The National Educational Debate Association

PURPOSE/GOALS The National Educational Debate Association (NEDA) was formed to promote a particular style of debate. Perhaps the most efficient way to convey a sense of the nature of the Association is to indicate the basis of its initial formation. NEDA is the product of a consensual agreement among its founding members concerning the philosophy they believed should guide intercollegiate debate. This conviction, expressed in the Association's mission statement and ratified by its charter members, constitutes the foundation for all efforts of the Association: This Association believes that debate should be a practical educational experience and that performance by participants should reflect the stylistic and analytical skills that would be rewarded in typical public forums (i.e., courts, congress, the classroom, civic gatherings, etc.). To facilitate this mission, the Association will host a variety of tournament events open to students and directors willing to abide by and enforce Association standards of ethical, responsible, humane and communicative advocacy. Association tournaments are viewed as an extension of the speech classroom. Specifically, the skills we teach as effective in persuading a public audience are also the skills rewarded at Association events. Ideally, a debate is an exchange that, when witnessed by a member of the general public, would be viewed as comprehensible and enlightening. Understanding the direction implied by the mission statement provides the best possible indicator of the focus of NEDA and the climate that prevails at its tournaments. COMPETITIVE PRACTICES NEDA sponsors ten tournaments each year (though non-sanctioned, experimental events using NEDA topics are frequent). In an effort to offer tournament events that closely approximate "public forum" exchanges, NEDA sanctioned tournaments employ a diverse judging pool, assigning half of all ballots to "non-debate" judges which include administrators, faculty members, business persons, politicians, lawyers, subject area experts, and others. In those instances where coaches adjudicate rounds, there is an understanding that they evaluate student performance by assessing, in part, whether the exchange would be appropriate in or make a substantial contribution to the public dialogue. NEDA tournaments parallel what most students are accustomed to from their high school or collegiate debate involvement, but its "public audience" focus has occasioned alterations in rhetorical invention and style. Liberal use of "non-debate" judges has tended to discourage use of jargon while rewarding analysis and explanation. Delivery tends to share a comparable status with content. Judges at NEDA events are rarely passive critics, thus audience analysis - weighing the impact of public opinion - constrains the form and content of argument. NEDA topics tend to be drawn from areas of public concern at the moment. Given public expectations and communal knowledge of such high profile issues, our debates tend to focus on issues that would strike a general listener as central to the debate proposition. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE NEDA's chief administrative body is its nine person executive council consisting of a president, vice president, executive secretary and six regional representatives. This body votes to sanction Association tournaments. New members, upon application and sponsorship by one of the Association's charter members, are admitted by a vote of the executive council. NEDA debates two topics per year-value propositions in the fall and policy propositions in the spring. …