South Dakota State Interp Contest -- Proposal for Reform

View CAH's complete proposal for reforming the State Interp contest at http://lakeherman.org/school/Forensics/Interp/StateReform.htm. A few main points of the proposal:

• Speakers would be able to qualify for State through the traditional sequence of District and Region contests as per current SDHSAA rules.
  
• The proposal would create an additional avenue for students to qualify for State -- i.e., through rankings and performance at invitational contests in October and November.
• Students could only qualify for State at invitational contests meeting certain criteria (number of schools, rounds, format, etc.). These criteria ensure that students qualify for State by working hard and facing competition at least on a par with what they face at Districts and Regions.
• The tournament criteria only determine qualification for State; they do not forbid any school from hosting tournaments of different formats. Any school may continue to host and attend any sort of tournament it wishes -- as many rounds as practical or desired, ratings ("Superior/Excellent/Good") instead of rankings, finals or no finals -- without affecting students' eligibility for state or state-qualifying contests.
• From the proposal rationale:

  In terms of cost, participation, and performance, the State Interp Festival has less educational value than a single invitational contest. This proposal seeks to change the State Interp Festival to increase performance opportunities and participation in the official SDHSAA interp contests, promote participation in regular season contests, and make the State Interp Festival itself more worth the investment of teams' resources.

Whatever format you prefer for the state's interp contests, speak up here. More importantly, speak up to Pierre and the SDHSAA!