[GFCA] Constitution Voting

[Jeffrey Miller]

Below is an important message from GFCA President, Mario Herrera.


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Coaches--

Some great things are happening in Georgia speech and debate!
Congratulations to Jenny Heidt at Westminster Schools and Deanne Varitek at
Gwinnett Central High School for hosting the first two tournaments of the
year!  Both had fantastic success and set a great tone for the rest of the
year.  Thanks to both coaches, their schools and communities for their hard
work and dedication to the activity.

Voting for the new Constitution is September 15 through September 21 at 7pm
EDT.  All votes should be sent to Jeff Miller.  Jeff will send out
confirmation emails when votes are received.  Some things to keep in look at
as you vote:  If you find spelling or grammar errors, please let us know so
we can assure the document is correct.  These corrections will not require a
new document, but will inform membership of the correction of these
anomolies.  No changes will be made that will fundamentally change the
document.  Results will be announced on the website September 22nd.

Additionally, the bylaws of said Constitution must also be decided.  PLEASE
NOTE: These bylaws affect EVERY school that participates in this activity
and should be evaluated with a critical eye.  We have set up the listserv
through the this website for such discussion.  Any changes will be discussed
and added/deleted as decided upon by the Executive Committee as deemed
necessary before the actual vote.  This is a HUGE document, so when we vote
it will be by Section.  I believe this will avoid coaches/schools having to
vote down the entire proposal when it is one section they may not agree
with.  I think it also makes evaluating the document more manageable.
Discussion and changes to the document should take place from Wednesday,
September 14th through Sunday, September 26.  This is to assure that ALL
programs have a chance to have their opinions heard and that governance of
the activity is precise and fair.  Voting for the bylaws will begin on
Wednesday, September 29th and end on Tuesday, October 5th.  More details
will be provided before the voting begins.

Thanks to GFCA Treasurer John McClellan of Warner Robins HS for doing the
legwork on a bank account for the organization.  We are currently looking in
to the process for becoming a 501(c)3 organization, making us a charitable
organization.  More on this as we find out information.

Colleges and universities are being contacted about hosting the Varsity
Speech and Debate Tournament in March.  So far, Georgia Tech has expressed
great interest in hosting the tournament.  I have contacted several such
schools to host so we can fulfill the expressed desire of coaches to allow
double-entry in events should students meet qualifications.  In order to
achieve this, THE TOURNAMENT MUST BE TWO DAYS, WITH A START TIME OF
(HOPEFULLY)  MID-AFTERNOON ON FRIDAY.  THIS IS FOR ALL EVENTS, NOT ONLY
DEBATE!  If you have any site proposals for the tournament, please let me
know as soon as possible.  I would like the site to be settled by October
15th.  Any later than this does not allow teams to make appropriate travel
plans, so this date is firm.  The site must be approved by the Executive
Committee.

Any school wishing to host the First/Second Year State Championships in
February should also contact me.  The schedule has not been decided, but I
assume it will follow the format of the Varsity tournament.  If we have
Varsity State in the Atlanta-metro area, I think the First/Second Year
tournament should be outside of metro-Atlanta if there is a school that
would like to host.  Contact me if you would like more information.

Finally, a note to coaches regarding state qualification:  Keep track of
tourmanents your students attend and when they qualify to State.  Tournament
directors:  please send all results of your tournaments to Jeff Miller so we
can keep track of qualifications/attendance.  This will be a learning
process, but I know we are up to the task.

Thanks to everyone for their hard work, and thanks for your dedication to
your teams and to Georgia Speech and Debate.

Mario Herrera
GFCA President.
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