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Topic Selection date (continued)

Tim pointed out in his post that one of the variables we need to consider 
is when schools start. I think that we need to balance that with the 
starting dates of the first tournament.  While many public schools start 
up in mid-August, most of the privates start up in early Sept. (we are no 
exception, starting right around Labor Day). 

It seems to me that we want to give our new incoming novice some time to 
understand debate and have the time to prepare without having to worry 
about being blitzkriged at their first tournament.

In my region, we have many junior colleges competing in CEDA.  We haven't 
heard any of their voices yet, but I suspect that because they start very 
late, and don't always have the chance to recruit, that an early date 
would hurt them to a greater extent than it does to the four year colleges.
Also, as Mark pointed out in a post I received as I was writing this one, 
junior colleges don't often have the funding to go to summer institutes, 
much less national tournaments.  If CEDA is going to survive, I have a 
sense that the junior colleges are going to have be involved somehow.

Thankfully, I'm in an area where I can get help--David Steinberg at 
UMiami and Brian Schriner at FIU have been wonderful, as have some of the 
junior colleges. But I think that while an early release may sound good 
if you already have lots of students, it's not as good if you're starting 
from scratch.

I do think that the issue of topic release and the decision about a spring
topic, as Tuna has suggested, are inexorably linked.  This year, I didn't 
get funding until late September.  The maintaining of the fall topic 
proved too high a barrier for us.  Let's make sure that next year, we 
make this decision earlier, so that we don't make the same mistake.

Michael Dreher
Director of Forensics, Palm Beach Atlantic College
p010195b@pbfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us
dreher@goliath.pbac.edu
Archive created by Jonathan Stanton (jonathan@cs.jhu.edu)
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