Just wanted to toss out a mea culpa on the ballot disclosure policy from the round robin: after going through the meeting minutes from the NDT committee at the NU tournament, I just wanted to state publicly that:
1. We should have had some sort of prior notice policy on ballot publication (along with an opt out) for both teams and judges.
2. In the future, we will.
In general, we thought publishing the ballots would provide a great teaching tool (since many of the debates at the RR were recorded). The idea being pairing the ballots with the videos, having students watch the debates, then look at the ballots to get a sense of the difference in how judges decide debates and how debaters view them etc. etc. Sometimes when we get good ideas we get a little overly exuberant about them, and move a bit faster than would be prudent. In the future we will better balance our enthusiasm with prudence.
Some folks had already backchanneled me about all this, and I figure since it was brought up at the NDT meeting it warranted some public address. We obviously loved hosting everyone and look forward to doing so again next year.
Best,
PJ
