We seem to be awash in organizations these days. The NFL tells me to go forth and bring in the sheep, and the website alone will be worth the ninety-nine bucks. The website, of course, is free, and while it has the usability of sushi chef on a hog farm, there may be some good stuff on it. I’m reserving judgment; the one LD crib sheet that I grabbed made me want to sign up for WTF. (I’m speaking confidentially now, of course. I’m a district chair. Hell, I’m one of the district chairs especially chosen at random to be featured in next month’s Rostrum. Feel free to start lining up now at your local magazine kiosk.) They have online chats, three or four a night, which aren’t my cup of baloney, although I did try to read one after the fact concerning the Goy of T District Tournament software. Debate coaches need better screen names, for one thing, if they really want to drive some chat traffic. And then there’s some mentor program, which looks good on paper but I think I’m supposed to be lining up half a dozen lieutenants to hold the hands of the flood of newbie coaches that are knocking on my door, or would be knocking on my door if I had a better screen name. (“menick” is just, so, predictable. Anything else would be like a tattoo, clever for a moment but something I may not want to still be associated with twenty years from now.) My point here is that Forensics Central, which is what NFL should be, is working on it but not there yet. Seriously, I applaud what they’re doing in that direction. Their studies of the activities and updated guidelines and ballots and the like are exactly what they should be doing, and they’re doing it better than we could have hoped. So, overall, I’d give them an A for effort, and I’ll continue giving them ninety-nine bucks.
Then there’s the Legion of Doom, which seems to be playing out a most operatic death scene lasting the length of the show. Their goal being to keep LD on the straight and narrow was pretty much co-opted by NFL, which has the authority to back it up, at least at NFL events. Other than that, they want tournaments to disallow hitting below the belt and have gotten some response, but places like Emory continue to offer MJP, and as far as I can tell no one in favor of MJP has ever changed their mind, or vice versa, and there you are. Some people are perfectly capable of separating debate as a competitive event from debate as an academic event with value on both sides, thank you very much, while others see the competition as merely a necessary evil. In any case, every now and then there’s a note from one of the Doomsters telling us they’re quitting or something. Got another one just yesterday. Mostly the lack of action/discussion month after month is indication enough of the group’s viability. (Again, this is confidential, being that I’m on the board of the thing.)
Meanwhile NDCA is making all sorts of noises about increasing its membership. They have a listserver to which I subscribe, and they’re trying to come up with a plan. Apparently they too have a website and give all sorts of stuff away, but to be honest, I’ve never looked at it. (At least this time I have no official connection to the thing; hell, I’m not even a member.) They may want to block access to it, though, or maybe even give more of it away, or have reviews of Dario Argento films if one believes Antonucci. Whatever. I can see why you might pay $25 to go to their tournament, but I’m not a font of dues-paying ability. But then again, I don’t recall anyone seriously attempting to solicit my membership. So, bottom line, I have no idea what the purpose of this organization might be.
And, of course, I admit that I visit WTF pretty much every day. One-stop source for news, anyhow, and bizarre new incarnations of Cruziana (I gather his next project is his being photographed as Great Personages of History with essays on how Bronx Science changed their lives). Every day. Ten to one, most other people involved in LD are there every day or two, including coaches. Can’t follow the game without a score card, eh?
What’s wrong with this picture? I mean, why are there multiple groups doing, theoretically, the same thing? Does somebody want to draw the Venn diagram here? Is there some reason why NFL isn’t the go-to place for coaches? Is there some reason why NFL isn’t the website I go to every day (and, good grief, they tell me I should, but they don’t provide daily content)? Do I need a vast circle of debate resources as compared to one good central debate resource?
Here’s the plan, which no one will follow.
1. NFL subsumes the NCDA. Deal with it. I’m a debate coach. NFL is supposed to be the organization for debate coaches. I only need one such organization.
2. The Legion goes away. This may be an unnecessary recommendation, but anyone who has sat through the end of Rigoletto knows that death scenes ain’t over till they’re over.
3. NFL publishes WTF, which goes back to the briefs business. NFL expands WTF to cover all aspects of forensics, or maybe has branches for separate buckets, one for speech, one for debate. NFL also collects all other authoritative debate blogs and publishes them (at least RSS) through their auspices.
4. Somebody hires a decent web designer and then allows me final cut so that, just once, a site will be user-friendly on all levels.
5. And, while we’re at it, we fix Goy of T so that it uploads to e-TRPC correctly, we stop accepting registration changes after the deadline except for drops, for which you pay double, we start to train the parent coaches we dump on tournaments (starting with ESL and moving up from there), and, finally, while we’re at it, we all agree to debate the %$#&* resolution.
Oh, and I’d also like world peace, free wireless, and an order of fries with that.
1 comment:
Excellent.
Post a Comment