Board Code

See official Google Docs version of the Board Code here.

ARTICLE XXI: RANKINGS

XXI.1: Points Eligibility

A. Only results from open (a.k.a. “varsity”) divisions of parliamentary debate (see I.7) shall count for points.

B. A tournament shall only count for points if it is an invitational (see C) or if it is explicitly mentioned in this article (see 4).

C. An invitational is a tournament that:

- is open to all schools (see I.10), and

- is open to any high school student a school wishes to enter.

An invitational may, however, restrict the number of entries per school and/or cap the total number of entries (see I.11.1).

D. An invitational shall count for points only if its open division of parliamentary debate (see I.7) has:

- at least 5 schools (see I.10) and

- at least 10 teams

- for at least 3 preliminary rounds.

E. Online tournaments shall count for points, but only if sanctioned by the Board (see 11).

F. Only tournaments that publicly announce their date and location prior to October 1 of the season in which they occur or at least 30 days prior to the start of the tournament shall count for points.

G. Only two-person teams are eligible for points.

H. Tournaments held in June, July, August, or between December 24 and January 2 shall not count for points.

I. Tournaments shall only count for points if their logistics and finances are run by:

- a debate program and/or booster club affiliated with a high school (see I.10), or

- a debate program affiliated with an accredited college or university (as listed in the Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs), or

- a debate league in which at least 5 high schools (see I.10) are voting members, or

- an urban debate league recognized by the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues.

XXI.2: Elimination Rounds at Invitationals

A. Adjusted field size (AFS) shall be calculated using the following formula:

(Open Field Size) +

(Novice/JV Field Size) / (3)

AFS shall be rounded to the nearest whole number.

An open team is a team eligible to break to the open elims.

A novice/JV team is a team that competes in novice/JV prelims and not in open prelims.

Teams that forfeited two or more prelims shall not count toward field size.

B. A breaking team shall receive points based on the column for the highest level it reached in elims, as per the Elim Points Table below:

All adjustments to the Elim Points Table can be found in this article (see 2.C, 2.D, 2.E, 2.F, 3.B, and 5.C).

C. A team that had a losing/even record in prelims shall not receive points, unless it reached an elim in which no more than one third of the open field debated or advanced without debating.

D. A standard invitational breaks at least 27% of its open field to open elims. The following penalties are applied (to breaking teams only) if this percentage is lower:

[0% - 4.7%] 6-point penalty

[4.8% - 6.7%] 5-point penalty

[6.8% - 9.5%] 4-point penalty

[9.6% - 13.4%] 3-point penalty

[13.5% - 19.0%] 2-point penalty

[19.1% - 26.9%] 1-point penalty

E. A standard invitational has 5 prelims. The following adjustments are applied (to breaking teams only) if the number of prelims is different:

7 or more prelims: 3-point bonus

6 prelims: 1-point bonus

4 prelims: 3-point penalty

3 prelims: 6-point penalty

F. No team shall lose points from attending a tournament.

XXI.3: Preliminary Rounds at Invitationals

A. Teams that do not break shall receive points based on their prelim record as follows:

2-1 = 2 points

3-0 = 5 points

3-1 = 4 points

4-0 = 9 points

3-2 = 3 points

4-1 = 8 points

5-0 = 12 points

4-2 = 5 points

5-1 = 11 points

6-0 = 14 points

B. Points Floor

A breaking team that had a winning record in prelims shall receive the higher of the two:

1) the points it would receive based on the other sections of this article;

2) the points that the lowest-seeded breaking team that had a winning record in prelims would have received based on its prelim record (see A) had it not broken.

XXI.4: Other Tournaments Eligible for Points

A. Points for competing at the NPDL Tournament of Champions shall be as follows:

prelim ballot won = 2 points

break = 2 bonus points

elim win = 4 points

championship = 2 bonus points.

Break percentage penalties shall be the same as for invitationals (see 2.D).

B. The first three regular-season parli tournaments organized by a CHSSA member league (CFL, GGSA, YFL, SVFL Kern, SVFL Redwood, CVFL, SCDL, TCFL, WBFL, CBSR, OCSL, or SDIVSL) shall count for points.

All rounds shall count as prelims. Only the first four rounds shall count for points.

Only the following records shall count for points:

2-1 = 2 points

3-0 = 5 points

3-1 = 4 points

4-0 = 9 points

C. CHSSA state qualifying tournaments and OSAA district tournaments shall count for points as follows:

alternate: 4 points (but only if the tournament has 20 or more entries)

qualifier: 8 points (but only if the tournament has 10 or more entries)

The points awarded under this subsection shall not count toward NPDL-TOC qualification (see XXII) and shall not be added to the rankings until March 2 or later.

XXI.5: Walkovers and Closeouts

A. A walkover occurs when one team advances over another team in elims based on the decision of their school(s) rather than of the judge(s).

B. A closeout occurs when more than one team is declared tournament champion.

C. The following adjustments are applied if both teams are from the same school:

being walked over: 2-point bonus

walking over another team: 2-point penalty

finals closeout: 3-point penalty

D. A closeout by three (or more) teams from the same school shall count as a walkover (or a series of walkovers) followed by a finals closeout.

E. A walkover in which the two teams are from different schools shall count as a forfeit by the team that is being walked over.

F. A closeout by two or more teams that are from different schools shall count as a forfeit by all the teams involved.

G. If at least one partner in a team is from the same school as at least one partner in another team, those two teams shall count as being from the same school.

XXI.6: Unusual Circumstances

A. If an invitational has no regular elims, its hidden elims shall count as prelims.

If an invitational does have regular elims, its hidden elims shall count as regular elims.

B. If a team does not break due to a tab error, and the tournament director confirms the improper break, that team shall receive points for breaking to the first elimination round.

C. If an invitational has more than one open division, each of its open divisions shall count as a separate tournament. Its novice/JV division(s) should then not be counted when calculating the adjusted field size (see 2.A).

D. A tournament held on non-consecutive days shall be treated as separate tournaments for purposes of points.

E. The Reporting Director may determine that, as a result of an irregular tournament format, a teams’ performance at a tournament is not covered by the language of this article. That team shall then not receive points, unless the Board, by a two-thirds vote, awards that team a reasonable number of points on an ad hoc basis.

XXI.7: Team Rankings

A. The total point value for each team shall be calculated using the diminishing marginal returns formula, as follows:

(points from best tournament performance) (1) +

(points from second best tournament performance) (0.9) +

(points from third best tournament performance) (0.6) +

(points from fourth best tournament performance) (0.3) +

(points from fifth best tournament performance) (0.1)

B. A unique team is a team where neither partner is also a member of a higher ranked unique team. In the event that a debater is a member of two equally ranked teams, one of those teams shall randomly be designated unique.

C. Non-unique teams shall be ranked, but their ranks shall be enclosed in parentheses on the rankings.

D. A team’s rank equals the number of unique teams that rank higher than it plus 1.

E. Each team shall be listed on the rankings under the name of the school the debaters on that team attend (including non-member schools). Hybrid teams shall list both schools. If this information is not available, the debaters shall be listed as ‘Independent.’

XXI.8: Individual Rankings

A. A debater's individual rank equals the hypothetical team rank that debater would have obtained had they attended all tournaments with the same partner.

B. NPDL shall publish only the individual rank of debaters who have 20 or more points and whose individual ranking is higher than their team ranking.

XXI.9: School Rankings

A. Only NPDL member schools are eligible to be listed on school rankings.

B. Each member school shall be ranked based on the sum of all unweighted points of all its teams (including non-unique).

C. The points for hybrid teams shall count for neither school.

XXI.10: Reporting Results

A. NPDL will calculate rankings based on the results made publicly available on Tabroom.com by the tournaments. NPDL does not commit to independently verifying whether these results are accurate.

B. If results from a tournament are not publicly available on Tabroom.com or if the publicly available results are inaccurate or incomplete, tournaments and members of the public are encouraged to report the correct tournament results to npdl.board+reporting@gmail.com. If NPDL determines that the information provided in these reports is correct, it shall revise the rankings accordingly.

C. NPDL shall provide a window of 30 days from the date of the end of a tournament to report results. Results received after 30 days will be ruled ineligible for inclusion in the national rankings.

D. The Reporting Director shall ensure that rankings are updated within 31 days of the end of the tournament (see XXVII.11).

XXI.11: Online Tournaments in 2023-24

A. An online invitational (see 1.C) shall be auto-approved to count for points if:

1) it was approved by NPDL for the 2022-23 season, and

2) its 2023-24 varsity/open parliamentary debate entry fee is:

- no higher than $55 per team (if it is a 1-day tournament), or

- no higher than $88 per team (if it is a multi-day tournament).

B. Online tournaments listed in Section 4 shall be auto-approved to count for points.

C. Online tournaments run by NYPDL shall be auto-approved to count for points.

D. Online tournaments sanctioned by OHSSL-CA shall be auto-approved to count for points.

E. Online tournaments may be granted points eligibility on a case-by-case basis. This shall be done by a majority vote of the Board members who cast their vote within 7 days after the tournament application was submitted, not counting abstaining votes. Voting on tournament approval shall be delayed until the next Board meeting at the request of any Board member.

F. When determining whether to grant points eligibility (see E), Board members will consider:

- whether the tournament has affordable entry fees;

- whether the tournament invitation states that fee waivers are available based on need;

- whether the tournament uses NPDL round rules;

- whether the tournament is run by an NPDL member school;

- alternative tournaments the same weekend; and

- whether the tournament was run in previous years.

G. Approval may be withdrawn if the tournament provides inaccurate information.

H. This section does not grant points eligibility to any tournament that does not meet the general points eligibility criteria (see 1).

I. This section shall be updated in the Board Code in June 2024.

ARTICLE XXII: QUALIFICATION TO THE NPDL TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

XXII.1: Autoqualification

A. An individual who has at least 41 points (see XXI.8.A) on March 1 shall autoqualify to the TOC.

B. Every summer, the Secretary shall update the threshold in subsection A to accord with the Legislative Code (see XI.2.B).

C. Only tournament results reported to NPDL on or before March 1 shall count for NPDL-TOC qualification purposes.

D. Notwithstanding XXI.10.D, the Reporting Director shall ensure that all tournaments that count toward qualification for NPDL-TOC are added to the rankings by March 2 (see XVI.3.A, XXI.10.D).

E. A team of two individuals, both of whom autoqualify under subsection A, shall be eligible to accept an autoqualification bid to TOC.

F. In order to accept an autoqualification bid, a team must register for NPDL-TOC on Tabroom.com by March 3. A team that autoqualifies, but does not accept the bid on or before March 3, will be placed on the waitlist, ahead of all teams that did not autoqualify, but behind any other autoqualified teams that are already on the waitlist.

XXII.2: At-Large Qualification

A. To be eligible for an at-large bid, both partners must have competed at one or more tournaments (see I.10) in parliamentary debate during the same season as the TOC at which they wish to compete.

B. Regional at-large bids shall be awarded, according to tournament points, to:

- the top 5 eligible teams from each region (except in California, or in any region with at least 7 member schools);

- the top 7 eligible teams from each region with at least 7 member schools;

- the top 5 eligible teams from each region in California (see I.12.B);

- the top 2 eligible teams from each non-region state (see D).

C. Both members of a team must be from the same region (or the same non-region state) to be considered for a regional at-large bid, and they must register on Tabroom.com on or before March 3. The TOC Director may, however, set the regional at-large deadline earlier for a particular region. Only tournament results reported to NPDL on or before that earlier deadline shall count for determining regional bids for that particular region.

D. A non-region state is any US state that has fewer than 3 member schools, as of the at-large application deadline (see G).

E. After autoqualification and regional at-large bids have been allocated, the TOC Director shall allocate remaining slots as wildcard at-large bids based on at-large application score (see 3).

F. Ties for regional and wildcard at-large bids shall be broken based on which team registered on Tabroom.com earlier.

G. The wildcard at-large application deadline is March 3.

H. In order to be considered for a wildcard at-large bid, a team must complete the at-large application.

I. Any team that receives an at-large bid (whether initially, or after being waitlisted) must accept the bid by registering for NPDL-TOC on Tabroom.com within 24 hours after notice, if they have not already done so.

J. If an admitted team drops from NPDL-TOC, the TOC Director shall admit an additional team based on their waitlist position. If a team that received a regional bid drops, the TOC Director shall admit the top ranked waitlisted team from the same region, unless there is no such waitlist, in which case the Director will admit the top ranked team from the general waitlist. The TOC Director may set a date after which no further teams would be admitted off the waitlist.

XXII.3: Wildcard At-Large Qualification Formula

All wildcard at-large applications shall be scored according to the following formula. Scores are calculated individually for each partner, and then averaged.

1) Tournament Points

2) Underrepresented Region

5 points: Any region or non-region state with no autoqualified teams for the upcoming NPDL-TOC.

3) Underrepresented School

Point Allocations (15 possible)

5 points: No debater from the applicant’s school competed in the past three editions of the NPDL-TOC.

10 points: No autoqualified team competing at the NPDL-TOC this year will have a debater from the applicant’s school.

No more than one team from a given school (and no more than three teams total consisting of one or more homeschooled students) shall receive Underrepresented School points for their at-large application, and they shall be selected according to the following priorities: (1) a team with two members from a given Underrepresented School shall be preferred over a team with one member from that school; (2) a team with a higher at-large score shall be preferred over a team with a lower at-large score.

4) Underrepresented Minority in Debate

Point Allocations

8 points: Underrepresented racial minority (Black, Latinx, Native American, Pacific Islander)

2 points: Female or nonbinary

5) Underresourced

10 points: The applicant’s school is listed as a Title I school. (Not available if two or more teams from the applicants’ school have already qualified for the same NPDL-TOC. Title I status is determined based on the most recent publicly available data.)

10 points: The student is eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.

(15 points maximum in this category)

XXII.4: Additional Requirements for NPDL-TOC Entry

A. All students who wish to compete at NPDL-TOC must submit fully completed school and parent release forms.

B. Judges must be registered on Tabroom.com, or a hired judge requested.

C. All registration, judge hire, and other mandatory fees must be paid.

D. All deadlines under this section will be stated on the NPDL website (with a link in the Tabroom.com invitation) no later than February 1.

E. In the event one that a team has not completed all of the steps listed in this section by the deadlines, the TOC Director will notify the team’s coach or designated adult (or the student in question if no adult contact information has been provided), and provide a new deadline that is at least 24 hours after the notification. If the problems are not corrected by the new deadline, the TOC Director may drop the affected team from the tournament. At such time as the team has fully met all entry requirements, it will be placed on the top of the waitlist for entry. If more than one team is on the waitlist because of this provision, they will be ranked in order of tournament points.

F. A team may be dropped from the NPDL-TOC either before or after it has begun for non-payment of fines. Prior to dropping a team, however, the TOC Director shall notify the team(s) in question and their coach or chaperon, and provide a reasonable opportunity for payment. No team shall be dropped on this basis after the first preliminary round has begun, and before the last preliminary round has begun.

G. The TOC Director may drop all entries from a school that possesses the rotating NPDL-TOC Champion trophy if that school does not return the trophy to the NPDL, or reimburse the NPDL for the full cost of a replacement trophy, at least two weeks before the start of the NPDL-TOC. The school is responsible for delivery to either the NPDL or to the host school, as determined by the TOC Director.

ARTICLE XXIII: TOURNAMENT LOGISTICS

XXIII.1: NPDL-TOC Finances

A. Entry fees shall be $150 per entry.

B. Every school providing judges shall bring a $250 judge bond.

C. Independent entry processing fee shall be $50/entry.

XXIII.2: NPDL-TOC Student Forum

A. If a meeting of members is held during NPDL-TOC, a Student Forum shall be held concurrently.

B. All NPDL-TOC competitors must attend either the Student Forum or the meeting of members. Students prepping during the Student Forum period shall automatically forfeit their next round.

C. The Student Forum shall be a space for students to discuss issues in parliamentary debate. Adults may be asked not to sit in on the forum at student request. The TOC Director shall designate a Student Forum Facilitator, who shall manage the Forum. The Student Forum Facilitator shall be responsible for the following:

- acquiring a means of recording the forum;

- facilitating forum discussions and providing initial topics for discussion;

- creating and disseminating a survey to students after the forum;

- analyzing survey results and communicating them to the Board.

XXIII.3: NPDL-TOC Site Rotation

A. The 2023-24 TOC Director shall work to secure a host site near the JFK airport (NYC Tri-State Area) for the 2024 NPDL-TOC.

B. The 2024-25 TOC Director shall work to secure a host site near the SFO airport (SF Bay Area) for the 2025 NPDL-TOC.

C. The 2025-26 TOC Director shall work to secure a host site near the PDX airport (Oregon) or the LAX airport (Greater LA) for the 2026 NPDL-TOC.

ARTICLE XXIV: BOARD ELECTION PROCEDURES

XXIV.1: Dates

Board elections shall be held annually May 1-7 (see I.6.D, VI.1, XVI.2).

XXIV.2: Statements of Interest

A. By April 5, people considering running for a Board position must submit a Statement of Interest to the Inspector of Election.

B. The Statement of Interest must list at least one, but no more than three Board positions the person is interested in (the possible positions are President, Secretary, Treasurer, TOC Director, and Outreach Director).

If the initial Statement of Interest does not list this, the Inspector of Election should email a reminder to the person who submitted it. That person must then reply with a corrected Statement of Interest within 24 hours or by April 5, whichever is later.

C. A Statement of Interest does not constitute a definite commitment to run in the election.

D. By April 6, the Inspector of Election shall create an email chain containing all people who submitted a Statement of Interest, and shall inform all of them about who is interested in which position(s).

XXIV.3: Candidacy Declarations

A. Candidacy declarations are due to the Inspector of Election by April 14.

B. No person may run for a position they did not list on their Statement of Interest.

C. Notwithstanding Section 2 and subsection B, any otherwise eligible person may run for an unclaimed position, including anyone who has not submitted a Statement of Interest for that position or at all.

(An unclaimed position is a Board position not listed on any of the Statements of Interest. If all people who listed a position on their Statements of Interest later stated to the Inspector of Election that they are no longer interested in it, that position also becomes an unclaimed position.)

D. By April 15, the Inspector of Election shall distribute to the representatives a finalized list of candidates (see VI.3.A).

E. If the Inspector of Election misses the April 15 deadline (see D), candidates shall declare their candidacies to the representatives on the NPDL forum on April 16.

XXIV.4: Candidate Statements

A. Each candidate may make a written candidate statement, but is not required to.

B. Candidate statements are due to the Inspector of Election by April 19.

C. The Inspector of Election shall distribute candidate statements to the representatives by April 20.

D. The Inspector of Election may create candidate statement guidelines.

E. If any candidate statements are submitted after the deadline, the Inspector of Election will make a reasonable effort to publish them in a timely fashion.

XXIV.5: Assistant Inspector of Election

A. The Board shall ensure that there is at least one assistant Inspector of Election (see VI.2.A).

B. An assistant Inspector of Election shall make announcements to the representatives in the event that the Inspector of Election is not available.

XXIV.6: Roster

A. By April 27, all changes to the representatives roster must be submitted by authorized persons to npdl.board+secretary@gmail.com in order to take effect during the elections (see XXV.4.B).

B. By April 29, all candidates in those elections must be provided a final list of representatives eligible to vote in the election.

XXIV.7: Secret Ballot

(see VI.4.D)

A. The names of all representatives who cast a vote shall be shared with all the candidates, but the information about how the representatives voted shall be confidential. By accepting their position, Inspectors of Election (including assistants) agree to never share information about individual representatives’ votes with any other person except the other inspectors for that election.

B. Votes should be submitted to the npdl.elections@gmail.com account. Inspectors of Election (including assistants) shall maintain the integrity of the votes data until August 31 following the Board election. Between September 1 and September 30, the Inspector of Election shall delete all votes data from the npdl.elections@gmail.com account, and then return that account to the Board.

XXIV.8: Certification

A. The Inspector of Election and all assistant Inspectors of Election shall have full access to the votes submitted by the representatives.

B. The final vote count shall be certified by the Inspector of Election and all assistant Inspectors of Election. If this does not occur, the Board shall appoint at least one additional assistant Inspector of Election, and shall continue doing so until a majority of all certifications agree on the final vote count.

XXIV.9: Recount Procedure

A. The Inspector of Election should announce the results to the candidates by May 12. Any candidate placing second in a non-Outreach election, any candidate placing fourth in an Outreach election, and any losing candidate in an uncontested election may request a recount of the votes. The recount request shall be submitted to the Board in writing by the end of the second day after the day when the results were announced to the candidates.

B. The Board shall then nominate a person to be a Recount Inspector (an assistant Inspector of Election in charge of recounting votes). If the recount requester is not satisfied with that nomination, they may nominate a different person to be a Recount Inspector. If the Board unanimously rejects the recount requester’s nomination, the person the Board originally nominated shall be the Recount Inspector. Otherwise, the person the recount requester nominated shall be the Recount Inspector. Any Board Member who is a recount requester or ran against the recount requester in that election shall recuse themselves from the Board decisions regarding that recount.

C. If the Recount Inspector certifies the election winner who was originally announced, the election results for that Board position shall be considered final. Otherwise, the Board shall create additional procedures for determining the election winner.

XXIV.10: Inspector Stipend

All Inspectors of Election (including assistants and recount inspectors) who did not serve on the Board during the election they inspected shall, upon their request, be paid a $60 stipend by NPDL upon the conclusion of their duties.

XXIV.11: Outreach Director Elections

A. Outreach Director elections shall be conducted using the Scottish STV (see VI.4.B) rules, as implemented by opavote.com

ARTICLE XXV: LEGISLATIVE PROCEDURES

XXV.1: Remote Participation

Representatives may participate in and vote in meetings of members via a teleconferencing platform chosen by the Chair.

XXV.2: Substitutes

(see II.5, XXVI.3)

If an adult representative is unable to attend a meeting of members, the school may designate another coach affiliated with that school as the substitute adult representative. If a student representative is unable to attend a meeting of members, the school may designate another student from that school as the substitute student representative. Substitutes shall be considered representatives only for the duration of the meeting of members. Designation of substitutes shall be done as per XXVI.3.

XXV.3: Proxy Eligibility

For the purposes of determining proxy eligibility (see IV.7.F), a meeting of members held during an online tournament shall not be considered to be held at that tournament.

XXV.4: Roster Deadlines

(see CORP § 5611)

A. All changes to the representatives roster except proxy and substitute designations must be submitted by authorized persons to npdl.board+secretary@gmail.com no later than 1 day prior to the meeting of members in order to take effect during that meeting of members.

B. All changes to the representatives roster must be submitted by authorized persons to npdl.board+secretary@gmail.com no later than 4 days prior to the start of the voting period in order to take effect during that Written Ballot.

XXV.5: League Rules Format

(see I.13)

A. League Rules are composed of articles. Articles are numbered using Roman numerals. Article numbers I - IX are reserved for the Bylaws. Article numbers XI - XIX are reserved for the Legislative Code. Article numbers XXI - XXIX are reserved for the Board Code.

B. Articles are composed of sections. Sections are numbered using Arabic numerals.

C. Sections are typically composed of subsections. Subsections are numbered using capital English letters.

D. References to other parts of the League Rules are enclosed in parentheses and begin with the word ‘see.’ A reference may omit the number/letter of the article/section/subsection if it is located in that same article/section. References to the California Corporations Code are enclosed in parentheses and begin with ‘see CORP §’ followed by the section number.

XXV.6: Proposal Format

A. Each proposal shall be focused on a single topic. The Board may waive this requirement for an omnibus proposal.

B. Each proposal shall include (1) the text added by the proposal, shown in blue, bolded, and underlined, (2) the text deleted by the proposal, shown in red and crossed out, (3) the text of the affected sections that remains the same, shown in black, (4) the sponsor’s name and school affiliation, (5) a summary of the proposal, and (6) a rationale for the proposal.

C. If a proposal is incorrectly formatted, the Secretary shall notify the sponsor about this in writing prior to the meeting of the legislative committee/Board that would vet that proposal (see III.4.B).

D. The Secretary may edit the proposal text without prior approval from the sponsor, so long as the edits do not alter the substance of the proposal, but are instead limited to formatting the proposal to ensure that it is in order.

E. The Secretary may edit the proposal summary.

XXV.7: Proposal Submission

A. Proposals shall be submitted by their sponsors to npdl.board+secretary@gmail.com

B. Within 5 days of receiving a proposal submission, the Secretary shall email the proposal to the representatives.

C. Proposals and legislative committee meeting times are considered to be announced to the representatives (see III.3) once:

- the Secretary emails them to the representatives, or

- the Secretary or the sponsor posts them on the NPDL Forum.

XXV.8: Sponsors

A. The representative who submitted the proposal is its initial sponsor.

B. If a school replaces its representative, the new representative shall become the sponsor of all pending proposals sponsored by the former representative.

C. If a school ceases to have an adult representative, that school’s student representative shall become the sponsor of all pending proposals sponsored by the former adult representative. If a school ceases to have a student representative, that school’s adult representative shall become the sponsor of all pending proposals sponsored by the former student representative.

D. A sponsor may designate another representative to become the new sponsor of their proposal. To do so, the sponsor must email npdl.board+secretary@gmail.com and CC the new sponsor.

E. If a pending proposal ceases to have a sponsor, it shall be considered to be withdrawn.

XXV.9: Motions

A. There are two motions to amend which may be voted on at a meeting of members (see IV.5):

- motion to modify, which modifies the text of a proposal on the agenda;

- motion to split, which splits a proposal on the agenda into multiple proposals without substantially modifying its text.

B. A motion to amend may be added to the agenda by:

- the sponsor;

- the Board, the same way it would submit a proposal (see III.2);

- a legislative committee, the same way it would submit a proposal (see III.3).

C. The language of a motion to amend must be closely related to the subject matter covered by the proposal. Unrelated changes should instead be introduced as separate proposals. The Chair may, unless overruled by the Board, rule that a motion to amend violates this subsection and not allow it to be added to the agenda.

D. If it was submitted to npdl.board+president@gmail.com at least 10 days prior to the meeting of members, a motion to amend may be passed by a simple majority vote of the Legislature. Otherwise, a motion to amend may be passed by a two-thirds vote of the Legislature (see IV.8).

ARTICLE XXVI: MEMBERSHIP REGISTRATION

XXVI.1: Membership Form

A. The NPDL membership registration form shall be the document in Appendix B.

B. The Secretary may modify the text of Appendix B upon giving notice to the Board.

C. The Secretary shall create an online membership registration form based on Appendix B.

D. When filling out the form, the debate program supervisor will select whether the school representatives should receive official communication from NPDL by email or by regular mail (see CORP § 20).

If the school chooses to receive communication by regular mail, the debate program supervisor must fill out a hard copy of the membership form (see Appendix B) and mail it to NPDL. If the school chooses the email option and wants to switch over to the regular-mail option later in the term, the debate program supervisor may do so at any time by mailing the hard copy of the membership form to NPDL.

If the school chooses to receive communication from NPDL by email, the debate program supervisor should fill out the online membership form.

XXVI.2: Timeline

A. Membership registration for a given term shall open on June 1 of the previous term.

B. Membership registration for a given term is due March 15 of that term.

C. To become a voting member for a given term, the school shall list on its membership form three tournaments it attended in parli in the current or the immediately preceding term (see II.1.A.2).

Alternatively, it may email this tournament list to npdl.board+secretary@gmail.com by March 31.

D. If a school submits its membership form online (see 1.C), the debate program supervisor must confirm that form in writing by March 31 in order for the school to become a voting member for that term.

E. Membership must be renewed annually. A school’s membership registration/renewal shall expire on October 31 of the following term (II.3.A).

F. The term of a student representative shall expire no later than June 30 of the term when they were selected.

XXVI.3: Changing Representatives

(see II.5)

A. Following the initial designation of representatives during membership registration/renewal, a representative may be removed and/or a new representative may be designated by an email notice sent to npdl.board+secretary@gmail.com

B. The email notice may be sent by the debate program supervisor or a school representative.

C. The email notice must CC the debate program supervisor, the old representative being removed (if applicable), the new representative being designated (if applicable), and the other representative of the school (if there is one).

ARTICLE XXVII: BOARD OPERATION

XXVII.1: Board Meetings

A. Unless specified otherwise, Board meetings shall be held via teleconferencing 5:30 - 7:00 PM (Pacific Time).

B. Regular Board meetings shall be held:

- the second Tuesday of July;

- the second Tuesday of September;

- the first Tuesday of October;

- the last Tuesday before the NPDL Fall Invitational;

- the first Tuesday of November;

- the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving (i.e. the last Tuesday before the Fall voting period);

- the second Tuesday of January;

- the first Tuesday of February;

- the last Tuesday before March 3 (i.e. the deadline to finalize NPDL-TOC staff);

- the last Tuesday before NPDL-TOC;

- the last Tuesday of April (i.e. the last Tuesday before the Board elections);

- the third Tuesday of May (joint meeting of outgoing Board and Board-elect).

C. The Secretary shall maintain an attendance summary for each Board member. The summary shall include:

- a list of regular Board meetings during which the Board member was present,

- if the Board member was present for only part of the meeting, the summary shall note how long they were present,

- the total number of regular meeting hours the Board member attended.

On or before April 3, representatives shall be sent an attendance summary for each Board member, updated through the end of March.

XXVII.2: Board Meeting Minutes

A. The Secretary shall take minutes during each Board meeting.

B. The minutes shall include the text of all proposals passed during the Board meeting and indicate how each Board member voted on each proposal.

C. The Secretary shall present a draft of the minutes to the Board. The Secretary shall make a good faith effort to do this within 7 days following the Board meeting. The draft shall indicate any language the Secretary intends to redact before publishing the minutes.

D. Within 5 days after being presented with the draft of the minutes (see C), other Board members may request changes to the text of the minutes to more accurately represent what was said during the meeting. During this review period, Board members may also request that the Secretary redact (or refrain from redacting) some language in the minutes.

E. Any Board member may request that approval of the minutes be postponed until the next Board meeting. If no Board member makes this request before the end of the review period (see D), the minutes shall be considered to have been approved by the Board.

F. The Secretary shall publish the minutes on the NPDL Forum (see VII.2). The Secretary shall make a good faith effort to do so within 2 days after the minutes have been approved by the Board. The Secretary shall include a summary of the minutes.

G. Minutes language may be redacted in order to:

- protect the privacy of any individual people discussed at the meeting;

- allow Board members to disclose sensitive non-public information to the Board;

- allow Board members to share their honest opinions about individual people, tournaments, camps, or other organizations;

- avoid undermining the Board’s bargaining position in a matter currently being negotiated with an outside entity; or

- avoid jeopardizing the profits of an NPDL non-tournament fundraiser.

H. If the Secretary is not present at a Board meeting and did not designate a replacement, the Chair shall appoint another Board member to take minutes at that meeting and to carry out the rest of the duties of the Secretary listed in this section.

XXVII.3: Board Confidentiality

A. Current and past Board members may not disclose internal information to anyone who is not a current Board member.

B. Internal information is information about:

- discussions during Board meetings, except those reflected in the Board-approved public minutes;

- discussions in the Board Slack channels;

- documents in the NPDL Google Drive, except those intended for publication;

- any email sent to npdl.board@gmail.com, unless the sender states that the email may be shared outside of the Board;

- login information for any NPDL account.

C. Notwithstanding subsection A,

- the Board may publish any internal information;

- a Board member may disclose internal information to an NPDL volunteer on a need-to-know basis upon notifying the Board.

XXVII.4: Board Norms

At the beginning of each term, the Board shall adopt a Board Norms document.

XXVII.5: NPDL Conflict of Interest Policy

All directors/officers must sign and follow the NPDL Conflict of Interest Policy (see Appendix A).

XXVII.6: Duties of the President

A. The President shall chair Board meetings.

B. The President shall prepare materials for Board meetings, including:

- a Google Drive folder containing all proposals,

- a Google Calendar invite,

- a Zoom link,

- an agenda document.

C. The President shall oversee and coordinate the activities of the other directors.

D. The President may represent NPDL to other organizations.

E. The President shall maintain a calendar of tournaments eligible for NPDL points.

F. When a tournament applies to be eligible for points, the President shall promptly inform the Board.

XXVII.7: Duties of the Secretary

A. The Secretary shall take minutes at meetings of members and of the Board (see VII.2) and maintain an attendance summary (see 2).

B. The Secretary shall assist the Inspectors of Election with organizing Board elections (see XXIV).

C. The Secretary shall maintain an updated member roster (see VII.4).

The Secretary shall ensure that the Google Drive folder of each meeting of members/written ballot/election contains a roster of all representatives (and proxies for a meeting of members) eligible to vote in it.

D. The Secretary shall distribute proposals and announce legislative committees to the membership (see XXV.7).

E. The Secretary shall give the membership written notice of upcoming meetings of members (see IV.2.C) and Written Ballots.

F. The Secretary shall ensure that a Written Ballot is distributed to the representatives.

G. Once a new proposal is passed, the Secretary shall promptly

- update the official Google Drive version of the League Rules,

- adjust the numbering and references throughout the League Rules to maintain consistency (see I.13),

- then update the public-facing version of the League Rules on the website (see VII.1).

The Secretary shall maintain a Google Drive archive of the past versions of League Rules.

H. In October of every even year, the Secretary shall submit an updated form SI-100 to the California Secretary of State and pay the required filing fee.

XXVII.8: Duties of the Treasurer

A. Reports
(see VII.5)
- The Treasurer shall pay all NPDL expenses in a timely manner and keep all receipts on file.

- The Treasurer shall maintain a spreadsheet in the Board Google Drive itemizing all revenue and expenses.

- The Treasurer shall maintain spreadsheets in the member Google Drive listing the category totals of revenues and expenses at NPDL tournaments.

B. Bank

- At the start of their term, the Treasurer shall ensure that they become an authorized representative on all NPDL bank accounts. The Treasurer shall then obtain access to online banking, an NPDL checkbook, and an NPDL debit card.

- Each month, the Treasurer shall download the latest bank statement and upload it to the Board Google Drive.

- The Treasurer shall create a ‘See activity only’ user account that can see check images, statements, and documents, but not authorize transactions, and shall give all other Board members access to this account.

- At the end of their term, the Treasurer shall ensure that the Treasurer and the Secretary for the next term become authorized representatives on the NPDL accounts.

C. Taxes

- The Treasurer shall submit form 990-EZ to the IRS, form 199 to the Franchise Tax Board, and form RRF-1 to the Registry of Charitable Trusts for the immediately preceding fiscal year.

- The Treasurer shall save all the completed forms to the Board Google Drive and present them to the Board by the first Tuesday of October (see 1.B).

XXVII.9: Duties of the TOC Director

The TOC Director shall organize the NPDL Tournament of Champions.

XXVII.10: Outreach Directors

There shall be three Outreach positions on the Board, each held by one director: the Reporting Director, the Curriculum Director, and the Public Relations (PR) Director.

XXVII.11: Duties of the Reporting Director

A. The Reporting Director shall ensure that reported points from any eligible tournament are promptly added to the rankings used to determine the qualification to NPDL-TOC.

B. The Reporting Director shall ensure that there is a regularly updated NPDL database of high school parliamentary debate tournament resolutions.

C. The Reporting Director shall ensure that there is a regularly updated NPDL database of high school parliamentary debate tournament round recordings.

D. The Reporting Director shall oversee website publication of news and opinion for the parliamentary debate community.

E. The Reporting Director shall hold Zoom meetings of student correspondents approximately once a month.

XXVII.12: Duties of the Curriculum Director

A. The Curriculum Director shall oversee the creation and compilation of free and publicly available educational resources for parliamentary debate students and coaches.

B. The Curriculum Director shall work with member school coaches to disseminate the NPDL educational resources.

C. The Curriculum Director shall assemble and chair the Curriculum Committee composed of adult volunteers.

XXVII.13: Duties of the PR Director

A. The PR Director shall oversee NPDL social media accounts.

B. The PR Director shall seek out fundraising opportunities for NPDL.

XXVII.14: Chair of the Meeting of Members

A. When scheduling a meeting of members, the Board shall also appoint the meeting Chair.

B. The Chair shall prepare a summary of each proposal on the meeting agenda, run it by the proposal sponsor to ensure accuracy, and then read that summary word for word during the meeting.

XXVII.15: Logistics Coordinator

A. At the start of each term, the Board shall appoint one of its members to be the Logistics Coordinator.

B. The Logistics Coordinator shall ensure that all Board members know how to access and use NPDL web accounts.

C. The Logistics Coordinator shall ensure that each Board member has their own extension on the NPDL email account and that the emails sent to that extension are auto-forwarded to that Board member.

D. The Logistics Coordinator shall ensure that all emails sent to the NPDL Board email reach the correct Board member and are then replied to.

XXVII.16: Board-Elect

A. The Board-elect consists of all the candidates who won regular Board elections during that term.

B. The Board-elect exists from the time election results are announced to the candidates (see XXIV.9.A) until June 30, when the term of the previous Board expires (see VI.5).

C. The Board-elect may meet to plan for the upcoming term. Its decisions shall not take effect, however, unless ratified by the Board.

D. During the first Board meeting of the term, the Board shall hold an up-or-down omnibus vote on whether to ratify all the decisions it made when it was the Board-elect.

E. Meetings of the Board-elect shall be subject to the same minutes requirements (see 2) as are meetings of the Board.

ARTICLE XXVIII: ONLINE FORUM

XXVIII.1: User Roles

To be eligible for an NPDL Forum account, one must fit one or more of the roles below. Each user account shall indicate the user’s current role(s).

- NPDL Board member

- NPDL adult representative

- NPDL student representative

- Head coach of an NPDL member school

- Assistant coach of an NPDL member school

- Student at an NPDL member school (users may be listed under this role for a grace period of up to one year after June 1 of their last year in high school)

- NPDL volunteer

If a user’s role changes, the user is responsible for updating their account.

If a previously eligible user account becomes no longer eligible, it shall be changed to view-only.

XXVIII.2: User Account

A. The user account must include the person’s first and last name.

B. The user account must include the person’s school affiliation.

XXVIII.3: Posting Guidelines

A. Do not make posts that are sexist, racist, homophobic, or otherwise advocate for the oppression of or result in the marginalization of any individual, particularly of any member of an underprivileged social group.

B. Do not use profanity or post obscene images or links.

C. Do not make personal attacks on other users. This rule should not be used to prohibit criticism of specific policies or practices at parliamentary debate tournaments, events, or organizations.

D. Do not spam. Do not advertise for-profit organizations. Limit advertisement of non-profit organizations to issues relevant to parliamentary debate.

E. The Board may create additional guidelines.

ARTICLE XXIX: REGIONAL LEAGUES

XXIX.1: NCPDL

The Board authorizes the Northern California Parliamentary Debate League (NCPDL) to act as an affiliate of NPDL. NCPDL shall be governed as outlined in the NCPDL Constitution.