[eDebate] Important NDT information

[Catherine Palczewski]

Greetings debate world,

The NDT committee met at NCA in November, and a number of important
decisions were made that will affect application to and participation in
the NDT this year.

Below is a list composed of
1) gentle reminders for pertinent dates, and
2) items passed at the meeting.

This is important stuff.  YOU SHOULD READ IT ALL.  If you have any
questions, feel free to contact me.  Sorry for the long post, but I have
tried to include some history and rationale for the various items.

The next NDT committee meeting will be at the Northwestern Tournament.

1. Eligibility verification.  Due February 8, 2004

As per the standing rules of the NDT
(http://www.wfu.edu/organizations/NDT/Documents/ndtrules.html):

To be an eligible debater for the National Debate Tournament, a student
must provide, by February 8th to the NDT committee chair, an official
document from appropriate university officials verifying that he/she is
registered as an undergraduate student and is in good standing at the
school, for which he/she is participating, as of February 1st
immediately preceding the NDT in which he/she wishes to participate.

For explanations of terms, see the AFA code:
http://www.wfu.edu/organizations/NDT/Documents/afacode.html

As a helpful summary, these are the items I check for when reviewing the
forms:
1) the student is enrolled as a degree-seeking student
2) the student is in good standing as of Feb 1
3) the student is registered as an undergraduate

Send forms to:

Cate Palczewski
NDT Chair
Lang 326
UNI
Cedar Falls, IA  50614-0139


2. Judge philosophies: Philosophies will be exclusively in electronic
form this year.  They still need to be submitted to the Judge Philosophy
committee chair, a post long ably filled by Mike Berry.  Procedures for
submission of judge philosophies will be posted in a later message.


3. Bid application Fee: You MUST pay a $50 application fee per team to
be considered for an at large (first or second) round bid.  (This is in
addition to the required NDT subscription fee). And, all forms must be
submitted electronically via the debateresults cite:
http://commweb.fullerton.edu/jbruschke/web/index.aspx

Historically, bids needed to be fed exed to each committee member, an
expense that far exceeded $50 per team.  With the advent of the
computer, bids were emailed.  The next step in electronic application
has now arrived.  Thanks to the fabulous work of John Bruschke, we are
now ready to use computer generated bids, which will make everyone?s
life easier.  However, there are expenses related to web design and
upkeep.  In order to defray these costs the committee has instituted a
fee.  The actual rules changes that passed are listed below.

Motion 1: Amend rule II C 1 b to read:
b. Those subscribing schools wishing to nominate their teams for
At-Large consideration must submit copies of their completed electronic
Official NDT At-Large Application (without covering letters or other
supplementary materials) no later than a February date for First Round
At-Large and a March date for Second Round At-Large. The specific dates
will be established each year by the National Committee. Applications
must be received by this date and sent to the Chair of the National
Committee in accordance with instructions.  Schools submitting at-large
applications must have paid their NDT subscription fee prior to
submitting their application for the bid to be considered.

 Motion 2: Amend rule II C 1 by adding
d. All teams wishing to be considered for an at-large bid must pay
$50.00 to the treasurer of the NDT board of trustees. Payment must be
received by the appropriate deadline for the application.

The fee must be received by the NDT Board of Trustees treasurer (Brett
O'Donnell) by the application deadlines listed below.  Brett is working
on developing a pay-pal system, but also will accept a check or money
order made out to the NDT, RECEIVED BY THE APPLICATION DEADLINE, sent to
the following address:

Brett O'Donnell
NDT Treasurer
Liberty University Debate
1971 University Blvd.
Lynchburg, VA  24502

4. NDT Bid and district dates: More information about the NDT will be
coming out in the Director's newsletter, but here are the dates for
applications.

The NDT is April 2-5, with registration on the 1st.

 DATES FOR APPLYING FOR FIRST AND SECOND ROUND AT LARGE BIDS

                                FIRST ROUND AT LARGE BIDS

Must be received* by Committee Members           February 12, 2004 (5 PM
CST)
Committee calls or e-mail to Director                   February 14-15,
2004
Director Announces                                              February
16, 2004

                                DISTRICT PROCEDURES

Declaration of intent to attend District                 February 17,
2004
Announcement of district bids                           February 18,
2004

                                SECOND ROUND AT LARGE BIDS

Must be received* by Committee Members           March 4, 2004 (5 PM
CST)
Committee calls or e-mail to Director                   March 6-7, 2004
Director Announces                                              March 8,
2004

Note: Director's e-mail         dwparson at ku.edu
        Home Phone      785-843-2382

*Received: now means uploaded on debateresults and the application fee
received by the NDT treasurer.


5. Scouting.
The committee has instituted a new scouting procedure in response to
community demand.  Basically, the committee decided to centralize
scouting, so that all schools had access to information and to limit the
amount of post- and pre-round disruption.  Designated scounts will be
trained to be as least disruptive as possible.  Those not participating
in the collective scouting pool will simply be designated as observers,
and will need to abide by the existing rules concerning scounting passed
a few years back.  The exact changes are below.

Rule IV.F.6 has been amended -- with wording changes to (c) and (d)
added to rule 6.

6.  Tournament disclosure, scouting, and observers
...

c. Observer Guidelines.
(1) Prior to the announcement of the decision in the debate, observers
should collect their information exclusively from the posted disclosure
sheets or from direct observation of the debate.
(2) Observers should not interrupt pre-round preparation by asking
questions of either team.
(3) Observers should not intrude during the debate by reading evidence
or the 1AC. This includes the cross-examination periods.
(4) After the debate, observers should not attempt to read evidence
until all three judges have voted and all tournament scouts have had the
opportunity to collect information. Observers should not interrupt
post-debate discussions.
(5) After the post-round discussion the observers should expect no more
than a ten minute period in which they can inspect evidence for
citations from the debate. Neither scouts nor observers should  copy
entire pieces of evidence, either by hand or electronically.

d) The NDT committee shall appoint scouting co-directors(who are
released from judging requirements), who shall continuously make
available to the tournament participants the information gathered, and
train and direct official scouts who shall:
1) complete pre-tournament scouting training and abide by the rules and
guidelines established for scouts
2) deliver to the scouting directors the information gathered
immediately after the round
3) Have the authority to gather information in ways that do not disrupt
the debate process as directed by the scouting directors
4) Debaters are required to provide evidence they have read only to
judges, opponents, and official scouts who request it.

6. Power matching change:

As some background, pairing procedures are not part of the NDT Standing
Rules, but are under the purview of the director.  However, the
committee has made recommendations in the past concerning power
matching, and the Director has always followed those recommendations.
The existing power matching procedure is one recommended by a past NDT
committee.  As power-matching theory evolved, so, too, have the
recommendations of the committee.

Therefore, in response to feedback from the community, the NDT committee
passed the following:

The NDT Committee recommends that the NDT Director use the following
procedure to equalize sides on brackets in high-low power matched
rounds: Teams with the weakest opposition record should be pulled from
the lower bracket and placed on ballots (then high-low points) in the
higher bracket.

7. Videotaping:  NDT rule IV.F.1 concerning videotaping has been
changed.  It now reads:

?Electronic recording of debates is allowed by official participants and
observers affiliated with a school attending the NDT and by authorized
researchers.?



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