Announcing the Formation of the CMSDL Coaches Council

The Chicago Debate League (HS) has had a Coaches Council for three years. The CDL Coaches Council provides input and guidance on the management and administration of the Chicago Debate League, including maintenance and revision of the CDL Guidelines and Policies. You can get a fuller picture of the CDL Coaches Council by reviewing a recent post on its SY2012 meetings.

The CMSDL has not had its own Coaches Council yet, but it has grown to an extent that the CMSDL administration now believes that a formalized mechanism for coach input on league governance is important. So we have decided to form a CMSDL Coaches Council for SY2013. We will meet twice during the year, once in the first quarter (July – September) and once during the third quarter (January – March) — so we’ll meet twice (and only twice) during the year. The meetings will likely last for 90 minutes.

The CMSDL Coaches Council will take up issues that will be included in the CMSDL Guidelines and Policies — issues like whether new cases should be allowed to be runnable at any point during the season, whether the CMSDL Core Files counterplan should be runnable in the JV Division, etc. — in addition to other CMSDL administrative matters, e.g., the tournament schedule, coach incentives, etc.

The CMSDL Coaches Council will have two coach representatives from each of our two MS conferences, so there will be four coach representatives, in addition to ex officio representatives of the CDC and CPS. We will conduct an election of the four coach representatives, so we ask that each coach in the CMSDL cast an emailed ballot for two coaches from your school’s conference. Send an email to cdc@chicagodebeateleague.org by the end of the day on July 3rd to vote. You are welcome to vote for yourself and/or a coach colleague from your school.

Here are our current coaches, divided by conference.

“A”

Kathy Craig (Alcott)
Chris McCabe (Zapata)
Brian McCormick (Ogden)
Georgia Melidis (Wildwood)
Charles Merrick (South Loop)
Anne Negri (Bessie Rhodes)
Robbie Romano (King)
Greg Thompson (Lincoln)
Chris Van Buskirk (Bessie Rhodes)
Charlie Watts (Sacred Heart)
Karl Wiedegreen (Wildwood)

“AA”

Ron Alexander (Dulles)
LaToya Bennett (Kershaw)
Jim Dasher (Lovett)
Sarah Fakoury (Locke)
Frank Jackson (Locke)
Lauren Mays (Spencer)
Katie McDonnell (Chicago Jesuit)
Mandela Okere (McCutcheon)
Jill Robison (Frazier)
Eric Shank (Ariel)
Michele Smith (Beasley)
Bernardina Taylor (Shoop)
Brett Turpin (Kershaw)