[GFCA] Constitution Voting

[Smiley, Adam]

I think that this looks very good.  I am very impressed with the work
done by the committee.  That being said, with a document this long,
there are sure to be some disagreements.  Below, I have listed some of
the sections that I either am unsure of the reasoning or I have concerns
about.  I think that some of these concerns may have been addressed at
the most recent coaches' meeting, but are not currently reflected in
this document.

 

Fair disclosure:  The section on 1.65 below is one that would deal with
an Alpharetta student.  We have a student that transferred custody to an
uncle in order to attend Alpharetta.  The purpose is to take a college
level math class that was not offered at his former school.  However,
this would not be a bona fide move.  

 

 

Some of my thoughts/concerns:

 

1.11 and 2.21:  Do we need to require the paperwork for certification of
eligibility?  Can we just trust coaches to certify eligibility and allow
some type of appeal of challenge if an issue comes up?  I am a little
bit concerned about our ability to effectively process the discussed
forms.

 

1.45: In the rare case that a 7th grader is no longer challenged by
middle school debate, is there any reason that they should not be
allowed in high school novice divisions?  Also, the 60% rule seems
meaningless in the context of the debate schedule.  Maybe a number of
competitions would provide a better limit.

 

1.65: We need to include academic situations, including students
transferring due to the availability of a class (exclude debate classes)
or academic program (such as IB).

 

2.41: Could we put this date at August 1st.  Some schools begin prior to
August 10th, and I feel that we should be able to begin meeting as soon
as teachers report to work.  

 

2.44: It seems like a large number of tournaments would have violated
this rule at times in the past.  If we want to follow this, that is
great, but I think that we need to either agree to enforce it for all
rounds (including late elims) and establish a punishment for the host
school, or bump the time back a little bit.  Otherwise, rule 2.45 may
come in to play more often.  Also, should college hosted tournaments be
exempt (Finals of the Barkley Forum would be after this time).

 

2.45: does this function for anything but the State tournaments.  What
happens if they host school is unable to contact 3 members of the
Executive committee?

 

2.71: A number of students are beginning to record their rounds to
review and critique later with coaches.  In the past, we have asked only
verbal consent of the involved participants rather than written consent
of tournament directors and others.  Can we allow verbal consent or at
least only written consent of competitors?

 

2.93:  This would stop coaches from checking a ballot during the
tournament.  If a tournament wants to have an open tab room that gives
coaches access to ballots, why shouldn't they?

 

3.23:  This is different from what we agreed on at the Fall meeting.
This should only says 2 tournaments instead of 3.  Many of the other
discussions at the meeting about the qualification process and deadline
for regular season qualification have not been included.

 

4.12:  We may want to move this date back a little bit (maybe November
1) since it is already September and we don't know where state will be
this year.

 

4.33: 10 days is a bit much for this deadline.  Could we just say all
drops must be done by 5 days prior to the tournament and you must still
pay the cost of your entry or some drop fee.  

 

 

 

________________________________

From: thegfca-bounces at lists.gradyspeaks.org
[mailto:thegfca-bounces at lists.gradyspeaks.org] On Behalf Of Jeffrey
Miller
Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2010 8:53 AM
To: thegfca at lists.gradyspeaks.org
Subject: [GFCA] Constitution Voting

 

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

 


-----------


 

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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