Q: Do other leagues use more than one resolution for Lincoln Douglas?
A: Yes. The public school league, the National Speech and Debate Association, uses 5 resolutions per season and has for decades.
Q: Why are we considering this?
A: Stoa would like to be the best league possible and improving our Lincoln Douglas students’ education, knowledge and debate skills will help us reach that goal.
Q: How would the vote work?
A: The Debate Committee and the Stoa board will present five topics for members to vote on. Each member family will rank the choices 1st through 5th.
Q: How many resolutions will we use?
A: We will use three Lincoln Douglas resolutions throughout the tournament season.
Q: When will we debate each resolution?
A:
- The third most popular resolution would be announced at NITOC and become the winter resolution. It would be debated from October 1st through January 31st.
- The second most popular resolution would be announced December 1st and would be debated from February 1st through March 31st .
- The most popular resolution would be announced March 15th and would be debated April 1st through NITOC.
Q: What would we debate at NITOC?
A: The most popular resolution that was announced on March 15th.
Q: Could tournaments choose a different resolution for their tournament rather than the one that corresponds to their tournament dates?
A: No. To be a qualifying Stoa tournament for the year, tournaments would have to use the resolution that corresponds to the start date of their tournament. Minimum Tournament Standards would be adjusted to reflect this.
Q: Would we ever debate more than one resolution at a tournament?
A: No.
Q: Would we know all the possible resolutions for the next year when we vote?
A: Yes. Stoa families would know the 5 possible resolutions for the next tournament season, just not how the vote ranking came out.
Q: What if the Three Resolution Proposal is voted down? Which resolution would we use for the next tournament season?
A: The most popular resolution choice.
Q: Didn’t we try this before?
A: No, we have never tried a three-resolution LD model before. (A few years ago Stoa tried a two-resolution model, but that format was awkward as it involved juggling two topics simultaneously at NITOC. The proposed three resolution format is much cleaner, and mirrors the structure in other LD leagues where it’s worked for decades.)