[eDebate] The Return of Darth Chef--CEDA President's Report March 2006

[Ceda2vp at cs.com]

On his final episode of South Park, Chef (played by Isaac Hayes) is 
apparently killed in a jungle by a series of animals (in retaliation for his ill-timed 
allegiances) only to be recovered and turned into Darth Chef.  Breathing 
heavily, he stumbles across Will and decides to offer ideas about his president's 
report. 
"Beer, chil'run.  You should just write it about beer".   
"What,  Chef?  Where's Tom Cruise", responds Baker.    
"Your CEDA President's report, chil'run.  Write it about beer.  Imports, 
local breweries, microbreweries, I even have a list of Chinese beers."   
"Umm..what's a chil'run?  Don't you have some religious freedom protest to be 
at.  go away."  

Chef looked at Will and decides to tread lightly as he sees him exhibiting 
signs of the dreaded CHS-CEDA Hosting Syndrome-the disease that afflicts CEDA 
presidents most years around this time.  
"But, they'd READ it.  They like beer.  They don't care about programs, 
initiatives, or any type of data.  I report on stuff and then poof it disappears. 
No one remembers a month later.  Beer has staying power!! Think about it, 
chil'run.  Do the right thing."   
"Who are you, Spike Lee?  Look, I don't have time to deal with this.  I'm 
getting 600 extra e-mails a day.  I even got an enrollment certification form 
from one director which says, Melancholy University.  What the heck is Melancholy 
University????" 
"Salty balls.  Love me some salty balls", suddenly Chef breaks into song.
"Huh. Chef, this is an academic organization. We don't really talk like that 
except in the porn good debates." 
"Gotta. get 'em.  Gotta have 'em.  Sweet lovin'"   
Losing patience, Baker tries to get Darth Chef to snap out of it "This 
discussion is silly. You don't even drink beer. Put down your light sabre and your 
Breshears bobble head doll and let me write this report."
Chef puts down the doll but inquires, "When I finish can I watch the Colbert 
Report with O'Donnell again, chil'run?"  
"Yes, we DVRed it.  Didn't everyone?"
The saga continues….


PRESIDENT'S REPORT: MARCH 2006 

ABCD Awards
The recipients of the Above and Beyond the Call of Duty Awards for this 
period are ML Sandoz for her work in the tab room and on-going support during this 
year, Heather Walters for agreeing to help locate the next generation of 
techies to assume the critical roles of Bruschke, TC, Larson and others, Darren 
Elliott for his diligence and friendship and Tim Mahoney for setting standards 
for effective communication by a tournament host that will be hard to beat.   
The final ABCD award goes to Vik Keenan, Claire McKinney, and Joe Keeton whose 
presence allowed our squad to make tremendous strides despite their Director's 
simultaneous absorption in having a baby, being CEDA president and launching 
the Associated Leaders of Urban Debate (ALOUD) nationally.

Reflections 
Thank you for the opportunity to serve this community.   With any leadership 
role, there are trials and tribulations and always more work to be done.  
Special thanks to the officers, regional representatives, CEDA Nationals tab 
staff, and volunteers who contributed to my growth as a president and this year's 
activities.  We've accomplished a great deal this year.   Highlights include:

a)  moving CEDA nationals online and beginning credit card registration;
b)  redesigning our website (www.cedadebate.org) to be more member friendly 
including  names and contact info for regional representatives, creating 
gateways to debateresults.com, and providing easy-to-find documents for program 
building;
c)  introduction of an alumni sign-in process and laying the groundwork for 
an alumni process;  
d)  streamlining the awards application process leading to the largest number 
of award submissions for All-Americans in history;
e)  began to codify standing rules for CEDA Nationals competition;
f)  establishing benchmarks and primers for regional representatives;
g)  creating 
h)  getting listed as a sponsor for a History Channel program with debate.  

I wish that we had been able to develop a stronger connection between student 
representatives and regional representatives, foster more extensive 
discussion on the important subject of Regional Healthy Debate Communities, completed 
the Director's Debate Support Kit and/or the How to Seek Tenure Advisory and 
made progress in the conversation on a more sustainable model for CEDA Nationals 
hosting.   Others will have to determine which, if any, of those items are 
critical to the organization's development in the future. 

Special Elections
We completed the special election.  Congratulations and good luck to Joe 
Patrice who is still enjoying his first 100 days and to Darren Elliot.  

CEDA Nationals 2006
Many people should be thanked in relation to this CEDA Nationals.  Thanks to 
the University of Texas at Austin for their generous donation including 
District Three residual fees that helped offset breakfast expenses.  Special thanks 
to St. Mark's Academy for their extensive in-kind donations including copiers, 
staff power, ballot runners, trophy storage and a host of other elements that 
led to successfully running a tournament.  Equally important were the 
contributions of the IMPACT Coalition which include extensive in-kind staff time of 
Liz Wang before the tournament and Mark Douglas during the tournament, website 
access for credit card donation and the willingness to absorb the transaction 
fees as a donation to CEDA during this first year experiment.  A vast majority 
of members used the credit card option.  

This CEDA Nationals represented many changes.  Some have been identified.  
Others have not.  We eliminated the copying of ballots with no information, sent 
packets electronically and distributed information through electronic sources 
to reduce costs and paper consumption.   I await Tim's report on CEDA 
Nationals 2006 and models for future years and will look to add my own reflections as 
well.  There is a need to examine our host identification process, cost 
structure and expectations for CEDA Nationals. 
Thanks to Don Brownlee for connecting us with our history through his 
presence at the opening Awards ceremony.  

Alumni Association
We are 30% to our goal of signing up 100 members by the end of 2006.  I need 
your help.  Please visit www.cedadebate.org and sign up today.  We need every 
former CEDA debater (even you old fogey directors) to participate.  

Transition
Officers serve through June of 2006.  That gives you a considerable amount of 
time to develop short memos that create institutional memory.  I encourage 
all officers and regional reps to provide that basic information to those that 
follow so we can begin to professionalize our offices and codify our services.  

 
Community Participation
I've said it before and I'll  say it again.  If every coach and debater 
volunteered two hour a month to work on CEDA business, we would have an extra 
10,000 person hours to get stuff done.   Find your niche and help.  Talk is cheap.  


Your 2005-06 CEDA President,


Will Baker


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