The following amendments to the WFCA bylaws have been proposed for the Spring 2014 WFCA meeting on Saturday, May 31 at 2:00 PM at the Paper Valley Hotel in Appleton.
Bold underlined text indicates additions; strikethrough text indicates deletions
Proposal 1 - Changing how State Tournament awards are determined
submitted by John Rademacher, Madison West
WFCA Operating Bylaws
IV. State Tournament
C. State Tournament Practices and Procedures
6. Awards
a. Winners will be determined as follows:
i. in individual events
(a) lowest accumulative rank in the final round; totaling the three preliminary round ranks, the three semi final round ranks and the five final round ranks; in the event of a tie, use the cumulative final round ranks;
(b) in the event of a tie, if still tied, make use of final round judges' preference;
(c) if still tied, use reciprocals of final round ranks
#1 rank = 1.00
#2 rank = .50
#3 rank = .33
#4 rank = .25
#5 rank = .20
#6 rank = .17
#7 rank = .14
Example:
ranks of 1 2 3 = 6 = 1.83 #2
ranks of 4 1 1 = 6 = 2.25 #1
(d) if final round reciprocals will not break the tie (3-way tie), a combination
of judges' preference and reciprocals is to be used. , use the sum of all reciprocals of all round ranks.
(e) if still tied, refer to cumulative ranks of semi-final round;
(f) if still tied, refer to cumulative ranks of preliminary rounds,
Proposal 2 - Changing State Tournament Disqualification Procedures
submitted by John Rademacher, Madison West
WFCA Operating Bylaws
IV. State Tournament
C. State Tournament Practices and Procedures
7. Disqualification Procedures
a. Only the State Tournament TPP (Tournament Practices and Procedures) Committee may disqualify and/or inform a contestant
that the contestant is disqualified either orally or on a written critique or ballot.
The TPP Committee for the State Tournament shall consist of the State Tournament Director, the WFCA TPP Committee chair and two other members of the WFCA TPP Committee appointed by the TPP Committee chair.
b. If a judge, coach, or tournament participant suspects that some infraction of the rules warrants disqualification, that person shall bring the concern to the Tournament Practices and Procedures (TPP) Committee Chair when returning the ballot or immediately after the round in which the infraction allegedly occurred.
c. The TPP Chair shall bring the concern to the Tournament Practices and Procedures Committee, who shall decide whether disqualification is warranted. In the event that a potential disqualification involves a student of a member of the State Tournament TPP Committee, or if the disqualification would result in a direct benefit to a student or the team of a State Tournament TPP Committee member, that member shall be replaced by the State Tournament Director with a neutral member of the greater WFCA TPP Committee. If no such person can be identified or located, the State Tournament Director shall appoint any neutral coach to participate in the disqualification decision. All reasonable attempts will be made to locate the coach of the student, and possibly the student, before the Tournament Practices and Procedures Committee makes its decision.
d. The committee making the disqualification decision shall meet in a private location.
k. The coach of the disqualified student shall be notified of their right to appeal the decision to the Executive Board.
Proposal 3 - Changing State Tournament Semi-Final Pairings
submitted by John Rademacher, Madison West
WFCA Operating Bylaws
IV. State Tournament
C. State Tournament Practices and Procedures
8. Power-protected pairings will be established for semi-final rounds. Rounds will be set up as prescribed by the NFL with the amendments listed below
9.
| e.g. for 2 sections | e.g. for 3 sections |
| 1 2 | 1 2 3 |
| 4 3 | 6 5 4 |
| 5 6 | 7 8 9 |
| 8 7 | 12 11 10 |
| 9 10 | 13 14 15 |
| 12 11 | 18 17 16 |
| 39 39 | 57 57 57 |
Each section will be as equal as possible in total ranking. The top 1/3 to 1/2 of contestants from each semi-final section, based on cumulative rank totals of the three preliminary rounds and the three semi-final ranks, will advance to the finals. (i.e. If two sections are held, each will send 3 speakers to the finals. If three sections, each will send 2 speakers.) Ties that would send more than the above number of speakers to finals will be broken based on:
1. total ranks in the semi-final round
2. judge’s preference in the semi-final round
3. total of reciprocals of all preliminary and semi-final round ranks
4. total of reciprocals of all semi-final round ranks
Teammates shall be separated in semi-finals as much as possible.
10. The top twelve entries in each category shall advance from preliminary rounds to semi-final rounds. In determining the top twelve, the following criteria shall be used:
1. lowest cumulative rank total
2. highest total reciprocals of preliminary round ranks
3. better rank in any head-to-head encounter during preliminary rounds (i.e. Speaker C and Speaker D are tied in ranks and reciprocals coming out of preliminary rounds. They were in the same section in round 2. In that section, Speaker C ranked 1 and Speaker D ranked 2. Speaker C wins the tiebreaker.)
Speaker points will not be used. In the event of an unbreakable tie at the break point after all above tiebreakers have been exhausted, all tied contestants will advance into the semifinals with the possibility that semi-final sections of 7 competitors and/or three sections may be necessary to accommodate ties.
15. During the preliminary rounds, any contestant who earns two rankings of # 1will automatically be advanced to semi-final
competition regardless of the score in the other round.
Proposal 4 - Restoring the William Hintz Memorial Award
proposed by: Ron Steinhorst, Walter Daumler, Maryann Katzor, Gerald Meier, and John Culbertson
WFCA Operating Bylaws
VI. AWARDS
A. The Awards Committee shall be chaired by the Past-President and shall include the three most recent recipients of the Founders' Award.
1. THE WILLIAM HINTZ MEMORIAL AWARD FOUNDERS AWARD FOR COACHING EXCELLENCE is an annual award that will be given once a year to an active WFCA coach.
a. The previous recipient will present the award to the winning coach at the WFCA Coaches' Tournament, with an introduction of who William Hintz was. No coach may receive the award more than once. The names of previous winners shall be published in official publications.
b. Candidates must be active in WFCA, be supportive of the WFCA, demonstrate enthusiasm for forensic activities, have a high regard and respect for the students he/she works with, have a high regard and respect for fellow coaches, work toward the improvement of WFCA, promote interest in interscholastic forensic activities through the strength of his/her own program, have acquired the respect of students he/she works with, and be involved in a supportive way or a member of other speech organizations, i.e., WDCA, NFL, WCA, WHSFA, CFL.
c. The process of election will be as follows: Nominations from the membership postmarked no later than March 1 will be accepted by the Past- President. A ballot of the three coaches receiving the most nominations will then be forwarded to all members. The winner shall be the person receiving the most votes. Each candidate on the ballot must meet the predetermined criteria. If there are less than three nominations, the Awards Committee will select additional candidate(s) to fill the ballot.
Additional changes: ALL REFERENCES TO FOUNDERS AWARD BE CHANGED TO WILLIAM HINTZ MEMORIAL AWARD FOR COACHING EXCELLENCE (ie: officer duties, calendar, etc.)