[GFCA] LD Debate at State

[Mario Herrera]

While I understand your rationale, I think keeping the January/February
topic helps us keep the State Tournament strong

- I don't believe we are moving away from the spirit of debate by keeping
the topic.  As long as we keep it focused on general principles, philosophy
and values, that spirit remains strong.

-Education will be increased as arguments become stronger.  There not as
many invitationals for students to go to, so debaters won't have saturated
arguments.

- It would be the ONLY tournament on this topic, and I personally feel that
means the quality of arguments would not be as strong. I believe this is a
major reason that the Woodward Novice/JV Nationals uses the January/February
tournament although it is held at the end of March/beginning of April.

- If we do this for LD, we should do the same in Public Forum, as right now
the rule states that the State Tournament would use the February NFL topic
for Public Forum.

- I am not totally against the idea.  I mean, there are no prep tournaments
for either NCFLs or NFLs and there is still fantastic competition.  I do
think the change could favor schools with resources unavailable to other
schools in regards to research, argumentation and networking.  Keeping the
January/February topic may make those differences negligible.

As far as changing the rule, I need to check the bylaws (once
passed/rejected) to see the procedure of how that is accomplished.

I'm loving the discussion!

Mario

On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 7:57 AM, Spiegel, Jeremy J <
Spiegel at fultonschools.org> wrote:

>  I would like for us to consider changing the by law concerning LD debate
> at the state tournament.  As it currently reads, LD debate at the state
> tournament will use the January/February topic.  I would like for us to
> consider changing to the March/April topic.  I believe this would be the
> correct decision for the following reasons:
>
>
>
> 1.       The every two month topic change is part of LD debate.  By
> keeping the January/February topic we are moving away from the spirit of LD
> debate.
>
> 2.       It increases education.  By having our students research a new
> topic for the state tournament, we will be increasing education.
>
> 3.       It would create better competition.  Instead of rehashing the
> same arguments from the numerous January and February tournaments, students
> will have fresh arguments and debates will not be redundant.
>
> * *
>
> While I understand that most students will be preparing this topic for just
> the one tournament, the stakes of state championship should be motivation
> enough to put in the extra effort.
>
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