National Forensic Association

Throughout this week, NFA will be highlighting our newly-elected members of the national council. Last up are the voting members of the national council elected on this year’s summer ballot! Each of these positions are imperative in shaping the future of the NFA. We look forward to the contributions of these incredible community members!

Throughout this week, NFA will be highlighting our newly-elected members of the national council. Next up are the LD Committee Members elected on this year’s summer ballot! The LD Debate Committee is instrumental in running a successful LD national tournament. We thank all of you for your labor!

The NFA is thrilled to announce the 2027 National Tournament will be held at San Diego State University in San Diego, CA on April 15-19. We want to give a big shoutout to John Loo, Courtney Meissner and the administration at SDSU for being incredibly eager to host the national tournament. They have already put in a immense amount of labor into creating plans for a fantastic experience for our membership!

Keep an eye out for a formal email announcement from NFA Tournament Committee soon!

Throughout this week, NFA will be highlighting our newly-elected members of the national council. First up are the undergraduate student representatives elected at this year’s National Tournament! The NFA would not be possible without the contributions of undergraduate students and we greatly appreciate the labor being done by our undergrad reps!!

It's officially July 1 and that means a new Lincoln-Douglas Debate Resolution. This year's winner for the Nationalization topic area is is:

Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its public ownership of one or more of the following industries: electric utilities, health insurance, arms manufacturing, pharmaceuticals.

Thank you to Shawna Merrill and the LD Committee for their work over the summer to refine the resolution options.

Happy New Year! Let the research begin!!

After tabulating the ballots the winning topic was NATIONALIZATION

Thanks to everyone who participated in the topic discussions and voting process and many thanks to Ben Stewart for returning ballot results over the holiday weekend!

If you would like to be a member of the research team for crafting this year's resolution, please email the NFA-LD committee chair at [email protected]

Please watch your email for meeting info!

Specific ballot results can be found on the NFA-LD website:
https://nationalforensicassociation.org/competition/
[Image text: 2026-2027 Nationalization Lincoln-Douglas Topic International Relations Image: NFA logo.]

Last call for Council nominations - due May 1st!

Open positions are:
- At-large (2 positions)
- VP of Tournament Administration
- Graduate Student Representative
- Lincoln Douglas Debate Committee (3 positions)

Nominations should include a bio or nomination statement and a photo. Please send nominations or questions to [email protected].

Remember to submit original LD topic papers to [email protected] by May 1st! This year’s topic rotation is Domestic Social/Legal.

Paper Requirements:
• Topic rationale
• Definitions
• 5-6 resolution wordings
• Solvency advocate examples
• 6-7 affirmative advantages
• Negative ground:
•3-4 disadvantages
•2-3 counterplans
•3-4 kritiks
• Works cited

This year, we will be posting each Hall of Fame Inductee to congratulate them for this accomplishment!
Our final Hall of Fame Inductee is Craig Heyne!
Craig had out rounds at NFA in poetry, prose, DI, Duo, POI, ADS, and Rhetorical Criticism. Unfortunately, his senior year the national tournaments were cancelled due to COVID. However, he received an NFA Performance of Distinction in DI, POI, Rhetorical Criticism and a Performance of Highest Distinction in Duo Interpretation. As his former coach wrote, [his] “Freshman year, he had a lot of questions. When he wondered, “what do college judges look for?” he sat down and read our nationals ballots from the previous year…all of them…and used what he learned to help his teammates. By his sophomore year, he was elected by his peers as an officer on the ISU team, and as the NFA Junior Representative. In his two years as the NFA Representative, this nominee recommended and advocated for many of the access policies we take for granted including e-ballots, quiet rooms and the open-door policy. This nominee wanted to know “why NFA didn’t have POI?” He then proceeded to write a proposal to get it added – and pushed until POI was passed as an event at NFA. When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the 2020 season, he was the voice on the NFA Council who proposed a video archive of the work of the senior class, a project which eventually became the Performances of Distinction. He was an NFA student representative who cared deeply for the student body and advocated on behalf of the students. Upon graduation, he accepted a job with the game company What Do You Meme. There he applied his experience of bridging competition with communication to designing and marketing card games – some of which we use for Impromptu drills. Recently, he switched to marketing Bloom beverages. But his heart has never left Forensics. He still shows up for work weekends, reads scripts, reaches out to students. Craig is someone that has never stopped working to make the activity better and more welcoming for all students. We want to thank Craig for his contribution to our community!!!

This year, we will be posting each Hall of Fame Inductee to congratulate them for this accomplishment!
Our third Hall of Fame inductee is Saeed Malami!
Saeed joined the Speech and Debate team because it sounded intriguing to him. Despite having zero Forensics experience, he brought an immense level of enthusiasm, creativity, and dedication. In 2019 he won the Interstate Oratorical Competition while quarterfinaling in DI and Persuasion at NFA. His senior year was a constant stream of final rounds and first place trophies. At the end of his forensics journey, when all of the National tournaments were cancelled due to COVID, he was named by NFA as the overall Performer of Highest Distinction while winning Highest Distinction status in Poetry and Rhetorical Criticism. I’m sure that the last few months of his collegiate forensics career will always feel like a question mark to him but he took it in stride. His coach recounts this nominee shrugging and saying, “I know my s**t was good. I’m proud of it. I don’t need more than that.” More recently, this nominee works as a coder and web designer for Amazon, but for his side hustle he wrote a television treatment for a pilot, and has been in several meetings in LA regarding its production. We thank Saeed for his contributions to the community and wish him luck with the pilot!!!