2002

2002-2003 Business Meeting Agenda

North Florida Catholic Forensic

League

1. A proposal to have all fees paid by a school for a tournament (lunches and registration) be paid to the league. The league will then pay the host school for food-related costs.

Justification: Some schools order food and do not pay or pay with a check that then bounces. Underpayments, missed payments or delayed payments harms the host school, who typically has no recourse. This harms the willingness of schools who host from hosting again. The league, on the

other hand, can sanction non-paying schools by simply not allowing them to compete when fees are not paid in a timely fashion.

2. A proposal to modify bylaw 28, which imposes a $600 fine for a school who drops entries to Grand

Nationals, to go into effect two weeks after Grand Finals.

Justification: This will allow a reasonable grace period in which schools can determine whether a student has an unavoidable conflict but still permits the alternate to find inexpensive airfare to Nats.

3. A proposal to clarify schools with both senior high schools and ninth grade centers/ middle schools.

When having a ninth grade center:

--grades 7-9 must be entered here

--grades 10-12 must be entered in the high school

--duo and policy debate pairs cannot be drawn from from both schools. (There may be HS duos and MS duos, of course. Same for policy teams.)

--such designated entries should be consistent from one tournament to the next. (Students designated MS in one tournament should always be entered as a MS student and not as a HS student at a later tournament.)

--Students from different divisions of the same school CAN hit one another in rounds.

4. A proposal to clarify expectations for the training of judges.

Judges need to be carefully trained by coaches who recruit them. Coaches should explain that judges have an educational role and so must avoid making comments which demean, belittle or verbally punish children. Inappropriate comments from judges will result in the judge being dropped from the judging

pool at that tournament. This may result in students from that judge's school being dropped from the tournament, consistent with the judging ratio. At the direction of the executive committee, offending judges may be precluded from judging at future league tournaments.

Justification: Judges have sometimes said and sometimes written comments to students that were seriously inappropriate. Currently, there is no provision in the constitution for dealing with such judges. This proposal is designed to give the league officers a method for dealing with such a situation.

5. Congress Topics for 2002/2003 (Jason Wysong )

6. Congress rule changes. (Jason and Kathi)

7. The possible demise of the league as the North Florida Catholic

Forensic League.

2002-2003 Business

Meeting Agenda

North Florida

Catholic Forensic League

Treasurer's Report (Rob Carroway)

Tournament Schedule for 2002-2003 school year

Miscellaneous

CFL Meeting – May 19

Minutes

In attendance: Kathi Wells (Winter Springs), Dean Rhoads, Darcy Butrimas (Trinity Prep), Barbara Bowers (Celebration), Susan Miramonti, Pat Fallan (Colonial), Terri Sanders (Lake Highland), Rob Carraway (Lake Brantley), Jason Wysong (Cypress Creek), Marisa Davis (Windermere Prep.)

Dean open the agenda with the Treasurer’s report (see attached).

Rob Carraway mentioned that the treasurer’s report does not reflect outstanding end of the year bills. We are also planning on buying a laser printer to make tournaments run faster.

The report was accepted by a unanimous vote.

The Calendar was set as followed

October 26: Open (Lake Highland are checking into the possibility of hosting.)

November 16: Winter Springs H.S., Orlando

December 14: Colonial H.S., Orlando

January 11: Trinity Prep., Orlando

March 8: Eastside H.S.

March 28 & 29: Grand Finals, Ridgeview H.S., Jacksonville

Eastside requested February 8. The proposed schedule also had two weeks in a row in November. After a long discussion, we decided that February 8^th needs to be left open in order to prepare for Harvard the following week. Having two tournaments in a row was also solved by opening a march date. Dean will ask Eastside if March is possible.

Agenda Business

1. Entry Form Change to have entry and food fee together. A prelim CFL will now cost $10 and Grand Finals $20. TD entries will cost $15 a student at prelims and $25 a student at Grand Finals because of the additional judge fee in that event. Schools will write one check to NFCFL and the league will then write a check to the host school for meal costs. This check should also include $5 for each judge meal.

2. There was discussion about allowing time to find conflicts including financial burdens. It was felt that without a penalty, many would compete knowing they would not go to nationals. It was agreed that the judge quota for nationals should go in Grand Finals communication packet.

The item was voted down. Everything will stay as is with more communication.

3. The issues discussed were problems in the Tab room with setting rounds, large blocks, double entries should mean double responsibility. Grand Finals can only allow 9-12 grade due to national rules.

Measure was voted in.

Schools must register as one High School. Or, if the school meets the qualifications, they may register as a High School and Middle School or a High School and 9 Grade Center. Students can not cross over from HS to MS/9 grade center.

All schools, regardless of classification must be the same school fee of $50.

4. Trinity is hosting a judge and novice training on August 24 & 25. Saturday is for Judges, there is no fee and all are encouraged to attend.

There was a discussion of a judge’s handbook.

In the discussion of whether we can eject Judges who make inappropriate comments/actions, the need for judges to run the tournament was discussed. It was decided that every team should bring their quota plus one judge who can judge any event. The all events judge will be used during the tournament. With this extra judge, tournament will run more smoothly and if a judge is ejected, the tournament can continue running as is. If a team has a second judge ejected, it may then need to drop students.

Adding this extra judge was voted upon and passed 7/2.

The agenda item was passed as written 7/0/1.

5. Lynn Owen brought several concerns: a. Too few judges – solved by all events judged above. b. No item b

c. Breaking ties in Policy Debate in unpowered tournaments: After a long discussion, it was determined that after win/lose record, opponents record will be used, than speaker points, than ranks, than head to head, random numbers.

This was extended to LD where it will also be win/lose, opponents record, speaker points, head to head, random numbers.

Both of these rules are only for unpowered tournaments. For Grand Finals, the break will be: win/lose, speaker points, head to head, random numbers.

d. Judge Strike Rule: Concern over judges that appeared to have specific bias. It was determined that a strike rule would cause way too many problems in tab. The consensus was that we needed to remind judges to recuse themselves if needed and for coaches not to bring judges with established bias. The strike rule suggestion was withdrawn.

e. Hard copy of a directory of CFL: Kathi Wells volunteered to handle this.

6. Congress topics were accepted as given.

7. No Congress rules changed.

8. Discussion of situation. The president of the league has received information which leads him to believe that Catholic schools within the geographical borders of the NFCFL might not rejoin the league. The National Constitution requires that each league have one Catholic school member. Without a Catholic school member, the viability of the league comes into question. Action taken: The membership voted to instruct the President to send a letter to the Florida Catholic Schools’ Superintendents Conference addressing the concerns raised by Bishop Kenny High School and officials within the archdiocese.