Registration Day at NFL Nationals

Today GLOBAL DEBATE presents the first of our daily reports from the largest academic competition in the world, and the largest speech and debate tournament in the world, the National Forensic League's national high school speech and debate championship, being held all this week in Birmingham, Alabama.

These reports are being written by Alfred "Tuna" Snider, a career debate coach but also the Director of Tournament Operations here in Birmingham. Of course, I might be a bit biased in what I say and report.

Today was registration day. Everyone registered, tab rooms meet, there was a reception for new coaches, a luncheon for district chairpersons, a huge expo of speech and debate products and services, and opening ceremonies.

Usually there is a huge crush at the beginning but this time things seemed to be a bit more understated as people arrived in bunches, but by 2 PM most of the registration was done. There were some lines, but not too bad. NFL has some gifts for everyone, including a lovely (and very thick tournament book) as well as a nice smaller tablet with the tournament logo on it. It is nice that they give a different item each year so that you get some variety. There was also a SWAG bag from the host committee ("stuff we all get") that had a lot of local information and even some candy!

The tab rooms met (there are many different speech events like original oratory, dramatic interpretation, humorous interpretation, international extemporaneous speaking, US extemporaneous speaking and duo interpretation; as well as debate events like policy debate, public forum debate and Lincoln-Douglas debate; Student Congress in a senate and a house format; and supplemental and consolation events like expository speaking, storytelling, impromptu speaking, commentary, prose interpretation and poetry interpretation) and I had a chance to talk to them about procedures during the tournament. NFL executive secretary Scott Wunn urged them to work towards a "perfect tournament" which he characterized as being one that emphasized confidentiality (no leaking of results), courtesy (to all, no matter how mean they are to you) and conciseness (get it done efficiently and fairly). They are a great group and I am inspired by them. As a university speech and debate person many of my colleagues look down on high school coaches, but in the seven years I have been the director of operations for this tournament I have learned to respect and admire them for the great job they do for America's young people.

Seventeen national championships will be awarded at this tournament over the period of one week. Wow, that is a lot of talking heads.

At the new coach reception people got pie and were talked to by Wunn and others about what the NFL means and how they can become more involved. At the district chair meeting (the nation is divided up into about 100 "districts") Wunn urged them to come to the chairs retreat later in the summer to discuss the future of the league. Sponsors talked to both groups about how to work with them an d raise money. Sarah Marshala from the Bickel and Brewer Foundation also talked to them about participating in the International Public Policy Forum debate contest next year. NFL President Billy Tate made sure that the luncheon was fabulous, of course, in a very southern style.

As the major tournament administrator, my co-workers and I are on the watch for problems and difficulties. We noticed that an unusually high number of judges had dropped out as well as being removed for committee and tab room duties, but we think we have enough to run all of the events. We have a flexible taxi squad of emergency judges and we know where and when we are going to need them. This is all possible because of the fabulous work of Rich Edwards of Baylor University who has computerized the entire tournament and every event, so we can assess our needs and resources at the push of a button.

The opening ceremonies are going on now, but I am back in the hotel recovering from a rough day. Every tournament official has been assigned a pedometer so we can keep track of how far we walk during the tournament. I was only good for about three miles today, tromping around the Sheraton and the convention center. More on how many miles the 150 tournament officials walk in later postings.

Tomorrow we kick off at 9 AM, but most of us will be there way before that, to scout out the facilities at the five different school complexes where the contests will take place. I will report again after Monday is over.