat recommended indigenous people
Shantal recommended education in the middle east.

I think we should approach this as a community. We’ll have a poll and whatever topic area get’s the most votes we’ll rally behind. We’ll then have two weeks to write the topic paper (whoever wins is responsible). As a community we can recommend research to include and help revise/redraft the topic area. We can then be sure it’s ready to be submitted by Feb 1.

The poll will close on Friday night.

Please feel free to justify your decision in the comments section people to try and persuade others

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