Call for Submissions: NPDA Developmental Conference and Outreach Initiatives

[UtahDebate]

Hello,
The National Parliamentary Debate Association invites interested participants to attend its 2012 Developmental Conference on August 17-19, 2012. At the request of the NPDA, the conference will be held at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, UT. Attached you will find documents describing the conference and outlining the procedures for participating.

In addition, the Professional Development committee seeks proposals for outreach and professional development initiatives that will help advance the vitality and goals of the organization. Organizational funding in support of these efforts is available. See attached documents for details for submitting proposals.

Finally, any assistance you can provide in helping secure the broad circulation of these materials will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your support of NPDA and for your contributions to these efforts.

[L&CJoe]

BUMP-

A lot of discussion on the boards post-nationals, and all year for that matter, have been concerning the direction our activity takes into the future. This conference will be a chance for many of us to discuss that in a more extensive manner- so I hope you'll take some of those ideas, put them to paper, and join us in SLC.

[L&CJoe]

I'll bump this again since I referenced it on the NPTE points thread.

[GiantsFan]

I am very interested in attending. The issue is the proximity to the start of our Fall semester and that it would force me to miss our pre-season work time.

Do others have the same conflict?

[BReid]

Given that Joe G. had mentioned this to me as something y'all might like to have me out for: Yeah, the dates fall after the point in August at which I usually leave Kansas City to go back to McKendree. Given that I don't live in close proximity to school, this is usually a pretty critical work/practice period.

[mdreher]

Konrad -
Yes. We do as well.

[UtahDebate]

Bump.

We look forward to hosting you in Utah in August. We hope that many of you will choose to send a representative from your program to participate in the conversation.

Deadline for submissions is May 1.

[korry]

Originally Posted by GiantsFan

I am very interested in attending. The issue is the proximity to the start of our Fall semester and that it would force me to miss our pre-season work time.

Do others have the same conflict?

While we also definitely support this effort, it directly conflicts with our dates for the Bellingham Debate Cooperative (Aug 11-18). Unfortunately, we have little flexibility in when we have access to the dorms/cafeterias.

[oleary]

Originally Posted by GiantsFan

I am very interested in attending. The issue is the proximity to the start of our Fall semester and that it would force me to miss our pre-season work time.

Do others have the same conflict?

Ditto for me, us.

Great (brilliant, really) idea, though, Joe, Mike et al.!!!

k.

[Dbuescher]

I mentioned this to Michael a week or two ago but thought I would post here as well.

I think the conference is a great idea and very necessary! Kudos to Gina, Michael, et. al. for getting the ball rolling on this. I do hope to attend although the timing is pretty poor from my end as well.

One thing that would make me more inclined to attend would be a pretty dramatic change in format. The model, as is, is really more of a modified Alta or even NCA--submissions of papers and thus panels. That model works pretty well for delivering and developing research but rests primarily on a conception of research as more "isolated" rather than more "collaborative" recognizing of course that the model doesn't preclude collaboration, but doesn't necessarily foster it either.

I had the great fortune of attending the Wake National Debate Development Conference in 2009. The model consisted of working groups developing collaborative research papers on major issues facing the community. The vast majority of the time spent at the conference was in the working groups discussing, researching, and writing. Granted, much of this work began prior to the face-to-face time and much continued after, but that time working together on a problem of agreed significance was highly productive. In addition to the working group research papers, the collected book that resulted from the conference included submitted and invited essays on issues of importance, concern, etc. And, of course, the conference included key notes, introductions, final reports, and socializing.

I realize it might be a little late to change the format of the conference and I trust it will remain still a productive event. If it is possible to change it to allow working group time then I say do it though.

If anyone is interested in taking a panel slot or two for a "working group" session, let me know. As you may have guessed my key interests would be, in no particular order:

--functional assessment of debate educational outcomes (look for an upcoming collection in the NPDA journal, btw)

--parli debate development and outreach including "maintaing" parli uniqueness

--benefits of relationships between the parli community and policy (NDT/CEDA) debate community

--professional development guidelines (see the Navigating Opportunity book for recent work here and in many of these areas).

backchannel me

[sthamid]

Hi Mike,

Is there any flexibility in this deadline, or should we wait for the next cycle (year) to consider participation?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by UtahDebate

Bump.

We look forward to hosting you in Utah in August. We hope that many of you will choose to send a representative from your program to participate in the conversation.

Deadline for submissions is May 1.

[UtahDebate]

A few updates about the NPDA Developmental Conference:

On submissions (/shout out to Hamid):


We have a small handful of really excellent submissions so far to the conference, but we would love to have more participation. We also realize that many of you may be in/approaching finals and are a bit crunched for time. As such, we are extending the submission date until May 18 (two weeks from today).

On Dates:

We appreciate that this date may not work for everyone and we regret that it overlaps with the BDC, but at the time that we chose the date we were unaware for certain on what dates the BDC would settle. That aside, I am fairly certain that no date can accomplish the aim of satisfying everyone. And, as you all understand, wrangling space, etc., on a college campus can be quite a challenge at times. Beyond that, we have a few thoughts:

1. Consider sending a representative from your school. Certainly not all coaches can attend because of any number of scheduling constraints. But, we hope that for those fortunate enough to have the resources to support a coaching staff, you can choose to send one of your coaches to the conference. If you don't have staff, perhaps a senior student who intends to attend graduate school/become a forensics educator would be a good choice.

2. Recognize that this conference is not about finding one more "final solution" for NPDA, but instead that it is about initiating some new types of conversations in our community that might produce some new ways for us to "do" community in our activity. We are happy for that to be broad based. We are also happy if it starts with a small cohort of folks committed to actively facilitating conversations in their own regions, etc. In our mind, the conference is only a success if the conversations continue through the fall, at NCA, and at the NPDA business meeting next March.

On Format:

With all due respect to my good friend Derek, I think that we are missing each other in terms of the design/aims of the conference. That is probably due to my lack of clarity (definitely not Gina's). So, I thank Derek for raising a good point and providing me an opportunity to clarify my opaqueness:

1. The conference announcement indicates that panels, not papers are the preferred method of submission. As such, we not only value collaboration, we prefer it to isolation. We also prefer that ideas start being cultivated prior to arrival. In our minds, a submission is the buy-in that says "hey, we have an idea that we have taken the time to formulate. It's not just a complaint. It's an effort to identify a problem and to think about productive solutions." I dearly love you all, but I am comfortable suggesting that all of our time is too valuable for any of us to show up without prep work done to support our conversations or to not attempt to ensure that there is a relatively equivalent buy-in among participants to the discussion. So, rather than an attempt to foster isolation, we view it as an appeal to your willingness to begin collaborating now. (As in, stop reading NB right now and start collaborating).

2. Panels and focus groups: We agree with Derek that working together, face-to-face is very productive. We also believe that dedicated time for individuals to present their ideas before we begin working toward consensus is also good. Our format, perhaps ineffectively, but nonetheless by design attempts to foster this. The panel sessions provide opportunities for ideas to be "put on the table" and for all of us to hear them. The focus groups provide opportunities to leverage our collective mind to "scrub" those ideas and create more developed proposals. Might we, based on submissions and interest, need to re-calculate the ratio of panels to focus groups? Sure. But, as alternative dispute and conflict resolution processes teach us, uninterrupted time for everyone to share their ideas before deliberation and debate begin is a critical part of a recipe for success. I am also pretty comfortable with the notion that we need to create spaces for voices, especially marginalized and silenced ones, to be heard BEFORE being subjected to rebuttal. We think this particular format attempts to create the possiblity.

At the end of the day, we hope those of you who haven't will look for ways to participate or have your institution represented. I also think that we agree entirely with Derek's point of concern about format and hope that, in clarifying our design principles, it might be clearer that we are trying to take a slightly different path to the same destination he describes.

Thanks for the feedback. Dialogue is good.

[UtahDebate]

Due to limited interest, the NPDA Developmental Conference will be postponed until later in the 2012-2013 competitive season. We would love to have date suggestions if you have an interest in a particular time (or if a particular time is not workable). You can email me at: m dot middleton at utah dot edu.

In the meantime, remember that outreach proposals are under constant review and that we do have funds to support excellent forensics outreach ideas. I have attached the protocol for submitting a proposal.

Happy Summer,

Mike Middleton
Univ of Utah

Gina Iberri-Shea
United States Air Force Academy