National Parliamentary Debate Association


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NPDA Tournaments

The National Parliamentary Debate Association is the largest intercollegiate debate association in the United States. Member schools engage in two-on-two debate, with the resolutions (or topics) changing for each round of competition.

Tournaments and how to get a tournament on the list:

2008-2009 tournament list (PDF, 754k) -- Sanctioning information now included.

To have a tournament count for NPDA points, the tournament must be sanctioned. Sanctioning involves three elements: submitting the tournament sanctioning form and becoming an NPDA member, and having the tournament approved by the Executive Secretary. Here are details from Danny Cantrell's official notice:

As Executive Secretary one of my main jobs is season sweepstakes.  The constitution, and especially the bylaws spell out in great detail the steps I am supposed to follow in collecting
sanctioning forms, sanctioning tournaments, creating the tournament calendar, collecting results, and ultimately, producing a list of season sweepstakes awards.

If you are hosting a tournament in September and I have not yet received a copy of your tournament invitation please send it ASAP to ensure your tournament is sanctioned.

Given that this is my first full year calculating season sweepstakes I wanted to inform the community the way season sweepstakes will operate during 2008-2009.  These procedures have been developed in consultation with and the support of the entire NPDA executive council.

  1. All tournaments must submit a sanctioning form at least 30 days ahead of the tournament (Bylaw V.A.1).  Last year, in the rush before nationals, I received results from a few tournaments that did not submit a sanctioning form. Given some of the confusion in switching from Joe to myself, those tournaments were included. This
    year they will not be.  If you have doubts as to whether a tournament is sanctioned please review the website (more on that later).
  2. In addition, sanctioning will not be a rubber stamp upon completing the sanctioning form
    online.  The constitution charges me to sanction only those tournaments that support the organization “both in philosophy and by paying dues.” (Bylaw V.A.2).  This has two important implications:
    1. First, all tournament hosts (unless exempted due to being hosted “by a national or regional organization” (Bylaw V.B)) must be members of NPDA before commencement of the tournament.  There is no way to wait until nationals for schools to join NPDA since membership may or may not happen whereas the results need to be calculated ahead of time.  The sanctioning of a tournament will not occur until all dues are paid.
    2. Second, all sanctioned tournaments must support the philosophy of NPDA (Bylaw V.A.2).  The term “philosophy” is a bit ambiguous in the documents but I think is important nonetheless. My interpretation is that for a tournament to count for NPDA season sweeps it should substantially mirror practices at the NPDA National Championship Tournament.  The season sweepstakes award should be measuring reasonably similar tournament experiences for schools.  As such, prior to a tournament receiving sanctioning a copy of the tournament invitation should be emailed to me to determine if the tournament practices are consistent with the NPDA Championship Tournament.  This is not intended to stifle creativity or innovation in parliamentary debate. In other words, although the bylaws allow for minor deviations so long as they are announced in the tournament invitation, those deviations must be consistent with the philosophy of the NPDA.

Initially, here are some examples of practices that would preclude a tournament from being included in the season sweepstakes calculations (These should be considered only as an example – each tournament will be evaluated separately on
a case-by-case basis per the requirements in the bylaws):

  1. Evidence: Allowing prepared evidence to be read in the round would preclude a tournament from inclusion.
  2. Topics: Releasing to participants advanced copy of the topics for debating.

    Justification: NPDA debate stresses the extemporaneous nature of the topics for debate. If participants are informed what the topics will be for the tournament then a key tenet of NPDA debate is lost. As such, any exact wording of resolutions would be a substantial departure from NPDA practice and philosophy.

    Disclosure of Topic areas is a gray area – for this year, at least, topic areas will not preclude a tournament from inclusion in season sweepstakes, unless it is obvious that they are so narrowly constrained to appear to be propositions themselves.

  3. Speech Times
    1. Minor changes in the speaking time will not preclude tournaments from
      inclusion in the season sweepstakes calculations.
    2. Changes in the number of speeches will preclude a tournament from
      inclusion in the season sweepstakes. 

      Justification: The order and number of speeches at the NPDA Championship Tournament should be followed at tournaments.  Adding or subtracting speeches fundamentally changes the event to the point that the debaters are really no longer competing in NPDA debate.  As such, it does not follow that the performance at the tournament should not be included in season sweepstakes.

  4. Points of Information
    1. Using cross-examination rather than POI will preclude a tournament from inclusion in the season sweepstakes.

      Justification: A central part of NPDA debate since its inception has been the use of points of information during speeches as an alternative to cross-examination.  Furthermore, POIs are the standard way to request information at the National Championship tournament.  Adoption of cross examination significantly changes the event such that it would not substantially resemble a debate at the National Championship tournament.
 

Per the bylaws (Bylaw V.F), results from the tournaments are due within 21 days of the completion of the tournament.  I will NOT repeat the adventure last year with 50 tournaments submitting results in the last two weeks before nationals.  I will proactively contact the tournament director from the sanctioning form for results but please be advised – it is the tournament director’s responsibility to submit results and any results submitted after 21 days will face the consequences outlined in (Bylaw V.H & V.I):

  1. The first year: Be placed on a probationary status for the next year
  2. The second year: Be fined $50 in order to be sanctioned
  3. Results from tournaments that are late submitting results will not be included in season sweepstakes calculations.

In consultation with Michael Dreher, webmaster, I will be creating a new database driven website that will allow you to easily check the status of tournaments.  Please continue to check the NPDA website for this information in the near future.  The web site will include:

  1. All tournament information submitted on the sanctioning form.
  2. A copy of the tournament invitation.
  3. The sanctioning status and explanation if denied.
  4. Results once available.

Thank you for reading this announcement and I look forward to making the season sweepstakes process operate much smoother this year.  If you have any questions, concerns or feedback, please let me know.

Results:

The NPDA has results available from the past several years: there may be some glitches in past years, but these are in the process of being resolved.

The NPDA wishes to acknowledge the help of Brent Nordquist and Andy Altepeter of the Bethel Academic Computing Services department for their help in database programming and setting up the searchable results pages.

Executive Secretary contact information:

Danny Cantrell
Cerritos College
debaterdanny@yahoo.com