[GFCA] News and Voting

[Mario Herrera]

Happy October, all!



I’d like to take a moment and congratulate schools who hosted tournaments
in September- WELL DONE. Hosting a tournament can seem like a never-ending
cycle of putting fires out while at the same time making sure everyone is
happy and then making sure the tournament is running as smoothly as
possible. Schools from all over the south have attended Georgia tournaments
this year, making for an exciting time. Thank you to Mount Vernon School,
Houston County High School, RW Johnson HS, Valdosta HS and Chattahoochee HS
for hosting in September. Additionally, I know many schools have held
intra-squad events, and I hope those went well. Lots of Speech and Debate
happening in Georgia! Below are some topics that may be of interest to you.



*TAB ROOM ERRORS*



A couple of tabbing errors have been brought to my attention. I know that
all efforts are made to avoid such errors and no one likes when they
happen. The GFCA position is that the decision of the tournament director
in such situations stands. Our colleagues are handling the situations in a
timely, professional and thoughtful manner. Thanks to all for understanding.



*NEW DEBATE TOPICS*



New topics are out for Lincoln-Douglas Debate and Public Forum Debate were
announced by the NSDA yesterday. The topics and the respective months in
which they will be used are as follows:



Lincoln-Douglas Debate – *2017 November/December Topic*

Resolved: Wealthy nations have an obligation to provide development
assistance to other nations.



Public Forum Debate – *2017 November Topic* Area: Gun Rights

Resolved: The United States should require universal background checks for
all gun sales and transfer of ownership.



*POLICY DEBATE 2018-19 GFCA VOTING OPENS TOMORROW.*



The Policy Debate- Round 1 vote for the 2018-2019 topic is due to the
National Federation of High Schools by October 20. I will send out a vote
via a Google Form tomorrow and leave voting open until 5pm on Monday,
October 9. I’m opening the vote a bit early as I believe many school
districts have Fall Break next week and I don’t want anyone to miss voting
for that reason. I have attached the topic analyses as provided by NFHS as
I did in the last email.



Also, while voting on the Policy Debate topic is open to everyone, please
be considerate and mindful that if your program does not have a Policy
Debate program and/or you are not planning on having one next year, please
consider abstaining from this vote. I believe this to be a fair expectation
for voting so that programs invested in the event are heard loud and clear.
Let me know if you have any questions and/or concerns.



*NOMINATE AN OUTSTANDING COLLEAGUE*



Finally, the NFHS has asked the GFCA in its governing role of high school
forensics in the state of Georgia to nominate a coach for the Outstanding
Speech/Debate/Theater Educator Award. From NFHS:



*“Each state may nominate one person each year for the NFHS
Speech/Debate/Theatre State level award. That nominee will also be
considered by the selection committee for one of the eight section awards
and potentially the NFHS Speech/Debate/Theatre Citation Award. One Citation
recipient for speech/debate/theatre is selected each year… Nominees must be
involved in secondary education or high school forensics. Focus should be
on significant and/or long-term contributions to interscholastic speech,
theatre or debate activities within each state or section; however,
professional contributions within the past five years are of the utmost
importance.”*



I have attached the nomination form that includes the process of nomination.



*STATE TOURNAMENTS*



More information coming soon about location and schedule of the State
Tournaments.



As always, reach out with any questions you may have. Have a great October,
and see you on the Georgia circuit.


Mario Herrera

Chair

Georgia Forensic Coaches Association
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.gradyspeaks.org/pipermail/thegfca-gradyspeaks.org/attachments/20171002/3d2a3560/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 18-19 5 topic ballot.doc
Type: application/msword
Size: 48128 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.gradyspeaks.org/pipermail/thegfca-gradyspeaks.org/attachments/20171002/3d2a3560/attachment-0001.doc>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: NFHS EOTY Nomination Form 2017-2018.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 325822 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.gradyspeaks.org/pipermail/thegfca-gradyspeaks.org/attachments/20171002/3d2a3560/attachment-0001.pdf>