[eDebate] Business Meetings and the Men Who Love Them: CEDA 2nd VP report

[Ceda2vp at cs.com]

One day Jonah ventured forth and spoke with his neighbor.  "Good friend", he 
began, "my favorite yak was eaten by a tiger".  The neighbor responded, "Mine 
too."  They began to consult about what to do and the first ever "meerting " 
was held.  Since then executives, academics, students and undeserving people 
have suffered through an onslaught of pointless, never ending collections of 
masses with no greater purpose than to attend a "meeting."  

But then a great prophet descended.  They knew her only as "Sandoz, the 
Southern one".  She said, " meetings don't have to be boring and stupid".  And thus 
began, a new age in the land of CEDA.  

I had the joy of sitting in on a bunch of business meetings at NCA and they 
all bled the lifeblood out of their members desipte the membership having 
important issues to discuss.   ML's solution is that we will eliminate over 45 
minutes worth of reports and give us more time to brainstorm regional growth, 
redistricting, competitive rules, tenure support and all of the other good stuff 
that people WANT to talk about but don't get a chance to discuss.  Each officer 
is supposed to send their report out in advance to edebate (I think Jarman 
may send them to directors as well) and we can cut out that phase of the 
meeting.  This strategy works, if you folks:

a) attend the meeting  
b) READ THE STUPID REPORTS IN ADVANCE!! or 
c) no silly, it's not multiple choice.  You need to do A & B.  

Look, even if you don't want to read the reports, you may get trapped into 
going to a CEDA meeting (wrong directions to the bathroom, blackmail tapes by 
Will, evidence trade, etc.) in the future so it behooves you to make it APPEAR 
that you've read these reports so we adopt this change permanently.   
Strategies include:

a) Ask Questions: Intelligent ones, not the ones you saw at districts maybe a 
little more insight (e.g. Hey Will, in section O, subsection a, was it really 
neccessary to point out that Ede Warner can't go left on the basketball 
court?);

b) Be Supportive:  Make the people who wrote the reports feel affirmed.  
(e.g. My God ML, I've never seen such an in-depth analysis of the summer meeting 
as a forum for micropolitical resistance.  All my Zizek debaters will come 
now!).  If you are busy, you can cut and paste the compliment and simply, insert.  
Just be careful to avoid mishap:

My God Jarman, Katsulas has never seen such an in-depth analysis of the 
summer meeting as a forum for micropolitical resistance.  All of his Zizek debaters 
will come now!


Here's how to make it appear that you've read a report: 

c) Use CX skills to ask questions that mimick intellect  
Averaging 6 minutes per round competitively in high school and/or college 
plus 12 minutes per round while judging, most of you have been involved in more 
than 10,000 minutes of cross examination time in your careers.   Harken back to 
the 2000-3000 minutes or so where people made inquiries about:

Spending Links (Hey Greg, what's with this jacuzzi expense marked as 
Treasurer Benefits?)

Status of Counterplan (So under what conditions, can I just kick the whole 
meeting thing and get to gamble if I go to the summer meeting?)

You get the idea.  The important thing is to be responsive so we feel like 
the reports have been read and judge this process a success through anecdotal 
evidence.  Ok, here's my report.  



CEDA 2ND VICE PRESIDENT'S REPORT MARCH 2004 
 
1.  RESEARCH FOR NATIONALS 2004

Very few individuals sought out permission to conduct surveys or other 
research at CEDA Nationals.  We confirmed the ability to do whatever research was 
desirable that emanated from the hotel and secured limited permission for 
on-site research for individuals who made specific requests .

Observations and Suggestions

A-It's unfortunate that more folks aren't doing research at CEDA Nationals 
but we, as an organization, do very little to promote the opportunity.  
B-A section of the website could be devoted to the advantage of doing 
research at CEDA Nationals and explaining what's involved along with other items 
relevant to CEDA Nationals but not part of the invitation or logistics.  

2.  NATIONALS 2006 
We have an excellent bid from Tim Mahoney of St. Mark's and formerly of Pace 
University to hold nationals in Texas.  It is an unusual bid because the model 
uses hotel rooms (provided at no charge by Starwood) next door to a central 
tournament hotel.  UTSA indicated that they will not be submitting a bid at 
this time.  Michigan State expressed tentative interest but it is unclear if a 
bid will be forthcoming.  

Observations and Suggestions

A-It's good that we have a comprehensive packet for hosting nationals.  We 
should develop a way to put that information on our website centrally so anyone 
who wants to host can learn how;
B-Regions should be encouraged to submit collective bids and burden share 
(fundraising for Nationals, joint letters of support, shared volunteer pools, 
etc.) to make it easier to move the tournament across the country and receive 
stable bids.  

3.  NATIONAL COMMUNICATION ASSOCIATION 
NCA will happen from November 11-15, 2004 in Chicago at the Chicago Hilton 
and Towers. The theme is "Moving Forward/Looking Back." We had over 22 
individual papers, panels and other proposals submitted and hope to end up with 9-15 
slots.  They represent a cross-section of both scholarship and age groups 
including an outside law firm and a reporter.  New experiments that were set in 
motion this year included efforts to promote members' scholarship regardless of 
communication specialty, efforts to move debate into greater prominence within 
departments and exploring the desirability of co-sponsorship of programs and 
events to avoid duplication.
The effectiveness of these efforts will be assessed after NCA. 
Observations and Suggestions
A- I've learned that several units use a specific person to do their unit 
planning from year-to-year rather than an officer that changes annually.  Such a 
system for CEDA would allow for development of institutional memory in the 
registration, solicitation and finalizing of proposals and projects and the 
building of relationships between CEDA and the NCA administration.  We might adopt 
a similar model to the topic committee where the 2nd Vice President retains 
oversight but a specific person is tasked with the lead role. 
 B-Krtistina's idea of short courses on team management, fundraising, 
tabulation, tenure strategies or other professional development topics should be 
explored at CEDA Nationals or before NCA to put those programs in place for NCA 
2005. 

4.  NEW INITIATIVES

The regional speakouts and the Passion Survey worked out quite well based on 
feedback I received.  Our ability to hear from our membership through a 
variety of means is important.  Ideas that were advanced that should be reflected 
upon include virtual CEDA internships, alumni contact, outreach strategies and 
the marketability of debate and CEDA specifically.  The CEDA FAQ has received 
ten questions thus far.  I hope to solicit specific questions and answers from 
people within the community that would be helpful to a newcomer.    If we get 
up to 20 questions or so, I will submit them to TC for uploading onto the 
website.  

5.  SUMMER MEETING 2005

If it is still available, I hope to accept the bid from Kansas City and do a 
big push to have lots of students participate.   The CEDA meeting at Gulfport 
was successful because we did not simply do business as usual and spent time 
visioning and brainstorming in non-traditional ways.  I urge that we continue 
this trend.  

Special thanks to ML for all her wise leadership this year and expert 
handling of difficult matters.  


Respectfully Submitted,


Will Baker
CEDA 2ND Vice President

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