KESDA BOARD MEETING

SPRING 2006

The KESDA Board met on the campus of Georgetown College on April 29, 2006.  Voting board members present included Kellie Crump, Jill Shoulta, Robin Glascock, and Gregg Bowen.  Dr.Ed Smith, KESDA’s director, presided.  Also present were Jordan Atkins, Tyler Elam,  Krista Kohl, Brett, and Betsy Smith.

Minutes from 2005 were read and approved. 

Dr. Smith demonstrated the new website and noted that results from 2005 and 2006 could be put on it.

Judging issues constituted the first order of business.  It was universally agreed that small teams’ judges were being worked way too hard at the KESDA forum.  Kellie Crump suggested large teams be able to bring judges who are in no way familiar with their students who would therefore not be coded against them.  Robin Glascock suggested tapping more college students.  She also agreed with Ms. Crump’s idea of letting large schools bring non-affiliated judges.

Dr.Smith explained an additional monkey wrench thrown in by Joy of Tournaments, the program KESDA employs to schedule and tabulate the forum.  Joy of Tournaments goes by the number of entries each day rather than overall.  The large schools did bring their quota of judges,  but they were mostly there on Saturday when they could not be used because the students with which they were affiliated were crowding the outrounds.  These judges needed to have been there on Thursday and Friday.

An objection was made by an anonymous coach to college students judging outrounds at the middle school forum.  Judge certification was discussed.  It was suggested KESDA reintroduce signed witness that each judge is trained.  Robin Glascock moved to create a statement for judges and coached to sign that each judge is trained.  This was seconded by Kellie Crump, and the motion passed unanimously.

The experimental event was the next order of business.   Robin Glascock expressed her displeasure with Group Interpretation.  She wanted to see KESDA put in a speaking event that would provide more learning opportunity and which would be more cost effective.  It was also noted that the students only do the event one time the whole year and that takes away time from their regular events.  Gregg Bowen moved that Group Interp not be the experimental event any longer.  Robin Glascock seconded the motion.  In discussion, Kellie Crump reminded the board that the event was really popular among students.  The motion passed unanimously.

Robin Glascock moved that After Dinner Speaking be the new experimental event on the high school level.   Gregg Bowen seconded.  Kellie Crump passed along the sentiments of the Rowan senior coaches who feel there are too many events.   The motion passed 3 to 1.

Robin Glascock warned against passing any big sweeping changes, such as the decision made to drop solo, without polling coaches about the decision.  She proposed sending the board agenda out to all coaches before the meeting so they could e-mail their feedback for consideration.

Dr. Smith would like to see a better system instituted for plugging numbers into the computer.  Speedy ballots need to be checked against what went into the computer.  To help the ballot table, Robin Glascock offered to set up a table outside the tab room to check ballots so that the ballot table is not swamped.

In answer to a question, “Are coaches allowed to tell students how they are doing during the tournament?’ the board relied “No.”

The question arose again as to whether sweeps points should be reconsidered to give at least one point to each student who breaks into an out round from each team.  In the current system, only the top three individuals in each event from any team are awarded sweepstakes points for breaking.  No formal motion was made, and it was decided to table the issue until fall.

Gregg Bowen made a motion to stick to a stricter method of which events will break into quarterfinals and which should only break to semifinals.  He moved that events with 59 or fewer participants only break to semifinals.  There was no second so the motion did not pass.

Gregg Bowen moved that broadcasting or duo improv be dropped at the high school level.  There was no second, but discussion ensued on limiting performance time.

Robin Glascock moved that duo improv time limits be changed.  She proposed middle school prep to be 5 minutes with a performing time of 2-4 minutes.  Senior high would prep 3 minutes and speak for 3-5.  Jill Shoulta seconded the motion.  Krista Kohl suggested maximizing high school at four minutes.  Gregg Bowen then made a friendly amendment to change the original motion to 2-4 minutes speaking time for high school.   The motion passed unanimously.

Gregg Bowen proposed a top novice award.  He moved to recognize the highest non-finaling novice in each event.  Robin Glascock seconded the motion.  It passed unanimously.

The question of kids from the same team “hitting” each other in outrounds arose.  Some on the board do not see any harm in trying to avoid it.  Dr. Smith maintained that to mess with the seeding system currently used will be undermined by any attempts to keep team members from being in the same rooms.  Kellie Crump pointed out that sweeps not being awarded for every break and kids from large schools knocking each other out in droves seems unfair to large teams.

Gregg Bowen then moved that all students who break to quarters receive 2 sweepstakes points and all students who break to semis be awarded 2 sweepstakes points.  Kellie Crump seconded the motion.  It passed 3 to 1.

It was decided to hold of until fall on the question of whether to include on the spot in broadcasting.  Also the feasibility of going from three flights to two was brought up as a question to consider in the fall.

The idea of prayer at the banquet was brought up and rejected for legal reasons.  It was decided to look into a more poetic non-faith-based grace.

The board took on ways to limit the number of students in each out round.  Seven was set as the acceptable maximum number of students.  Inverse reciprocals will be used to break the huge ties that resulted in rooms of eight or nine students during outrounds in the past.  Gregg Bowen moved that no event take more than seven per room.  Ties will be broken by inverse reciprocals.  If it cannot be broken, eight will go in.  The motion passed 3 to 1.

Jill Shoulta moved to make Betsy Smith Dr. Smith’s co-director.  It was seconded and passed.

On Dr. Smith’s request, Robin Glascock moved to set up a local bank account with associate member Bruce Florence to  sign off an all checks.  This account would be used to pay Dr. Smith.

Robin Glascock was presented with anthology of Kentucky short stories in honor of her service on the board.

A financial update was passed out for consideration.

A motion was made and passed that a special savings account be opened in the amount of $3,500, with $3,000 of it going to Dr. Smith and Betsy Smith for directing KESDA.

The meeting ended with a general discussion of how to grow KESDA in the face of educational exclusion, high transportation costs, and school budget cuts.  It was proposed that we identify districts and help them develop teams.   It was also suggested we put together a list of schools that used to be involved but have not been recently in hopes of wooing them back.