Article Title

Forensics Education and Tournament Management

Authors

Joel Hefling, South Dakota State University

Document Type

Tournament Managements

Abstract

When one thinks about managing a forensics tournament, frequently the components of that process that come to mind are the tasks of scheduling rooms, securing judges, ordering trophies and food, scheduling the rounds and getting through the awards ceremony as quickly and easily as possible. As the time draws nearer for the tournament to begin, there may be some details that escape the director's attention. At this time, the tournament director may become painfully aware of the admonitions presented by Hunsinger, Terry, and Wood (1970) when they point out that the director "... should not try to do everything by himself." So the resourceful director may take stock of what is left to be done and begin to assign tasks to overworked graduate students, eager undergraduate students, or reluctant but well-intentioned colleagues. Into this cauldron of last-minute-but-essential tasks falls the series of "Oh, anyone can do this" jobs: preparing ballots, writing extemp questions, setting up tab sheets, making fee sheets, preparing impromptu topics, ordering snacks for coaches and judges, making directional signs. This paper will focus on two duties that probably should be plucked from the cauldron and placed much earlier on the agenda for the tournament director: the preparation of extemp questions and impromptu topics. The management of these two events deserves greater attention than it frequently gets, and the results probably will justify the extra attention given to each.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Recommended Citation

Hefling, Joel (1998) "Forensics Education and Tournament Management," Proceedings of the National Developmental Conference on Individual Events: Vol. 3: Iss. 1, Article 16.
Available at: https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/ndcieproceedings/vol3/iss1/16