Chicago Middle School Debate League Coaches Council

Chicago Middle School Debate League Coaches’ Council October 30th, 2014 Semester One Meeting Notes Quorum Kyle Beck Jacob Jacoby Jared Lee Les Lynn Christian Kline

Also in Attendance Cydney Edwards Edie Canter Christine Horst

Not in Attendance David Ellis Brent Turpin Agenda I.Post-T1 De-Brief and Discussion 1. Christian Kline pointed out that a Varsity member debated Novice at Thorp. Unanimous coach decision is take a hard-line stance on people being placed in the wrong division. 2. Kyle brought up an instance of having a maverick debater that wouldn’t have debated JV by herself, but agreed to come if she could do it Novice. 3. Kline’s solution to the mavericks not wanting to debate alone is having partner choice next time. Guaranteeing them that they will not have to debate maverick again. 4. Jared Lee’s solution to team issues is seniority rules. 5. John Jacoby brought up that mavericks at “A” conference won team awards. (The logic behind disallowing this is that debate is a two-person activity and we shouldn’t incentivize individual debating on this team sport.) Tab Room Management on site waived the rules in this instance and we should have strict policies. 6. Kline asked how do we rectify the mistakes and the discussion is generally that we should fix these issues after the fact. 7. Consensus that: (a) the teams in the “A” conference that would have won a higher award if the mavericks were removed from the awards list should be sent those awards and their higher winnings should be included in the Medal Count, and (b) the teams in the “AA” conference that debated against teams that should not have been in the Novice division should be given byes and whatever awards that would mean they should have won. II. CMSDL Judging Issues/Concerns 1. Christian Kline and Jared Lee said that we need one reference guide to judges for speaker points and other judge tips and pointers and that it’s the only form that we should use. Should include rough percentages. (26-29 is the sweet spot) One judge gave eight 25 out of twelve students and clearly didn’t understand the spectrum. 2. Les said it’d be a good idea to have a set of codified judge reminders and reference guide 3. Make sure that all the Tab Directors have the script for the judge refresher in the morning and it needs to be standard. 4. As a coach, Jacoby gives all his teams the sheets with the format, etc. 5. Re points, judges should be told that they can use decimal points but that they are encouraged to round decimal points to 0.5. III. T2 Schedule 1. Les confirmed that last year T2 is four rounds and that lasts for the rest of the year. 2. Proposal is to add a championship rounds should be added to T2. 3. John Jacoby says we don’t need this change earlier in the year, maybe do it for T3-T5. It made sense for T4 and T5 last year. Sees small value in it, but it feels premature at T2. 4. Chris Kline says his students have been requesting this and coming to him asking to advocate for it. 5. Kyle Beck says that it is unfair to have so many students who are simply spectators later in the day. 6. Jared Lee says he likes the championship and logistics as a concern have two possibilities: 1) Have everyone debate 5 rounds but only the top 6 are used to break ties, that way everyone has a round 2) Change Round 4 into the championship round 7. John Jacoby suggests that awards happens before out rounds like in high school. The problem with Jared’s plan is that in “everyone continues to debate” model, then some people would win their 5th round and then have better records than the people in out rounds. 8. Les brought up the point of transportation time. 9. A vote was taken and T3 will run like T4 & T5. The majority ruled that the championship round will be introduced one round earlier this year. IV. Evidence Rules 1. Right now Updated Evidence means finding information that makes roughly the same argument as what already exists in the Core Files. Brief suggestion from Les is allowing Novices to do this at some point AND extension blocks beyond the frontline blocks, allowing schools to create extension 2. John Jacoby opposes both proposals: wants to keep Novice as simple as possible, opening up the research gates for new debaters is not the road to better rebuttals. 3. Jared Lee opposes both proposals: Novice updated evidence and moreso JV/Varsity being able to create blocks. 4. Kyle Beck opposes both proposals 5. Chris Kline opposes the JV/Varsity blocks allowance but thinks that Novices should be able to use updated evidence. He says that updated evidence is not going to make the difference. 6. There is also an option to debate up at JV/V if Novices want to read updated new evidence 7. It was voted that neither proposal will be adopted. V. Mentoring Program and other Professional Development

1. CDC wants to solicit ideas from the coaches on how to improve the mentor coach programs. Experienced coaches are paid to provide training to new or reactivating coaches. Experienced coaches log their time, resources, etc. 2. Kyle Beck (Alcott) spoke about Melina Luna coming in the start of SY2014 and helping Alcott coaches to create a practice regimen and he said it was very helpful. Kyle thinks he wouldn’t likely need one again this year but would welcome any help. 3. Jared Lee from Skinner thinks that the idea is great but his personal utilization of the offer would be slim because of the logistical components. Prefers the training set-up. 4. Jacoby sees the usefulness of the Saturday PD seminars because of how frequently he is asked questions at tournaments. Optimistic about being a mentor to Thorp coach, Deirdre Littleton. 5. In regards to PD- Kyle says that teachers work hard all week and like other people, want their weekends to be work-free, if possible. Jared says that a lot of the coaches are not former debaters and that they have to be highly motivated competitively in some instances to put in a great deal of additional time to learn to coach highly proficiently. Jared suggested more differentiation in the seminars and he likes the different track (V and JV) structure for the summer courses taught by Les. Christian Kline says that most brand new coaches are the ones who need the PD and if we condense the information it may be more appealing to them. Mentoring may be the answer to this issue. Optimistic about his mentoring commitment with King Arts coach, Sharon Cella. 6. If CPS had PD days, unanimous agreement that this would improve attendance.