[eDebate] scouting

[Rob Eback]

I have definitely benefited from caselists and would like to see them
proliferate at the "big dance" and any other tournament that's willing to
put the work into doing them.  These are a couple things that I think could
happen to improve the system at the NDT.

It seems to me that one solution is to compel more people to be official
scouts since it sounds like there was more people than necessary in some
rounds scouting and getting the same info. How to do this? Tell the debaters
that they have to give their evidence to official tournament assigned scouts
ONLY. Their incentive for controlling who gets to record their cites is that
they are giving doubly and getting half as much. If they forced scouts to
spread out and scout other rounds then they would be increasing their chance
of getting back from the system what they put into it (or more accurately,
allowed the scouts to put into it).  Give the scouts badges or something to
identify themselves as official tournament scouts.

This is not to say that we should kick people out of the room so that only
the scouts can get caselist info after the rounds. I still think anyone
should be able to watch the rounds, but when it comes to getting the cards
after the round the judges and scout should have exclusive domain.

Furthermore, I think that any unnecessary financial roadblocks should be
removed for people willing to come to the NDT to scout (potentially giving
up part of their spring break). I don't know what this observer fee is for,
but charging a school $200 to bring an extra person seems ludicrous to me.
And is definitely a disincentive for school who have people who would have
liked to traveled to the NDT to see rounds/scout but for whatever financial
considerations could not make it happen.

Also, we flat out need to do something to compel people to show up to get
their scouting assignments. I think this is a good place where we could
exert some positive social control. We are a relatively small community
amongst ourselves, even more so at the NDT, so I don't see why we wouldn't
tell our friends in the debate community "hey, don't you have a round to
scout?" or something similar but less lame than I sound. And make sure
people show up. Beyond that, I don't know what we could really do to impose
accountability upon the scouts short of fining the school the scout is from
and that seems to me like it would open up a whole host of problems that may
be more costly than need be.

That's all I got for now. Let the dissent begin.

Rob Eback
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