2003 NFCFL ANNUAL MEETING - Minutes

TRINITY PREPARATORY SCHOOL

SATURDAY, MAY 17^TH, 2003 @ 10:00 AM

In attendance – Lynn Owen, Jason Wysong, Dean Rhoads, George Clemens, Beverly Finely, Pat Fallen and Gary Miramonti, Rob Carraway, Darcy Butrimas, Tracy Hansen, David Bilka and Kathi Wells

Dean Rhoads opened meeting

Treasurer report – see report below –

Increased Income – lunches come in, but also paid back out to host schools
Major Expense - $600 worth of ballots, carry us for another two years approximately
Executive Council expense – Dean’s travel to DC for president meeting, Website,
Overage – over paid by schools, had to be repaid
Grand Nationals - $330 more than last year, league paid for lunches, some still owe
Laptop – purchased for tab room needs
Motion made and passed to accept report (9 – 0)

(The agenda has been included within the minutes for easier reference.)

General League Rules

1. Change the range of speaker points in all events: 90 – 100 for IE and 24 – 30 for debate. – Darcy Butrimus (see attached)

Other large tournaments also give very small range of speaker points

Questions were raised on the possibility of more tie,; of weighing of the quality of the rounds, and penalizing offensive actions.

In the case of offensive actions, we will request that the judge go to the tab room for instructions. This was felt to be better due to the collective decision, not just one person, on what is offensive.

Kathi Wells – compromise on 90 points as low ie , suggested 85, so compromise at 88 – seemed agreeable

Lynn Owen – should we lower Debate ones as well? Consensus was no, enough room still within 24.

Voting Upon: Change the range of speaker points in all events: 88 – 100 for IE and 24 – 30 for Debate and deleting categories for what the numbers mean on ballots.

Vote: For – 9, Against – 0 - Passes

2. Change the rule regarding trophies at regular season tournaments so that one award is given for every 6 entries or portion thereof, up to the top six places. Every complete set of six contestants requires a trophy up through 4^th place, with 5^th and/or 6^th place receiving a paperweight. A partial set of contestants earns a paperweight rather than a trophy (e.g.: 15 in Oratory = 1^st Place Trophy, 2^nd Place Trophy, 3^rd Place Paperweight). (see explanation below)

Darcy Butrimus – Trophy up to every 6 contestants – up to six places

1 – 4 trophies, 5&6 – paperweight

Rob Carraway, treasurer, reminded us to be careful of expenses. But we were reminded this is only in limited events.

Beverly Finely suggested that we use small trophies instead of paperweights. After a long discussion on cost, we decided that generic trophies would be as cost efficient as paperweights and the kids like them more.

Voted upon: having trophies for 1^st through 6^th place trophies (in same ratio to contestants as before, one for every six). First through third will remain the same; fourth through sixth will be the same size with separate plates indicating rank (not event or date).

Vote: For – 9, Against – 0 - Passes

3. Enforce the rule that governs which schools may or may not qualify for having a 9^th grade center as a separate school. Furthermore, having met event quotas in one school, don’t allow “fill-in” with students from the 9^th grade. – Kathi Wells

Voted on: If a school has a cross over entry, said entry will be disqualified from the tournament in which they were entered in the wrong school.

Vote: For – 9 Against – 2 - Passes

4. Address the problem of inconsistent time-keeping and use of time signals by judges (especially in Extemporaneous Speaking), perhaps by offering stop watches to judges or mandating that timekeepers be provided. Tracy Hansen

Stop watches are needed for judges; this is a problem at every tournament. Can we make it mandatory to give time signals, …put time signals on ballot

Voted upon: “All schools shall supply each of their judges with a stopwatch and shall use that stopwatch to keep and record accurate time. It will also be each student’s responsibility to specific how they want time signals given.”

Vote: For – 9, Against - 0 - Passes

Eliminate the rule requiring students to have previously participated in the event they are competing in at Grand Finals for at least one preliminary tournament during the year. – Darcy Butrimas (see explanation below)

This rule is restrictive. If students should be allowed to cross to other events even if flexible enough to do so; competition for slots for bigger schools is difficult with a national travel schedule.

Others mentioned that it is nice to know who you are going to be hitting, eliminating this rule makes it a big surprise at Grand Finals. Some disagreed that this was not a problem. This was a league issue. The Prelims should correlate to Grand finals even more not less.

Voted upon: Eliminate the rule requiring students to have previously participated in the event they compete in Grand Finals.

Vote: For - 3, Against – 7 - Fails

Judging Requirements

1. Require that, to judge at CFL tournaments, an adult must attend a league sponsored judge training session and be issued a card certifying his/her training. – Darcy Butrimas (see explanation below)

There was a lengthy discussion centering on the need for judges to be trained better and the best way(s) to do that. A need for standardized training was stressed several times. Enforcement of certifying cards was also seen as a difficulty though it has been done in other places. This was seen as not a voting issue but a place to start generating a viable solution. The possibility of going to a rating system for judges was raised but it will not work on the computer for IE judges.

Issue two below was discussed at the same time. Kathi Wells brought up the difficulty of new judges coming on in the Spring being able to make the two tournament requirement. This could severely limit judges available for Grand Finals. A compromised was reached below.

Voted: “The board shall write a judge training manual by Sept 15. All coaches will distribute the manual to their judges and shall certify that their judges will be trained by reading that manual. All judges at grand finals must have previously judged in their pool in one CFL preliminary tournament that school year. No previous experience or judging outside of CFL shall take the place of this requirement. Qualified pool shall include Debate (including LD and TD) or IE (all other events).”

Vote: For – 9, Against - 0

2. Require that all judges at Grand Finals have previously judged their event at least twice at preliminary tournaments. Schools without qualified judges would need to adjust their entries accordingly.

This issue was addressed, amended and voted upon along with Issue 1.

3. Subtract one judge from the quota of any school that has an officer or coach working in the tab room at a tournament. – Darcy Butrimas (see explanation below)

This was clarified as being a regular judge, not the golden judge.

Vote: For - 9, Against – 0 - Passes

4. Currently, if a judge is meant to cover a fractional number of competitors (1 – 4 contestants in IE or 1 contestant in LD), the League requires the maximum number of competitors to be dropped if the school is below its quota. Change this rule so that the smallest number of contestants will suffer from a team not providing the requisite number of judges. – Lynn Owen

Minimal discussion.

Vote: “ Any team that makes a drop at any NFCFL tournament shall drop the minimum number of students that judge represents in the pool.”

Vote: For - 9, Against – 0 - Passes

5. Golden Judge Rule needs to be reduced for small entry schools. – Lynn Owen

This rule results in one competitor needing two judges which is very difficult for small schools. There should be a cut off due to size of school, as it is too hard to get a small program started. Tab staff brought up that it is because of the golden judge rule that we have been finishing at an early hour this year. A compromise was proposed that the golden judge rule be lifted for those schools with four entries.

“Any School with four entries or less at the time of entry submission to an NFCFL Tournament shall not be required to provide a golden judge for that tournament. This rule is not affected by subsequent drops. “

Vote: For – 11, Against – 0 - Passes

Calendar/Hosting

1. Require that meals at all league tournaments be prepared by commercial vendors. – Darcy Butrimas (see attached)

This was presented as a legal issue. Since we make all participates buy the lunch, the quality needs to be guaranteed by an outside vender. Cost of meals being higher was raised and many judges offered contacts for those coaches to get good service at a reasonable price. The judge food and concessions sold to students are not included since it is not a required purchase.

Vote: yes – 8, Against – 0 - Passes

2. Create a calendar for 2003 – 2004, with the following requests for hosting:

A. Winter Springs for Grand Finals March 12

B. Cypress Creek for Grand Finals or another prelim tournament Nov 8/15

C. Trinity Catholic for a prelim tournament (in Ocala) (Rejected by the membership due to lack of information)

D. Eastside for a prelim tournament in February or March (Feb 28)

E. Trinity Prep for a prelim tournament in October Oct 4

Other Schools at the meeting also submitted host request.

A vote was called for who shall host Grand Finals: Winter Springs vs. – 10, Cypress Creek – 1

Tentative CFL Calendar – Schools are checking with administration. A full calendar will be emailed to all schools once it is finalized.

Oct 4 – CFL, novice and Judge training – Trinity Prep

Oct 18 or 25 – CFL 1 – Lake Brantley

Nov 8 or 15 – CFL 2 - Cypress Creek

Dec 13 - CFL – 3 – CFL 3 - Buchholtz - Gainesville

Jan 10 – CFL – 4 – CFL 4 - Colonial

February 28 – CFL 5 – 5^th Eastside- Gainesville

March 12 & 13 – Grand Finals - Winter Springs

3. Offer schools $200 - $250 as an incentive to host tournaments, up to $1,000 per year payable from the treasury of the NFCFL.

One of the main reasons for this incentive is to defray costs, such as custodial, that host schools incur. Rob Carraway advised that we ought to raise entry fees in order to cover this cost and that it could set a precedent we may not be able to fulfill at later times. He proposed a school fee in order to help with this cost.

Moved: to add a $10 school fee to go to the host school for reimbursement of costs.

Vote: For - 8, Against - 1 - Passes

4. Establish a written cost for food that host schools can charge for meals at Grand Finals. – Lynn Owen

The main purpose of this was to have something in writing. It was brought up that we might need to revisit this as time goes on due to inflation of costs.

Voted Upon: Establish a cost of $20 per student for Grand Finals (to include Friday Dinner and Saturday Lunch) with extra lunches $5 and extra dinners $7.

Vote: For – 9, Against – 1 - Passes

Individual Event Rules

1. Change the rule for all scripted events to require that, if material comes from an anthology, the table of contents must be included along with the title and publication page for Script Review. – Darcy Butrimas

This is necessary to ensure that our students meet the NCFL requirements.

Vote: For - 9, Against – 0 - Passes

2. Abolish the rule requiring that a scripted piece be retired if it wins 1^st, 2^nd, or 3^rd place at a prelim tournament with eighteen (18) or more contestants in the event. Darcy Butrimas (see explanation below)

This is an old rule that is not enforceable. We do not keep records to track this. Other events do not have to retire cases or bills. It doesn’t give that competitor much chance to perform the piece before Grand Finals. On the other hand, it was brought up that it reduces domination by one piece to give others a chance.

Vote: For – 5, Against - 4 - Passes

Debate Event Rules

1. Change the pairing of debate rounds so that all powered rounds are done “high-low within brackets” rounds 3 – 5 and repeal current regulations regarding pairing of rounds at Grand Finals so that schools are not able to hit each other in preliminary rounds. – Jason Wysong

Jason Wysong explained that we experimented with rules to deal with issues, etc. We currently do straight powered. In elimination rounds, the computer program will not put same schools together, so after round two we went to cards and pairing by hand and tab by hand at that point. This is one reason why we ran so late this year at Grand Finals. Standard pairing rules, schools can’t hit, is not as bad as making tab error by hand.

It was argued that this meant that some schools will hit over and over with the same cases but then again, these schools have multiple cases. Also, teams debate each other all the time in practice so doing so in the tournament is not beneficial.

Vote: For – 7, Against - 2 - Passes

2. Change tie breaks in debate events to: 1) Win-Loss Record 2) Ranks 3) Points – Darcy Butrimus (see explanation below)

This takes us back to the way it was before; opponents record is too random. This is not for brackets, only for randomly paired tournament, so the rules will now be the same for all tournaments.

Vote: For – 9, Against – 0 - Passes

3. Abolish the extra $5 per contestant entry fee for Policy Debate. – Rob Carraway

Only $150 of this was used this year, no one ever gave names for judges, just collected but not really used. Jason explained that there had been a problem hiring judges in that there is a bias opinion of who gets hired and those judges are sometimes still blocked against schools due to past work.

Vote: For - 8, Against - 1 - Passes

4. Add Ted Turner Debate to the list of events offered at NFCFL tournaments. – Kathi Wells

Since this is only offered at a few tournaments, it would be good to have it available at CFL for practice purposes only. Concern about enough room lead to the suggestion to limit this entry to two teams per school.

Agreed that we would use NFL rules and NFL judge ballot. The judge may therefore only be a coach that teaches or a parent, not a college student or coach that does not also teach.

Voted upon: Ted Turner Debate will be offered as a extra event at all NCFL preliminary tournaments that have available room space. Only two entries per school shall be allowed. The judge requirements is one judge per every two entries or fraction thereof and may not be filled by college students. Trophies will be awarded by the same ratio as other Debate events. The event will not count toward Grand Final qualification.

Vote: For – 8, Against - 1 - Passes

Constitutional Changes

Jason Wysong – Discussed and voted as a whole:

For – 9, Against - 0 - Passes

1. Insert the School Achievement Award guidelines into the NFCFL Constitution.

2. Establish the position of Second Vice-President as a permanent office on the Executive Committee and redefine the duties of the First & Second Vice-Presidents.

3. Delete all references in the NFCFL Constitution to the NFCFL newsletter and insert language regarding the NFCFL website where appropriate.

4. Replace all US mailings required by the NFCFL Constitution with electronic distribution and online voting.

5. Repeal By-Law # 3 requiring that the President vote on all matters before the Executive Committee.

6. Amend By-Law # 5 to require that a quorum of the Executive Committee (a majority of officers) be present at all NFCFL tournaments.

7. Authorize the Executive Committee to update the NFCFL Constitution and By Laws to reflect current procedures.

Overhaul of Entry System

1. Adopt online entry for all 2003 – 2004 NFCFL tournaments. – Jason Wysong

This will eliminate phone entry, mistakes, missing deadlines, getting busy signals, faxes being illegible, etc. Online confirmation and email will be received by coaches. This also gives a chance to collect more information. There will be a page for corrections/ changes. But any early entry changes are still treated as drops. Entries will be due Monday at 4 PM.

2. Replace Student Congress topic system with submission of legislation online.

Student Congress legislation shall be submitted on line via the NFCFL website and email. Legislation will be distributed to all participants prior to the day of the tournament in the same fashion. The contestants for each tournament will determine the topics of the legislation. In order to be accepted, all legislation must follow NFCFL Congress manual format. If bills do not come in correct format, they will be put on a reserve agenda, to be used only if all bills are already debated. Said bill will lose authorship, and will take a sponsorship from the floor.

1 and 2 above voted together:

Vote: For – 9, Against – 0 - Passes

Adjourn

Treasurer's Report

2002-2003

(5/17/03)

Beginning Balance 4850.96 Income

Guarantee Fees

Membership Fees &

Tournament Fees 20697

TOTAL 20697 25547.96

Expenses

Lunch payments 11452.00

Ballot Printing 600.00

Executive Council 1791.64

Guarantee Refunds 500.00

Overage 435.00

Judges 150.00

National Membership 594.00

Grand Nationals 2572.00

Postage 46.20

Trophies 3882.70

TOT AL (22023.54) 3524.42

Outstanding

Guarantee Refunds 00.00) 2124.42

Lunch Fees 472.00 2596.42

Laptop (1424.00) 1172.42

TOTAL 1172.42

The reason for this suggestion is simple. We have had difficulties all year with judges that are not adequately trained to render a fair verdict in competition. This is not an attempt to bar people from judging, it is just an attempt to facilitate the creation of a viable pool of qualified judges at tournaments. We all offer judge training sessions. We could offer a SANCTIONED judge training session PRIOR to our first preliminary tournament in several sections of the state. These judges would be issued laminated

cards certifying their training. In the case of policy judges, they would probably have to attend a full day of training in that event to become fairly proficient.

We should encourage people to serve as officers. Since they must spend the whole

day working non-stop in tabulation, it is only fair to relieve one judge from their school' s quota. This is usually done nationally as well. It is a common precedent.

This is inspired by legal concerns. If a commercial vendor is used, and food poisoning occurs, the vendor is responsible. If the school is making their own food, then they are liable in cases of food poisoning, and the league shares responsibility for allowing this to occur. Since the league REQUIRES the purchase of a lunch as part of the entry fee, only commercial vendors should be allowed due to safety and liability issues.

This rule needs to be abolished due to the fact that it is unenforceable. It is not too likely that these pieces are going to be tracked all season for all of the students involved. Since there is only a two tournament requirement for GF, many of these students will move to another event anyway. As the league grows in numbers, it is very likely that events will have more than 18 participants. This will get to be quite impossible to track, and generally unfair to students overall. This is an old, old rule that was inherited from when we were in the Miami League. It is not necessary now.

This year we changed the first tie-breaker in debate to opponents' record for all tournaments that were randomly paired. It will not be as necessary to keep this as the preliminary tie breaker if we institute a smaller range of speaker points. We can return to the old way of speaker points first. It was not really fair as students did not pick their opponents in the four rounds of debate, and they were ranked upon this basis. We should return to the original method of 1) Win/Loss Record, 2) Ranks, 3) Points, 4) Opponents' Records.