[eDebate] ???Overturning Roe v Wade????

[Josh Hoe]

I believe that the reason for this is precisely because it has to be a
flexible process in order to work.  If hard and fast dates were mandated in
the constitution it would make the topic committee work unworkable at
certain times.  As I recall, from my terms, it has become a much more open
process over the years.

I am not sure about the topic committee chair thing - that only started a
few years ago.

Josh


On 4/10/06, Sarah Snider <snider.sj at gmail.com> wrote:

>

>  I do think that Steve has worked hard to better the process.

> Unfortunately the CEDA constitution does not even mention some of the things

> that steve has initiated.

>

> Pages 16 and 17 of the CEDA constitution discuss topic selection (I've

> pasted it below)

>

> Some comments that I have about this process.

> 1. The constitution does not have a timeline for topic paper submissions?

>

> 2. The constitution says nothing about the term of the chair. Is the chair

> the chair from the point they are elected until their term on the committee

> ends? Do we elect one every year?

>

> 3. What are the duties of the Chair? According to the constitution they

> just show up. Steve has clearly gone above and beyond the charge of the CEDA

> constitution

>

> 4. the constitution says nothing about topic "wording papers" which I

> understand are different from topic area papers (this would be one of

> Steve's recent initiatives).

>

> 5. Didn't we just change the topic release date? This should be updated in

> the constitution.

>

> 6. and lastly aren't people voting with passwords on a website? The

> constitution says that these votes won't be counted because they are not

> faxed, mailed, or emailed. I think this is problematic.

>

> ******CEDA CONSTITUTION

>

> Section 1: The CEDA Topic Selection Committee will be responsible for

> choosing problem areas and writing debate topics. The CEDA Topic Selection

> Committee will consist of nine members: The President, 1st Vice President,

> 2nd Vice President, three at-large members, one student representative, one

> representative appointed by the National Debate Tournament, and one

> representative appointed by the American Debate Association. Open

> nominations for the at large members will be solicited at the Fall business

> meeting. The term of office of the three at large representatives will be

> three years, and to provide for overlap one will be elected each year.

>

>

>

> Section 2: Within two weeks of the national tournament the committee will

> report to the

>

> Executive Secretary no fewer than three problem areas to be voted upon by

> the general

>

> membership. In early July the committee will report to the Executive

> Secretary no fewer than three resolutions corresponding to the winning topic

> area. The resolutions should be phrased so as to affirm the value of future

> and specific governmental change, and suggesting a broad but predictable

> array of potential affirmative plans.

>

>

>

> Section 3: The Executive Secretary will distribute a topic selection

> ballot to all CEDA members in early July. Only mailed, faxed, or emailed

> ballots received by the deadline designated by the Executive-Secretary will

> be accepted. The designated deadline must be no more than five days before

> the topic announcement date.

>

>

>

> Section 4: Topics will be selected through a proportional voting system.

> Voters will be required to rank as many choices as they wish, consecutively,

> with one being the first rank. After all votes are cast, the number of valid

> ballots will be determined, and it will require a majority of that number

> (50% plus one) of first place votes for a choice to be elected. All first

> place votes will be counted. If one choice receives a majority, it wins. If

> not, the choice with the LEAST first place votes will be thrown out, and

> ballots that had the discarded choice as first will be counted using their

> second place votes. This process will be repeated until one choice attains a

> majority. If two or more of the choices to be eliminated have equal numbers

> of first place votes, they will be eliminated together, with second place

> votes for both added to the respective first place totals on the same round.

> If a choice is eliminated and its second choice is already eliminated, that

> ballot's third choice will count as a first choice, and so forth.

>

>

>

> Section 5: The CEDA topic will be announced on the last Friday in July.

> When announcing election results, the Executive Secretary shall report the

> total number of ballots received and the vote totals for each topic wording.

>

>

>

>

> Revised as of January 31, 2003 (questions, contact

> jeffrey.jarman at wichita.edu )

>

>

>

> Section 6: The chair of the Topic Selection Committee will be a committee

> member selected by a majority vote of the committee.

>

>

>

> Section 7: The Executive Secretary shall, upon receipt of a problem area

> ballot or a topic wording ballot, provide acknowledgement of its receipt via

> email to the sender. The notification shall not disclose the particular

> vote, but is merely intended to inform the sender their ballot has been

> received and will be tabulated. The Executive Secretary shall inform any

> member of problems with their ballot at this time ( e.g. improperly

> completed ballot). When announcing results, the Executive Secretary shall

> report

>

> ********

>

> Just some observations. I know I'm not a member of the CEDA executive

> committee or anything I don't want to make it seem like I don't respect

> those who do put in serious effort into this organization and process, but

> we definitely need to at least bring the constitution in line with the way

> we are actually doing things.

>

> Sarah

>

>

>  On 4/10/06, Mikedavis13 at aol.com <Mikedavis13 at aol.com> wrote:

>

> >   There are some CEDA by laws that govern topic committee meeting, but

> until recently there was not much structure to how the topic committee

> actually worked. Steve has done a great job in the past few years

> formalizing the procedures, but my guess is they could use some codification

> in CEDA documents. This is probably the job of the CEDA leadership as

> opposed to the topic committee.

>

> Mike

>

> In a message dated 4/10/2006 3:01:50 PM Eastern Daylight Time,

> snider.sj at gmail.com writes:

>

> The first post on this thread indicated there was no paper on this

> particular case. I was just asking for confirmation regarding this claim.

>

> I am also wondering if there are documents that are publicly available

> that discuss the governance of the topic committee.

>

> I know about the process and that anyone can come to the meeting and

> participate. I am more concerned about general topic committee governance

> than the topic selection process.

>

> Sj

>

>

>

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