Minutes

September 22, 2001

I. Cardoza called the meeting to order at 9:15am. Williamson, S. Niemi, DeBruno, and Ballingal were absent. Ross Steinbach served as proxy for Corey, and Paul Suarez served as proxy for Fieni. All other members were present.

II. President Cardoza

A. In rememberance of September 11, the meeting began with a moment of silence.

           

C. Cardoza asked for additional nominations for the Hall of Fame (he had received two). No others were offered. Nominations were closed.

D. Corrections to the minutes from May 19:

                        1) p. 6, item IX-B-2: "Hyatt Highlandia" should be "Hyatt Islandia"

                        2) p.7, item X-B: "Joe Lagne" should be "Joe Ladnese"

3) p.7, item X-C-2: "Marcus Tilly" - last name is incorrect. Unsure of the correct surname.

4) throughout: all references to Dr. "MacDonald" should be spelled "Macdonald".

 

 

E. Area Chairs have the State qualifier allocations. Cardoza needs the specific league allocations no later than December 15.

 

F. TNT will be offered a three-year contract to provide awards at the State tournament. The Executive Council will accept a proposal from TNT and will consider it before the January meeting.

 

G. Responses to letter by Derek Yuill re: course credentialing and certification

1) Cardoza will ask Yuill to provide a template for a debate course that meets the UC standards for  visual/performing arts.

 

2) Cardoza's letter in the October bulletin will also includle an open call for volunteers to sit on an ad hoc committee that will draft and submit a proposal for a Communication Studies teaching credential.

a. Such a credential would be broad enough to cover teaching Speech, Debate, English, Social Studies, and/or Mass Media classes.

b. Communication Studies is one of the fastest-growing majors in the CSU system.

 

 

            H. Included in the meeting packet should be:

1) Revised articles of the Constitution. Any time a revision is made to an article, the entire article is re-printed.

2) New Team Debate ballot (proposed)

3) Distribution of Bonus entries for the State tournament.

 

I. Cardoza suggested that all statewide business be postponed until the January meeting in deference to areas that are underrepresented.

1) At Underwood's request, Pinza announced that Area One was missing two delegates, Area Two was missing zero, Area Three was missing one, and Area Four was missing two delegates.

2) Underwood claimed that, since the number of absences was not unusually high, business should proceed as usual unless the absences were due to extenuating circumstances.

3) Macdonald explained that travel concerns caused the two absences from her area; thus, there were special circumstances involved. Besides, there would be no harm in postponing any issues that weren't time-sensitive.

4) Barembaum pointed out that the rules cover this situation; an Area Chair has the right to move that matters be tabled to the January meeting.

5) DECISION: The council would proceed with business as usual. (Cardoza)

 

III. Treasurer Barembaum

A. Assessment Forms

1) Stressed the need for forms to be filled in correctly and submitted to Area Chairs by December 1.

2) CHSSA dues should be sent with forms. If there is a problem processing a school check, Barembaum suggests a cashier's check or money order.

3) A new form is being created for Area Four since they have a new Chair. That form should get to Macdonald within two weeks.

B. Treasurer's Report

            1) There should not be so much leftover scholarship money.

a. Recommended becoming more aggressive in handing out scholarships. Either make a stronger effort to contact students, and/or increase the scholarship amounts.

b. Scholarship funds should not be solicited if we aren't paying all the money out. Moneys should be solicited for the General Fund or the 20^th Century Fund.

~ Cummings: Since not all results are tabulated when the awards assembly begins, some champions don't receive their scholarship letter. Tracking students down at the dance isn't reasonable, so perhaps the student's contact information should be obtained from the coach.

~ Cardoza: Letter could also be sent to the school c/o the principal.

2) If you remove the income from forfeited judging deposits and unpaid scholarships, income exceeded expenses by only $200. That's why the 01-02 budget has a difference of only $290.

3) Will submit a proposal in January to codify deadlines for submitting

entry fees (ie April 1) and dropping entries (ie April 20). Adds and drops after the deadline would not affect the fees due unless a school entered the tournament that had not previously qualified.

4) Feedback on the budget:

a. Cummings: Why are judging refunds budgeted at $0? Barembaum: It's an accounts payable item; money goes in and out in the same year. There should be no leftovers.

 

b. Alexander: Why is hospitality budgeted at $3,500 when the Council voted for $4,000 at the last meeting? Cummings pointed out that $4,000 was approved for State 2001 only. A by-law change would be required to make $4,000 a permanent figure.

 

c. Cullen asked if forfeited judge deposits could be added into the scholarship fund. Barembaum said it would require a by-law change, but he liked the idea as long as scholarships were actually paid. Cardoza asked Cullen and Barembaum to draft a by-law revision for January to this effect.

 

d. Cullen also asked if scholarship claims could have a deadline. Barembaum noted that was impractical since we have several non-senior champions who couldn't claim the money anyway.

 

IV. Secretary Pinza passes the Membership Directory around for revisions.

 

V. Editor Glahn

A. Has copies of the May bulletin for those who didn't receive it. The postal service is still a bit inconsistent and/or slow in this regard.

B. Cummings will now be in charge of sending the bulletin to Hall of Fame members who are not on the Council.

C. The next bulletin issue, which should be mailed the second week of October, should include:

            1) Congress topic areas for the year.

            2) A copy of the assessment form with instructions for filling it out.

            3) Winning topics and speeches from the State Tournament.

 

 

 

 

D. Encouraged coaches to submit articles for the bulletin. Please e-mail the submissions to avoid re-typing. Bulletin is typically mailed on Oct. 1, Feb. 1, and May 1; submissions are due one month prior. Suggested articles:

                        1) State of the league

                        2) Book reviews of speech and/or debate texts

                        3) Lessons and activities that worked in the classroom

                        4) Student views (see Dr. Macdonald's interview in October bulletin)

 

~ SIDENOTE: Cardoza mentioned that students have asked him for coaches' contact information. His policy is to not release a coach's information to students. He'll happily release it if another coach makes the request.

 

VI. Vice President of Activities Niemi

A. Thanked Stockton for compiling the Congress topic list. Also thanked Cummings for, once again, offering his services for the State Tournament.

B. Recommended making the additional $2,000 funding for food a permanent budget item. Will introduce motion in the Fall.

            C. Congress Submissions

                        1) The areas are:

                                    #1 = Sports, Entertainment, and the Media

                                    #2 = Education

                                    #3 = Medical Research

                                    #4 = Transportation and Safety

                                    #5 = Terrorism

                                    #6 = Finance

2) Each league must submit a bill and a resolution for each of their assigned topic areas by December 1. Send submissions to DeGroff. No double-sided pages please. Make sure the league and area are clearly indicated on each piece of legislation. League assignments are:

            a. CFL: 1,3,5

            b. GGSA: 2,4,6

            c. Southern Valley: 1,3

            d. Sacto: 2,5

e. YFL: 4,6

f. SoCal: 1,3,6

g. TriValley: 2,4

h. West Bay: 1,2,5

i. Marmonte: 3,6

j. Imp. Valley: 2,5

k. Citrus: 1,6

l. OCSL: 3,4

~ Cardoza requests that DeGroff create a standard form for legislation submissions. Stockton said he would relay the request, but DeGroff typically uses the NFL manual's forms.

 

3) Please submit dates for State qualifiers to Niemi as soon as possible. He wants to hand out State cover sheets at the January meeting since some leagues have qualifiers the following month.

4) Niemi announced that Prof. 'Fraylee' at Fresno State is offering a judging class wherein students can earn college credit by judging at the State tournament. The professor would like a CHSSA delegate to visit the class at some point.

 

VII. Vice President of Public Relations Fernandes

A. Dinner-Dance at State will be held at the Fresno Plaza. The cost will be less than last year, but the menu will be similar. Niemi will send out information at the January meeting. Coaches are asked to attend the dinner-dance with their kids; please do not drop students off.

 

            B. Upcoming hotel/meeting info:

                        1) Winter 2002 meeting: Hyatt Islandia in San Diego, Jan. 10-12

                                    a. $95 rate - reservation deadline is Dec. 11

b. Fernandes asked that all who plan to stay in hotel Saturday night inform her by Dec. 11.

                        2) State 2002: April 25-28.

a. Ramada University Inn on Shaw Street. $74/night plus 12% tax and energy surcharge of $2.50. April 4 reservation deadline. Up to four per room. 

b. Piccadilly Inn on Cedar. $79/night plus 12% tax and $2.50 energy surcharge. Includes deluxe continental breakfast. April 5 reservation deadline.

~ Fernandes emphasized the importance of meeting these dead-lines; she negotiated to have them pushed into April.

~ Pinza asked if there would be shuttle service to the tournament. Fernandes said no, there will not be a shuttle.

 

                        3) Spring 2002 meeting: Radisson (near LAX), May 16-18

a. $84/night - reservation deadline is May 1. Saturday's meeting will be in room 150.

b. The meeting room is free so long as we have a total of thirty nights reserved. Thus, Fernandes encourages members to stay four nights if they can.

           

C. Finance Report

1) Fernandes is still talking to Lockheed and other groups about donations to the Twentieth Century Fund.

2) Johnson has sent several letters to organizations, with no success yet. He is also contacting former clients and remains optimistic.

a. Washington Mutual will only fund curriculum, so he will push the Twentieth Century Fund to them.

b. An application has been filed with the 'Milliken' Foundation. No response yet. Johnson will re-apply if they have not responded by December 1.

~ Montgomery asked if the Spanos had been contacted. Fernandes has talked to them about a curriculum donation and will continue to pursue that.

 

D. Asked that Council members check out of the hotel today at lunch.

 

 

VIII. Curriculum Committee Report - Cummings

A. Glahn spoke about the latest packets:

            1) New Listening Packet distributed. Please discard the "drafty draft".

a. The committee welcomes any and all suggestions for improve-ments, especially if activities don't quite work in class.

b.  Last page of Listening Packet features an "Extra Help" section with additional resources. Glahn recommends Activities for Teachers: Speaking and Listening, but is unsure if it is still in print.

 

2) Multi-Media Packet coming soon. Anyone who knows of helpful web sites and Internet resources can e-mail them to Williamson or Glahn in December. Marcucilli suggested some lessons/info on video conferencing.

 

3) Glahn stressed the importance of making the packets visible at school. Show them to other teachers and sell them on the activities and lessons.

 

4) Glahn also asked anyone who has received UC approval for their courses to please submit their templates and tips. Brasher is also willing to share her template for her TV Production course that was not approved.

~ Jardine asked if copying the packets was copyright-safe. Glahn replied that nothing is copyrighted, so copy away!

 

5) Suarez asked if packets were available on the website. Barembaum said it would be there soon. Macdonald mentioned that she could not access Expository guidelines from the CHSSA site. Barembaum said he was aware of the problem.

 

            B. Handbook revisions

                        1) Debate and Congress have not been revised at this time.

2) IE revisions were discussed in the Spring. They will be sent to Johnson, who has offered the printing services of his office staff.

3) Corey suggested including a section on "How to Host a Tournament" in the Handbook. She distributed that section to the council.

 

 

 

            C. Pritchard presented a new idea for recruiting judges.

1) Corporations often require their employees to perform community service. Advertising tournaments at these companies through their Public Relations department can be very successful.

2) Example: Granite Bay recruited about a dozen judges from Intel who were knowledgeable and very enthusiastic. The Bell company in Southern California also requires community service of its employees.

 

IX. Historian Cummings

            A. News and notes

1) Hall of Fame member Don 'Vittel' of Bakersfield has Parkinson's Disease and is not doing well.

2) The young man who served food at Logan's State tournament two years ago has died. He contracted malaria while in Pakistan last summer.

3) Ohio has added impromptu to their state tournament.

4) A breakdown of the sizes of schools' entries at State was passed out. The table lists how many schools brought small, medium, and large entries to State in 2000 and 2001. Sweepstakes awards are also noted for 2001. This was done to facilitate discussion about offering a third, intermediate level of Sweepstakes award.

 

X. Speech Credentialing Report - Stockton

A. Currently, the only way to be credentialed specifically in Speech is to get a single-subject English credential with a Speech authorization. He added that a new coach in his league was told by her district to go back to school and obtain this authorization despite her Master's in Speech Communication.

~ Montgomery added that the last pure Speech credential was issued in 1976. That credential is his.

 

B. Stockton is trying to identify and contact the Speech 'alumnus' on the Commission for Teacher Credentialing. Cardoza thanked Stockton and asked that he continue his research and issue a further report in January.

 

XI. Area One Chair Brasher

            A. Welcomed Janet Willford to the Council.

            B. Brasher is still brainstorming sites for State in 2004.

            C. Video tapes

1) Has made copies of O.P.P. Finals, L/D Semi's, and Congress Semi's (40 minutes) from State 2001. These will be handed out to Area Chairs at the January meeting and subsequently mailed to league presidents.

2) Brasher added that mass-producing videotapes has become very difficult due to the age of her machines.

a. Montgomery asked if Brasher had a library of master videotapes. She said she does have one and has even catalogued the individual speeches on the tapes, but the library is pretty small.

 

b. Montgomery also mentioned that he knows of a place in Modesto who will professionally produce tapes for $7 each. Another place in Stockton charges $10, but he wants to try these services himself before CHSSA hands over their tapes. Brasher noted that shipping costs would necessitate charging $12-13 per tape, which is still quite reasonable.

 

c. Cummings asked if CHSSA can afford to create a video for each event at State every year (12 tapes per year). Barembaum said yes, but he suggested keeping a master library.

 

d. Cardoza suggested asking a professional librarian about video storage possibilities. Barembaum volunteered DeBruno. Cullen will approach her.

 

e. Glahn wondered if there was a way to ship tapes to individual schools instead of just the league presidents. Brasher also mentioned having an "open enrollment" period where coaches would place their orders for tapes.

 

f. Other mediums, such as eight-millimeter and DVD were suggested. Barembaum stated that he'd like to see a master library on DVD that could be copied onto videotapes for leagues. Brasher felt that DVDs were the more economical option.

 

XII. Area Two Chair Underwood

A. Will provide more details about State at the January meeting. He is excited about the prospect of having so many judges from Fresno State.

 

XIII. Area Three Chair Cullen

            A. Welcomed Karen Jardine, Joe Marcucilli, and Ross Steinbach to the Council.

B. He has heard that CSU Northridge is interested in hosting the State tournament. The campus is practically new since it had to be rebuilt after the Northridge earthquake. He will begin talking to them soon.

 

XIV. Area Four Chair Macdonald

A. Announced that CSU San Bernadino will host State 2003. Although Apr. 25-27 is the preferred weekend, she must check with the host leagues for conflicts. (Easter is the previous Sunday, April 20.) The alternate dates would be May 2-4, and AP testing dates would also be considered.

 

XV. Committee Reports

 

            A. Congress, Debate, and IE  - all in abeyance.

 

 

            B. Ad Hoc Eligibility - Montgomery

1) Submitted a proposal for how to accomodate a student who involuntarily moves out of the league from which s/he qualified for State.

                        2) PROPOSAL: Before s/he would be allowed to compete:

a. The school must allow the student to represent the school at the tournament. The school must also assume liability for the student, provide an adult designee/chaperone, and pay all fees appropriate for a CHSSA member.

 

b. The student and his/her current guardian must show that the move was involuntarily. Information to this effect would be submitted to the President, who would determine the student's eligibility. The student would have the right to the normal appeals process.

 

                        3) PROPOSAL: If the student was deemed eligible:

a. S/he would become the 57^th entry in his/her individual event. This would be an at-large entry that would earn sweepstakes points the same way that any other school does.

 

b. A panel of eight would be created in the preliminary rounds. This would be double-flighted and judged as two panels of four. Furthermore, no student in that event would receive a rank higher than 4th. Designations of 4^5, 4^6, etc. would be used to break ties.

~ Alexander asked if CIF had any rules regarding this situation. Montgomery said they didn't because their qualifier is typically very close to the State tournament.

~ Pritchard suggested eliminating the panel of eight and simply denying an alternate to the league that originally qualified him/her.

~ Cardoza asked that the committee continue its work and develop a report, proposal, and/or By-law revision for the January meeting. He also asked that DeGroff and Ballingal be contacted to see how debate and congress might be affected.

 

            C. Hall of Fame Election Process - Cummings

1) Motion 01-09-M would give each league two ballots for Hall of Fame elections. A league could cast a vote for 0, 1, or 2 nominees on each ballot. They could also choose to abstain if, for instance, no one in the league knew any of the nominees.

2) Ballots that feature a "none of the above" vote would be counted towards the percentage of votes. "Abstain" ballots would not count towards the percentage.

3) Leagues would also receive a letter detailing the background and "resumé" for each nominee.

4) Individual leagues will develop their own voting process.

5) An amendment to the motion was introduced but later rescinded.

Underwood moved that this motion to revise the by-laws be adopted.

 

 

6) Alexander asked why the final tallies of Hall of Fame votes were not published. Cardoza replied that this is done out of sensitivity to the nominees' feelings.

 

XVI. Old Business

A. Cardoza pointed out that non-Council members were asked to participate in certain committees during this weekend. This was done to further democratize the proceedings. He requested that Area Chairs encourage non-Council members to attend future meetings. He particularly encouraged Areas Three and Four since those areas will host the next two meetings.

 

B. BY-LAW REVISIONS still pending

                       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

XVII. New Business

           

A.  MOTIONS TO REVISE THE BY-LAWS:           

 

 

 

< Yes, we are going out of order.>

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

XVIII. For the Good of the Order....

 

A. Marcucilli relayed a story about a teacher who allowed a student to compete with an expository on masturbation. This teacher was fired and now faces a lawsuit. He asked if CHSSA has any specific guidelines or regulations regarding speech content.

1) Montgomery: the manuscript cover sheet is signed by the principal, teacher, student, and parent, so the coach shouldn't be liable.

2) Johnson: The audience can still challenge the piece on grounds that it is offensive since tournaments are public forums. Further, the signed cover sheet actually increases the teacher's liability if the piece is found to be offensive.

3) Montgomery: there is nothing in the By-Laws that justifies a coach's refusing to sign off on a script.

4) Keller-Firestone: she once objected to a Humorous piece that she found offensive, yet she was attacked for infringing on the student's civil liberties.

5) Johnson: Schools restrict students' civil liberties all the time. Teachers are protected in this instance.

6) Montgomery: All coaches, especially new ones, should be aware of the content of books on their classroom shelves. You could be liable for offensive materials that are found in your room.

7) Steinbach: Are tournament audiences warned that some material might be offensive? Niemi: No, judges are just told not to judge based on content in interpretive events.

8) Cardoza asked that Johnson and Marcucilli present an overview of the legal issues surrounding controversial material at the January meeting.

 

XIX. On that happy note, the meeting was adjourned.

 

Submitted,

 

Paul C. Pinza

 

 

P.S. My apologies for the tardiness of these minutes. I offer no excuses. I especially wish to apologize to VP Niemi and Editor Glahn. I know you both were counting on me to deliver information to you shortly after the meeting. Like most young teachers, I found myself juggling too many things, and I dropped a few balls. I'm sorry. --- PCP