[eDebate] Time to Review the Merger

[Andy Ellis]

despite the fact that what Gary says  is true i believe ceda could craft
topics if it wanted to that would force a crisis. Perhaps if the
organization decided that it wanted a separation it could challenge the
understanding of what makes a policy resolution. Im not saying i want this
per se, but i do believe that demerging could take place...maybe...

On 6/8/06, Gary Larson <Gary.N.Larson at wheaton.edu> wrote:

>

>  Andy's call to evaluate the effects of the "merger" between CEDA and NDT

> is an important call do something that is a necessary part of institutional

> decision-making. If we're not self-reflective about the impact of decisions

> we make, we will inevitably evolve in directions that are less than ideal.

>

> But the final paragraph of Andy's post deserves comment.  He asks

> presumably the historically CEDA part of his audience,

>

> "Do we still want to be a part of the NDT process? Has it paid off for

> us?"

>

> The irony here is that the "merger" such as it is was not a CEDA decision

> to be part of the NDT process.  It was rather an NDT decision to be part of

> the CEDA process.  The watershed moment was a decision by the NDT community

> to adopt the CEDA topic.  The conditions for that decision - that the topic

> be worded as a policy resolution and that there only be one topic per year -

> had both been essentially already adopted by the CEDA community independent

> of any possibility that the NDT would adopt the CEDA topic.

>

> As a result, the topic selection process remains uniquely a CEDA

> constitutional function, even if some fret that it has been co-opted.  If

> CEDA were to decide that Andy's concern is warranted and that CEDA no longer

> wanted to be part of the NDT process, it would discover that unilateral

> disengagement is impossible.  The question is not whether CEDA adopts the

> NDT topic - it's whether the NDT adopts the CEDA topic.  Besides topic

> construction there really is no merger (other than that defined by travel

> patterns and choices to attend one or both of the national tournaments - but

> a number of schools played on both sides of the street long before there was

> talk of a merger).

>

> Given a somewhat popular narrative that says that CEDA lost programs to

> Parli because it capitulated to NDT, the real story is perhaps even more

> interesting.

>

> GARY

>

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