Re: Before there were tournaments...

[Joe Corcoran <jcorcora@floyd.santarosa.edu>]

On Fri, 10 May 1996, Kenneth Broda-Bahm wrote:

> Before there were tournaments, intercollegiate debate was
> accomplished by simply sending one team to another school in
> order to engage in a debate in front of an audience.  Often teams
> would string together several such dates and go on debating
> "tours."  When the "tour"nament was invented, that made sense: much
> more debating, much more teams, much more bang for the buck. 
> What was lost was the audience.
> 
> My suggestion is that as a compliment (not a substitute) to
> tournament debating, we consider bringing back the old notion of
> one school hosting another school for an on-campus public debate.
> 
> So here is the offer:  Come to Towson. You cover transportation
> and we will cover lodging, meals, and entertainment.  We will
> come up with a jointly desirable topic, something that requires
> no additional preparation beyond the national resolution,
> something that is interesting, exciting even, and not trite.  We
> will handle publicity.  We will guarantee a general audience.
> 
> Travel need not even be a unique expense - send a team over a
> couple days prior to the Towson tournament, the Richmond
> tournament, the Georgetown, GMU, Navy, or Liberty tournaments,
> and we'll debate on a Thursday night.
> 
> We will both please our Chairs, Deans, and Presidents.  We will
> have a better answer to tough questions like, "how are you
> serving a larger audience than the 15 students on your team?"
> 
> In making this offer I want to be sure to clarify that I _don't_
> believe that the audience is the be-all-and-end-all of our
> credibility as an argument lab.  I believe that professionals
> make infinitely better judges than lay-people.  BUT I also
> believe that we in the debate community have a responsibility to
> promote public discourse.  I believe that watching and commenting
> on good debates can ennoble and improve spectators.  And I
> believe (gulp) that it never hurts to work on adaptation skills.
> 
> I also believe that we should want to _prove_ that excellent CEDA
> and NDT debaters are gaining skills that allow them to speak well
> to any audience. 
> 
> What do you say?  Backchannel me if you are interested in
> exploring this opportunity.  I encourage others to make similar
> offers.  This listserve could serve as a good 'introduction
> service' for such tours.  I encourage CEDA/NDT/AFA as
> organizations to find some way to promote public debate as part
> of our 'umbrella' of educational experience.
> 
> Ken Broda-Bahm
> Towson State University
>

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References:

• Before there were tournaments...
• From: Kenneth Broda-Bahm <broda@midget.towson.edu>

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