[GFCA] Constitution Voting

Wed Sep 15 08:02:51 PDT 2010

Adam,

Many of these concerns were talked about at the fall meeting and 'fixed' in our by-law draft.  I will send the updated version ASAP and then you can let the community know where concerns still sit during next week's discussions.

Best,
Cheryl

Ms. Cheryl Stanga
Director of Forensics
Social Studies Department
Marist School
stangac at marist.com<mailto:stangac at marist.com>
770-936-6464

From: thegfca-bounces at lists.gradyspeaks.org [mailto:thegfca-bounces at lists.gradyspeaks.org] On Behalf Of Smiley, Adam
Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2010 10:59 AM
To: Jeffrey Miller; thegfca at lists.gradyspeaks.org
Subject: Re: [GFCA] Constitution Voting

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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