March Newsletter

With the tournament season almost wrapped up, and both TOC and Nationals approaching rapidly, it’s time for another update!

Nationals

We are incredibly excited to invite you all to the NPDL National Tournament - an online high school parliamentary debate championship open to teams from across the US.

Based on the vote of the membership, we will be offering a separate novice division.

The tournament is April 14-16. Please register by April 5.

Board Elections

On May 1-7 we will be electing the 2023-24 Board of Directors.

Any adult high school graduate may run for a Board position. If you are considering throwing your hat into the ring, make sure to email our Inspectors of Election at npdl.elections@gmail.com by April 5, 11:59PM (Pacific time). This step is required for everyone who wants to run for the Board.

In your initial Statement of Interest, you won't be officially declaring your candidacy yet. You should, however, list at least one, but no more than three Board positions you are interested in. Your Statement of Interest will be shared with other people who are thinking of running, and you will then have until April 15 to formally declare your candidacy for a specific Board position.

If you know anyone who you think would make for a good NPDL Board member, please send them this link with the details:

parliamentarydebate.org/elections

Our league rules also require the publication of the meeting attendance summary for each 2022-23 Board member, so here it is. It will be updated after the March 28 Board meeting.

Written Ballot

Our Spring Voting Period will run May 1-7, concurrently with our Board elections. The Written Ballot will be emailed to all member school representatives.

So far, three proposals have been submitted - you can use our forum to review and comment.

If you would like to use this opportunity to amend our league rules, click below to read how to submit and vet a Written Ballot proposal:

parliamentarydebate.org/written-ballot

Resolutions Database

A huge shoutout to our newest Board member - Nick Hansen - for putting together a database of resolutions from past parli tournaments. You can filter the resolutions by region, season, and content tag. You can also randomize the resolutions if you want to select one for a practice round.

Fun fact - the oldest recorded high school parli resolution is “ANWR should be opened for oil drilling.” It was debated 21 years ago at Linfield University (Oregon).

To report an error or submit more resolutions, please email npdl.board+reporting@gmail.com

Meeting of Members

Our Spring meeting of members will be held via Zoom the Sunday of NPDL Nationals - that’s April 16, 12:30-2PM (Pacific time). We encourage all member school representatives to attend.

We only have one proposal to vote on during the meeting - the membership tabled it during the Fall 2022 Written Ballot. The rest of the meeting focus on a broader community discussion. Please contact npdl.board+president@gmail.com if you want to add a discussion item to the meeting agenda.

For more information, click here:

parliamentarydebate.org/meetings-of-members