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.<br><br>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">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 <u>[and have accumulated a total of six (6) wins in rounds of any form of debate during competition in tournaments</u>].</span></p>
<br>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. <br>
<br>Reasons why I support this amendment:<br>1. Helps new and inexperienced teams "learn the ropes" and have at least some success before being forced into varsity debate.<br>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. <br>
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. <br>
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. <br><br>I hope this can be taken up at the April 2012 meeting or any special meeting of the members called before then.<br>
<br>Best regards,<br>Brian Bellamy<br>Scholars Academy<br>Thomasville, GA<br> <br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 9:28 AM, Maggie Berthiaume <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:maggiekb@gmail.com" target="_blank">maggiekb@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">This seems very reasonable to me. Does the GFCA have a process for such an instance?<div><br></div><div>Thanks,</div>
<div>Maggie</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Maggie Berthiaume</div><div>Woodward Debate<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote"><div>On Sun, Oct 30, 2011 at 10:09 AM, Eric Crisp <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ericcrisp@walkerschools.org" target="_blank">ericcrisp@walkerschools.org</a>></span> wrote:<br>
</div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div></div><div>
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.
<br>
<br>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.
<br>
<br>For the record, Danny is a sophomore and he went 1-3 at
Calhoun and (I think) 1-3 at Alpharetta last year.
<br>
<br>Eric Crisp
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<br>*** This Email was sent by an educator in Walker County
School District.
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