[eDebate] NCA CEDA Business meeting, creating conditions for Change.

[NEIL BERCH]

Not to rain on your parade, but CEDA Constitutional Amendments require ratification by a 2/3 vote of the membership (and the majority of members do vote).  Same for By-law changes, except they only require a simple majority.

Again, the simplest (and I think most effective) way to deal with this at this stage is to organize to win two topic votes.  It can be done, though perhaps it will require some of the compromises that Chief and Ede have been bantering about in between the far-more-important discussion of impending Christopher Warner's major league career.

--Neil Berch
West Virginia University
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: scottelliott at grandecom.net<mailto:scottelliott at grandecom.net> 
  To: edebate at ndtceda.com<mailto:edebate at ndtceda.com> 
  Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 1:32 AM
  Subject: [eDebate] NCA CEDA Business meeting, creating conditions for Change.



  I saw it as a coach. I saw it as a concered debate alumni. I see it now as a
  returning coach making a critical decision of how to spend my state's assets
  and my students' time and effort when it comes to teaching argumentation and
  particpating in intercollegiate debate.

  As a former CEDA debater, CEDA coach, CEDA Director of Debate, alumni, and now
  returning
  director, I can provide you with at least one piece of evidence that CEDA
  coaches are tired of being the run-over bitch for the NDT. I said it when the
  merger began, and have been saying it ever since: the NDT schools are playing
  psychological and political jiu jitsu on CEDA in order to preserve their
  numbers. CEDA got sucked into it and played into NDT's hands by switching to a
  single year long policy resolution.

  Add dominance of the "CEDA Topic Committee" by members, or alumni of NDT
  schools, and the domination has become complete. I have watched in horror as
  program after program, no--entire STATES and some regions--have been run out of
  CEDA for no purpose other than to placate 10 or LESS NDT programs. Seriously,
  You can count on two hands the schools that have benefitted from the NDT/CEDA
  merger--almost all of them are schools that were NDT dominant when the merger
  occurred. On the other hand, the merger has harmed over 100 programs (I'd say
  almost 200) and
  prevented the creation of untold numbers of other CEDA college programs.

  As a program director, I am tired of CEDA being the bitch of NDT. I think that
  concrete proposals to sever ties need to be placed on the CEDA business meeting
  agenda for the Fall NCA business meeting.

  There is no doubt in my mind that the small, but politically brilliant and
  effective, group that currently dominate the CEDA/NDT apparachek will be in
  full force at the business meeting to stop any hint of a severence. And,
  an open discussion edebate is probably not the brightest strategy for fomenting
  a revolution. This should be done at the hotel bar, but I cannot afford to
  travel to all the national tournaments, nor afford all the beers necessary to
  create a revolution.

  But, what I am asking is that like minded directors that are still members of
  CEDA,
  join together to create conditions that would make such a break possible.

  Given the current level of apathy in CEDA policymaking, I believe that as few as
  20 directors, with some proxy votes, would be enough to push through a policy
  change.

  My suggestion is a clear, and unequivocal Amendment to the CEDA Constitution:

  That the CEDA National Championship and all tournaments sanctioned for
  sweepstakes points for the Spring 2008 season, beginning January 1, 2008, will
  have as the resolution for debate a resolution that is not the same as the NDT
  resolution and is substantially different from the NDT resolution adopted by
  the NDT for the 2007-2008 debate season.

  Obviously, the wording needs a lot of work.

  However, the focus should be on moving beyond the CEDA/NDT merger to a
  re-capturing of CEDA and CEDA debate, with a focus on making such changes in
  this Fall's CEDA NCA business meeting.

  This means having concerend directors work on drafting appropriate wording.

  This means creating the political conditions (read--stacking enough votes) to
  achieve the necessary changes.


  Scott Elliott

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