Jim's insights are always very much appreciated. I would note two details that folks should consider.
1) Any amendments to the CEDA topic process require amending CEDA's rules. The current rules specify a number of deadlines that the committee uses. Any such change to this process must come from the membership and be approved as with any legislative reform. This is not an item the topic committee can address directly. I would just ask that legislative reforms of this nature consider the whole process, including the sequencing of summer meetings, announce date, etc. The committee must work within the procedures established by the CEDA membership so a clear system is essential. 2) We have moved this year to provide additional guidance in the first balloting. The introduction of the concept of controversy papers and the effort to phase out 'area' papers is a reflection that schools should have some greater sense of what these potential topics included. I would not say that we are mandating specific resolutions, as Jim suggests, but we are looking for factors (like directionality and type of reforms) that would be common to resolutions in that paper. The basic approach is we had a lot of confusion as to what 'China' meant, but we would have less confusion if the first ballot addressed 'reducing US trade deficit with China.' The later is still too vague to be a final resolution, but it provides additional insight to voters as they consider their options. I have tried to explain this in the public meetings and on the topic site. If you would like further clarification, please review the new guidelines for controversy papers at the topic site. Specifically, those guidelines are linked at http://www.cedatopic.com/controversy.html Gordon Gordon Stables, Ph.D. Director of Debate Annenberg School for Communication University of Southern California Office: 213 740 2759 Fax: 213 740 3913 http://usctrojandebate.com <http://usctrojandebate.com> Jim Hanson wrote: >I encourage people to comment and be involved in this process. > >I also want to take this opportunity to reiterate my support for changing >the process of selecting topics to: > >1. have topic areas/analysis handled immediately after the ndt when people >are ready to start really thinking about the next year's topics. > >2. have resolutions included in the topic areas when we do our first vote. >topic areas are just too broad and a good topic area can be ruined by the >resolutions that are actually chosen. > >respectfully > >jim :) >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Gordon Stables" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: "ceda-l" <[email protected]>; "edebate" <[email protected]> >Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 12:40 PM >Subject: [CEDA-L] Topic Process Reminder - 10 days until >area/controversypaper deadline > >Greetings all. This is very busy time of year for everyone, but there is >still enough time to organize and submit work for a paper that can help >craft next year's topic. The deadline for submissions is March 1. Paper >on any subject is welcome and there are guidelines available to help >organize your work. > >http://www.cedatopic.com/ Has the list of areas currently under >development, the guidelines for paper submission and the topic blog, >where you can leave comments about potential topics. > >If you have any questions, please let me know. > >Gordon Stables > >Chair - CEDA Topic Selection Committee > > > _______________________________________________ CEDA-L mailing list [email protected] http://www.ndtceda.com/mailman/listinfo/ceda-l
