The National Debate Coaches Association (NDCA) is launching new initiatives, which I would like to call to your attention.

An effort is being made to increase the NDCA's role as an advocacy and support group, taking action on behalf of member debate coaches. Here are several concrete examples of what the NDCA is doing - and these are the types of activities which can be improved via your active membership (by joining the NDCA):

1. Letters of support will be sent to member school principals and superintendents, on behalf of all coaches whose memberships are in good standings as of November 1, 2004. The letters will be mailed the first week of November, and will detail the amount of work and sacrifice made by debate coaches. The letters will also explain the importance of debate to the education of our high school students, and the increasing need for support of debate and debate-related activities in these increasingly contentious times.
2. To aid coaches and debaters prepare to debate in front of particular judges, an extensive set of Judge Philosophies has been gathered, and is available fre-of-charge on the NDCA website. To access this, go to www.thendca.com, and click on "Judge Philosophies". If you would like to add a philosophy to the site, just submit a form as indicated. Both Policy Debate and LD debate is represented.
3. A calendar of tournaments is kept available on the NDCA website. If you would like your tournament to be added, please contact me.
4. The NDCA will offer to supply letters in support of fundraising activities initiated by members on behalf of their programs -- these letters can, for example, document the general value of travel to competitive debate success, and the general need for access to materials and tournaments for successful high school debaters.
5. A survey is being formulated to document areas of concern to high school coaches, so that NDCA efforts can better target those areas.
6. The NDCA and the National Forensics League (NFL) are joining forces to help foster debate coach education. The NFL has offered to match $2500 of NDCA fundraising on behalf of the Barton Scholarships -- these are Summer Debate Institute Scholarships named in honor of former Princeton High School debate coach Mrs. Phyllis Barton, which are granted to assist coaches who desire topic and process training at participating.
7. Companies which serve the debate community are being contacted by the NDCA to advocate on behalf of debate-specific concerns. For example, the airline ATA was contacted last year by Ed Williams, an NDCA Board Member, resulting in the airline agreeing to increase the amount of luggage that they allowed to be checked without penalty -- this to accommodate the number of tubs of debate evidence usually carried by debaters. Additional companies which may be contacted include whose which provide copying and research support, and insurance companies.
8. The NDCA is initiating new efforts to work more closely with organizations such as the NFL and the NFHS (National Federation of High Schools) to help develope the obvious areas of synergy between the NFL's mission of supporting forensics, the NFHS's mission of providing support to state coordinators of extra-curricular activities, and with the NDCA's mission of supporting debate coaches in particular.
9. Forums such as this column, the NDCA listserv, the NDCA website (www.thendca.com), and the NDCA Convention will be used to stay in closer contact with member debate coaches.
10. Curriculum materials are being gathered together so that updated teaching materials can be made available, perhaps in book form.
    

If you have a particular idea as to how you would like to see debate coaches helped, please let us know. Also, volunteers would be greatly appreciated to help implement current initiatives.

We hope that you will join the NDCA, and help us to serve you and the broader debate community; please see the NDCA advertisement in this issue of Rostrum - and send in the membership form and your dues to Alan Coverstone, as indicated. Also please contact me with any input or feedback you might have.

Thanks,
David Glass
NDCA President
david.glass@thendca.com