Minutes, 2007

Minutes of the AFA Business Meeting

I.  The minutes of the 2006 meeting were approved.

II.  President’s Report

A. President Winkler announced that Jim Pratt will continue on as Executive Secretary.

B.  Winkler then discussed AFA’s affiliate agreement with NCA.  NCA is asking for more accurate assessments of room needs and requested that affiliates get a smaller number of rooms for pre-conference business meetings.  Winkler observed that this would be too restrictive for AFA, as committees would not be able to meet every year.  After negotiations, President Winkler was able to secure enough rooms for all AFA committees to meet and to hold the annual reception.  Winkler agreed to release the names and email address of active committee members to NCA (NCA had wanted a more extensive list of AFA attendees).  Winkler recommended that the newsletter encourage membership in NCA and attendance to convention.

C. Discussion included concern over whether AFA members would have to become members of NCA and pre-register for the conference if names released; Carol clarified that this would not be the case.

D. The motion to accept the affiliate agreement passed.

E.  The Council then accepted the proposed change to the EBSCO contract which would run for 5 years and would increase royalties from $10,000 to $15,000.

F.  The Council then approved the nomination for Speaker of the Year, Al Gore.

G. President Winkler provided a report of the discussion regarding the AFA archives, noting that one way to avoid overcrowding of the Utah archive is to start storing documents electronically.  NIET and NDT will now use scanners for debate ballots, for example.

H.  Jerry Sanders noted that researchers are making good use of the archives.  Many difficult decisions will need to be made, however, regarding which materials to save and which materials to discard.  The most pressing issue in the short-term is what to do with the debate ballots, may of which are illegible.  One proposal is to archive ballots from elimination rounds only, and to scan ballots.  Sanders indicated that he is still looking for items to include and the archive is taking submissions/donations.  Examples include papers of former debaters, directors of forensics (e.g., Annabel Haygood, University of Alabama).  Inquiries can be sent to jsanders@one.net; there will be a ceremony about the archives at the 2009 Alta conference.

III.  Vice President’s Report

A. Vice President Cronn-Mills provided a report on the 2006 NCA conference, including number of submissions and acceptances, as well as paper awards.

B.  Cronn-Mills then reported on conference planning for the 2008 NCA conference and distributed the CFP.  He discussed ways that AFA can encourage more submissions for NCA.

IV.  Executive Secretary Report

A.  Executive Secretary Pratt highlighted some items on the proposed budget document, including number of issues of Argumentation and Advocacy paid for, and monies left over for additional issues.

B.  Pratt also mentioned that only 70 institutional agency dues are currently paid for (out of 275); these tend to not be paid in a timely manner.

C.  Ballot sales are decreasing, but are still strong, especially for high school tournaments.

D.  Pratt reiterated that EBSCO royalties will be increasing.

E.  The AFA newsletter will now be in electronic form; the first electronic issue was distributed via email in October.  This move will save approximately $1810.

F. The printing of the directory has been delayed, as it is a document that requires password protection on the website.  Webmaster Louden indicated that this is possible.

G.  Regarding the proposed budget, 2 changes were made by the finance committee which were both additions from the unbudgeted reserve: a $500 honorarium for webmaster and $1000 for two scanners (for scanning debate ballots).

V.  Two-Year College Representative Report

A.  Darren Elliot reported on the problem of two-year educational institutions with forensics programs not joining the national organizations, such as the NDT.

B.  Elliot reported on the number of programs represented at NDT and CEDA tournaments and the number who are actually members; he then discussed reasons for this and some possible actions that might increase formal membership in forensics associations.

VI. National Developmental Conference on Individual Events

A.  Larry Schnoor reported that the next Development Conference for Individual Events will take place at Bradley University in Peoria, IL, July 31-August 2.  Schnoor requested AFA matching funds.  He also reported that proceedings will be available online and as hard copy.

B.  The motion was passed with no discussion.

VII.  High School Representative

No report

VIII.  Past President

A. President Winkler presented on behalf of past-president Gordon Mitchell.

B.  Winkler described Mitchell’s call for strategic planning as a way to articulate both a vision for AFA and charges for its various committees.

IX.  Nominating Committee

A. President Winkler presented on behalf of the Nominating Committee.

B.  A list of nominations for the 2008 elections was distributed to members.

X.  Finance Committee

A. Heidi Hamilton, chair of the finance committee, reported that a new budget was approved and presented it to attendees of the business meeting for approval.

B.  Hamilton reported that the new chair of the committee will be Danielle Wiese.

C.  The budget was approved without discussion (although it was noted that funds would be made available for the development conference).

XI.  Professional Development and Support

A.  Doyle Srader, chair of the committee, reported on the need to revisit the problem of tenure for Directors of Forensics.  The committee believes another survey should be conducted by graduate students looking for national service.  It is proposed that potential grad students be identified via a targeted survey of DOF’s.

B.  Doyle identified the need for resources for those DOFs going up for tenure.  He noted the interest in charging the publications committee with gathering rejection rates and average review turn-around times for the major journals, as well as gathering information as to what makes various journals “unique” and worthy of listing on research guidelines by various departments (e.g., Controversia does not have a high rejection rate, but is an international journal).

C.  Discussion about the motion included noting that Carrie Crenshaw has put together a study on what it takes to get tenure as DOF, so should be consulted.

D.  The motion passed.

E.  It was announced that Al Louden is the 2007 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award.

F. No new chair of the committee was elected.

X.  Publications Committee

A.  David Steinberg, new chair of the committee, reported. 

B.  Steinberg discussed problems with reproduction quality by EBSCO (e.g, some documents are being “chopped off”).  The committee will work with EBSCO to resolve the problem.

C. Steinberg encouraged members to purchase Alta proceedings to ensure continued publication by NCA.

XI.  Argumentation and Advocacy

1. Randy Lake, outgoing editor of Argumentation Advocacy, reported that all of his issues are in press.  One of the issues is a special double issue on visual argument; he was sure to have this issue published in the same year so that citation information is consistent.

2. Lake then reported that Dale Hample, the new editor, is accepting manuscripts and has been getting submissions since July 2007.  Hample has 15 or so manuscripts; Lake has forwarded some revise-and-resubmits to him.  All in all, the transition has been going smoothly.

XII.  Research Committee

A.  Matt Sobnosky, chair of the Research Committee, revealed the winner of the 2007 Rohrer Memorial Award, Gordon Mitchell, for his “Team B Intelligence Coups,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 42(May 2006). The thesis award went to James P. Dimock, for his “The Place of Parliamentary Debate in a Pedagogy of Argumentation,” Department of Speech Communication, Minnesota State University-Mankato.

B. Robert S. Littlefield, North Dakota State University and Michael D. Bartanen, Pacific Lutheran University, received a Brockriede Memorial Research Grant for their historical research project, "American Forensics in the 20th Century: An Uneasy Fusion of Democracy and Competition."

C. Cate Palczewski agreed to serve provisionally as chair of the Research Committee

D.  The winner of dissertation/thesis award will also win a year free membership in the AFA.

XIII.  AFA-NIET Committee Report

A. Frank Thompson provided the report of the committee.

B.  Thompson thanked Leah White for hosting the national tournament at Minnesota State University, Mankato.  Larry Schnoor served as Tournament Director. The 2008 AFA-NIET will be held next at UT Austin, April 4-7, 2008.  Randy Cox will serve as tournament host.  In 2009, the tournament will be held at the University of Akron, OH.

C. Two were selected for outstanding service awards:  Richard Payne, North Central College, IL, and Joanne Edwards, University of Mississippi.

XIV.  NDT Report

A. Gordon Stables presented the report.

B.  The 2007 NDT host was Stefan Bauschard; he noted that fees for the tournament were reduced considerably.

C.  The 2008 NDT will be held at Cal State Fullerton.

D.  Stables thanked the AFA for allocating funds for a scanner.

E.  Stables reported that the committee affirmed the Code of Ethics regarding sexual harassment.

F.  The committee will be making recommendations for revising the Code of Ethics in light of recent controversies (for example, role of observers needs to be clarified).  Guidance will be sought from the AFA Code of Professional Ethics, section on competitive practices.

XV.  New Business

There was no new Business.

A motion to adjourn was approved.

Respectfully submitted,

Kelly Happe
Recording Secretary