1705137695
23.3 Personnel and Their Responsibilities
1705137696
1705137697
For a tournament to run effectively, a good staff is essential. No single model will work for every tournament, but some staff roles will be common to most events. This section will consider the most important staff and their roles.
1705137698
1705137700
23.3.1 Tournament Host and Tournament Director
1705137701
1705137702
The Tournament Host is responsible for advance planning and general hosting. The Tournament Director is responsible for the activities that occur when the tournament actually begins. In many cases, one person manages both of those two roles. If the roles are divided between two people, the Tournament Host needs to clearly spell out the obligations of each of the two people, and this information should then be clearly communicated to the Tournament Director. The Tournament Host and Director are responsible for overseeing all facets of the tournament—registration, topic selection, venues, tabulation, and presentation of awards. The Tournament Host usually has the final say on all questions related to rules and procedures, and should be prepared to step in to assist with any aspect of the tournament throughout the event. Some tournaments also have an Assistant Tournament Director to help with the Tournament Director’s various responsibilities.
1705137703
1705137704
The Tournament Host is responsible for organizing the event and sending appropriate information to all of the participants and judges. The Tournament Director also needs to prepare and send out the tournament invitations (see Appendix B—TOURNAMENT INVITATION TEMPLATE for an example) well in advance of the event.
1705137705
1705137706
Sometimes Tournament Hosts will decide to use topic areas for the tournament. Topic areas are general categories of subjects that help narrow the range of the motions to be used at the tournament so that debaters can conduct some research in advance. In some debate formats, particularly where participants have a limited amount of time to prepare after the motion is announced, debaters find that topic areas are useful to narrow the tournament to a central theme. The following statement illustrates how topic areas could be presented in an invitation to participants:
1705137707
1705137708
The tournament will feature debate motions focused on the following five general topic areas: rural development, education, medical care, the environment, and space exploration.
1705137709
1705137710
Even broad topic areas, such as in the above example, give students an idea of where to focus their research and studies in advance of the tournament so that they can bring some knowledge and evidence to the debates.
1705137711
1705137712
Tournament Directors also must prepare a list of specific motions for the tournament. In Worlds-Style debate, a different motion is needed for each preliminary round and for each elimination round at the tournament. At some tournaments, a motions committee consisting of a group of faculty members and possibly some advanced debate students is formed for the task of creating a list of motions for a tournament. If such a committee is used to craft the motions, a good practice is to involve some university officials in the process. Any students who serve on the motions committee should not be allowed to debate at the tournament because of the advantage they would gain from having advance knowledge of the topics.
1705137713
1705137715
23.3.2 Tabulation Director
1705137716
1705137717
The process of collecting results and determining the total ranks for each team and the speaker points for each debater is called tabulation. Tabulation should occur in a secluded room to provide a quiet space for the tabulation team. Tabulation of the tournament should be the responsibility of a small group, with the Tabulation Director as the leader.
1705137718
1705137719
The Tabulation Director, another key member of the tournament staff, is appointed by the Tournament Host or Tournament Director. In some cases, either the Tournament Host or Tournament Director may also serve as the Tabulation Director. The Tabulation Director is responsible for all of the issues related to tabulation, including entering information about teams, judges, and rooms; matching each of the debates; printing ballots; and, recording results at the conclusion of each debate. Most tournaments also have one or two Tabulation Assistants, who are available to help the Tabulation Director with the recording of results. Tournaments should have at least two individuals to record results for each debate so that one individual can read the scores while the other inputs the scores into the tabulation program. This makes tabulation more efficient and helps create a double check to avoid errors.
1705137720
1705137721
For smaller events, two people can probably handle the tabulation of results, but for a larger event, a group of four will be needed for the task. That tabulation group must post the draw for each debate, assign the judges, record the results, and determine which teams advance to elimination rounds. The tabulation group will also be responsible for keeping an accurate list of the names of all of the competitors, as well as tracking any changes during the tournament. See
1705137722
1705137723
Appendix C for a complete list of the responsibilities of the tabulation group.
1705137724
1705137725
A variety of computer programs are available to run tabulation for Worlds-Style debate, and the Tabulation Director should train the other members of the tabulation staff in the use of such programs in advance of the tournament. Those computer programs not only assign rooms for debates and judges for each room, but they also determine the positions that each team will debate, and attempt to create fairly matched debates for each round. While the methods might vary slightly across different computer programs, all programs track position constraints (to ensure that a team gets to rotate through different speaking positions throughout the tournament) and provide some level of power-matching (pairing of teams that have similar scores based on their previous rounds). Links to some of the tabulation computer programs used by the authors of this text can be found at http://willamette.edu/cla/china_debate/curriculum/index.html.
1705137726
1705137728
23.3.3 Chief Adjudicator
1705137729
1705137730
Some tournaments, particularly large international events like the China Open and the World Universities Debate Championships, may also appoint a Chief Adjudicator or CA. The Chief Adjudicator is responsible for overseeing the process of writing motions, leading judge-training sessions, and identifying judges who are suitable for use as Chairs. The Chief Adjudicator will also judge some debates at the tournament, and should be the first person to whom any questions or complaints about judging issues are addressed. To assist with those duties, some tournaments appoint a Deputy Chief Adjudicator, or DCA.
1705137731
1705137732
The Chief Adjudicator will frequently offer training sessions to students and judges. Almost all tournaments offer some type of training sessions for judges. Those sessions can be conducted on the first day of the tournament, if necessary, but some advance judge orientation is beneficial. Knowledgeable judges help to ensure good debates, and participants benefit from the feedback they receive from well-trained judges. Typically, a judge-training session should include a discussion of the following topics:
1705137733
1705137734
· General description of the debate format
1705137735
1705137736
A. Responsibilities of each of the speakers and time limits for each of the speeches
1705137737
1705137738
B. Discussion about how to fill out a ballot, including rankings and speaker points
1705137739
1705137740
· Introduction to the “consensus judging” process
1705137741
1705137742
A. Description of the types of comments that judges should provide to competitors during oral adjudication
1705137743
[
上一页 ]
[ :1.705137694e+09 ]
[
下一页 ]