[GFCA] Novice classification request

[Brian Bellamy]

I would like to propose an amendment to the GFCA bylaws that would take
care of situations like Eric's. I have included the proposed amendment
under section 2.81(e) with the suggested change between brackets.

2.81 (e) A student is no longer eligible for competition in the
first-year/novice division once they have reached competition in their
second year resolution *[and have accumulated a total of six (6) wins in
rounds of any form of debate during competition in tournaments*].

I am open to the number of wins being more or less. Even including just 3
or 4 wins as a minimum before being forced to advance to varsity would help
with youth that are slow to develop debate skills or unable to participate
much during their first year of resolution because of other limitations.

Reasons why I support this amendment:
1. Helps new and inexperienced teams "learn the ropes" and have at least
some success before being forced into varsity debate.
2. Helps southern and east coast teams that are not able to attend as many
tournaments in a season because of travel to gain more experience before
advancing to varsity debate.
3. Helps youth with special needs (such as having autism) or less natural
ability to understand debate to have more time to develop their debate and
speech skills in a friendly setting. This is especially needed for special
needs youth that are on teams suffering under the limitations of items 1
and 2.
4. Helps youth who are able to participate in debate only part-time because
of illness, financial resources, or participation in conflicting activities
during a large portion of the fall.

I hope this can be taken up at the April 2012 meeting or any special
meeting of the members called before then.

Best regards,
Brian Bellamy
Scholars Academy
Thomasville, GA

On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 9:28 AM, Maggie Berthiaume <maggiekb at gmail.com>wrote:

> This seems very reasonable to me.  Does the GFCA have a process for such
> an instance?
>
> Thanks,
> Maggie
>
>
>
> Maggie Berthiaume
> Woodward Debate
>
> On Sun, Oct 30, 2011 at 10:09 AM, Eric Crisp <ericcrisp at walkerschools.org>wrote:
>
>> I have a scheduling difficulty. I have a single returning debater (Danny
>> Bunn) from last year who competed at two tournaments last year. The
>> entirety of my team otherwise are true novice without even any middle
>> school experience. Last year was the first year of debate for Ridgeland
>> since the late 80's or early 90's.
>>
>> I realize that coaches might at times just go ahead and enter Danny in
>> Novice, but I wanted to ask for a waiver from the group first. I think it
>> would be appropriate for him to compete at this point in the year in Novice
>> CX, though he has debated twice under a previous resolution. He has not
>> been to any policy competitions this year because I've not had anyone I
>> could pair with him.
>>
>> For the record, Danny is a sophomore and he went 1-3 at Calhoun and (I
>> think) 1-3 at Alpharetta last year.
>>
>> Eric Crisp
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *** This Email was sent by an educator in Walker County School District.
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>
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