APDA hosts national and international competition, boasts a highly successful alumni network, as well as its own electronic bulletin board discussion group. Equally important, parliamentary debate is an international event. The 15th annual Worlds Parliamentary Debating Championships was held in December of 1994 at Princeton University. It featured debaters representing over 40 countries with perhaps the largest contingent from the United States. They too have an electronic bulletin board discussion group and a strong alumni network.
Many regions are unfamiliar.
First, see information about its familiarity mentioned above. Offering this as a reason NOT to have it as an experimental event is completely illogical. If parliamentary debate were to have been an experimental event in Chicago in 1996, it would have provided the opportunity for those unfamiliar with the event to observe rounds. In addition, parliamentary debate is not as complicated as other forms of debate currently offered at Phi Rho Pi Nationals. Students, especially those with prior debate experience, can, and have, picked up parliamentary debate quite easily.