East Region CEDA Student Meeting [Tuna reporting] -Reply

[Rodger Biles]

While I admire the intitative of the East Region students....as one who had
hosted a CEDA Nats and been at all but the first of them let me make a
couple of comments.......


>2. 9-3-6-10.
>**Everyone liked 9-3-6-10.
>**Everyone also liked 8 prelims, 5-3 round, starting after 9 AM, and
>ending in time to have dinner.
>**It is better to have the latter over the former.

I don't think for a moment that students would oppose 9-3-6--10.  Poll
them to see if they want 12-5-8-20...and many would be in favor of
it....more time is always better in debaters' minds.  Good luck in finding
some place to host this tournament.  This schedule would allow for  a
maximum of three rounds per day so you'll have to find a campus which
will allow CEDA to take it over for about 6 days.  The days are
interminably long now with 8-3-5--8.  I'd like for CEDA to buy me a new
car, pay off my mortgage and buy my Christmas presents, too.  I don't
see that happening either.  At some point the practicality of actually
operating a tournament under these guidelines becomes extremely
problematic.

>3. high-low power pair in rounds 7 & 8.
>**Very much in favor of it.

Ah Tuna...you've infected the minds of the youth in the East.  I continue
to believe that high-high pairs in odd numbered rounds result in a more
representative bracket.  I know I'll never convince you of this and you'll
never convince me about high-lows in the place of high-highs.

>6. Later AM start to help West Coast teams with jet lag.
>**Very much in favor if it.

Oh, ok...now its up to a seven day tournament.

>7. not discussed, but people said they oppose any extra room
>movement.

Extra room movement being defined as ..."we never have to move more
than one door per round."  Trying to locate campuses with enough rooms
to house the big tent event of the season is difficult.  A fact of life is that
people have to move.  With tournaments already running late..despite
how much time you build into the schedule moving does contribute to
rounds getting off late.  Tell me a reasonable alternative.  Even when
Nats was held in one building at the Air Force Academy people
complained about how much they had to move  (of course that building
was the size of most campuses).

>Thanks to Jessica for running a very productive meeting where I heard
>a lot from the students in the East. I am proud to be associated with
>them.

I, too, thank Jessica for running the meeting and test voting these issues
and I don't mean to be a Grinch...but.....the suggesstions which are great
in an ideal world don't always mesh with the practical needs of actually
running the blessed thing.

Rodger Biles
Emporia State Debate