As an association, I truly believe ACTAA is poised for a bright future.

Since accepting the nomination for second vice president four years ago, we have made so much progress in how we provide communication instruction to students, what competition looks like, and what theatre production means in a post pandemic world. As the world continues to evolve, we have learned to be better educators, servants, mentors, and leaders for each other and our students. We have restructured the Board of Directors, invested in advocacy, and modernized our association’s process in many areas.

State of ACTAA Address - Video

As our journey together continues, I see so many other opportunities for growth in our near future. Just this weekend, we engaged in meaningful discussions about refocusing our work on promoting and advancing communication studies in the curriculum, expanding opportunities for our students, and better supporting educators at the local level with modern resources.

But just as we see opportunities, there are challenges ahead as well. We face a massive teacher shortage, and smaller membership roster in the wake of the Great Resignation. Competition for students have spurred districts to offer more extracurricular activities, creating competition for our students. Parental initiated drive for student achievement has pushed districts to offer more CTE, AP, and concurrent courses that have replaced time on schedules for electives. The growth of our sister organizations (i.e., ABA Mock Trail, Arkansas Thespians, etc.).that used to need ACTAA to operate, are now fully independent operations. All of these items influence the world which our association exists, and we must confront their impacts on our activity and seek to find new ways of advancing our work.

As I look at the horizon, I see the work we have to do that is both technical and adaptive, as the challenges before us are both technical and adaptive.

The work is the responsibility of not just the association, but you as a member as well. It will take everyone of us working together at a local and state level to realize our vision of a “future where every student in Arkansas has the opportunity to be transformed through participation in communication, debate, and theatre arts." I see this work in three categories: service, leadership, & outreach.

Services

For several years, I believe our association has been at a inflection point. Needing to answer the question, “what service do we want to provide our members?” I believe we have done good work through the DEI Taskforce, Theatre Ad Hoc, and strategic planning process to answer this question. As we look to the year ahead, we need to commit to providing more regular virtual professional development opportunities outside of conference. PD opportunities that capture the attention of our theatre colleagues, and support the hundreds of communication only teachers out there. We have to invest in our new member on-boarding process. Asking ourselves how to automate, engage and support new members that join outside of conference. And, what valuable resources can we provided educators. We annually talk about slapping conference presentation slides on the website, but how can we truly provide quality useful resources to everyday teachers to improve their classroom?

Some work has already been done to address ACTAA services to members. Since accepting the presidential gavel, we have completely restructured the website to better support members. We are investing in our Student Advisory Board; committing to provide leadership opportunities and training for the students to grow as captains and leaders in their communities. And, the Board adopted new opportunities for ACTAA to help you advocate for your students and tell the story of your program through additional student recognition. At Fall Conference, the Board approve to offer All-State and Academic All-State designations this year and developed an award system for a student to receive national recognition through the NFHS Heart of the Arts award program.

Leadership

Realizing this and our larger vision of speech, debate, & theatre in every school, will take leadership. Leadership from the Board, leadership from our officers, but also leadership from you – our members. Like I have mentioned, it will take every one of us working together at a local and state level. I know we are all busy and its not easy managing 4-7 preps plus a team or production on your own. But, if this business is important and critical for our students and the state, as we like to say it is, we each have to make a commitment to attend committee meetings regularly, keep each other accountable in our volunteer roles, and show up when input and feedback is solicited.

I don’t ask the membership anything more than I have asked of myself or the Board. This summer, the Board agreed to new rules to hold itself accountable. And, this weekend we committed to meeting bi-monthly as opposed to traditionally 2-3 times a year. We understand that our vision takes work, and we have to become accountable to the work in real time. Additionally, this weekend the Board adopted the new "ACTAA in Action” Strategic Plan. The plan outlines a series of initiatives and action items that prioritize and guide work of the membership on how each discipline, each community, and each member can contribute to achieving our vision.

Outreach

Although, I believe we must commit ourselves to the work, we can’t engage in the business of transforming the lives of every student in Arkansas through communication education alone. We have to reach outside of our current membership to attract new members and partners to help us advance the work. I challenge us to commit real time into exploring how can we reach new teachers entering our fields? How to connect with existing teachers in our disciplines that feel alone in their building an content area? How can we better support teachers in the school we already have members, but perhaps don’t serve every teacher in our subjects as well?

As we work on answering these questions, the Board has made real investments in seeking strategic partners to help empower, equip, and champion our mission & vision with us. This summer, the Board approved a sponsorship program that will allow us to fundraise to better support our activities and have a purse that will allow us to expand our work. We have reorganized how we communicate with members and outside audiences with streaming our newsletter and media releases. We hope these efforts better gain traction with media outlets. And, we have invested in a plan for social media so our work is not just promoted two times a year with student congress and state, but year around.

As we live out the next year, I challenge every member to ask how you can do a little more advance how ACTAA serves, leads, & outreaches.

I know there is a lot of work ahead, but if we continue to commit to work for “future where every student in Arkansas has the opportunity to be transformed through participation in communication, debate, and theatre arts," than the future of ACTAA is bright as we equip the next generation of leaders to think, speak, and act for a brighter future.

Yours for better discourse,

Zackery Tucker, ACTAA President

During the organization’s annual conference, the Board of Directors approved a strategic plan that which outlines a series of initiatives and action items that prioritize and guide work of the membership on how each discipline, each community, and each member can contribute to achieving our vision of a “future where every student in Arkansas has the opportunity to be transformed through participation in communication, debate, and theatre arts."

A draft of the “ACTAA in Action” plan was shared with the membership ahead of Summer Workshop, July 21-23. Following the Summer Workshop, I incorporated the outstanding initiatives of our DEI Taskforce in the action plan.

“Two years ago, we adopted our core values and the Think, Speak, Act Arkansas branding,” shared ACTAA President Zackery Tucker at the announcement of the plan. “This summer, I challenged us to work to develop an action plan to strategically and intentionally live out our values, expand opportunities and prepare Arkansas’ students to be leaders in their communities and workforce. This plan does just that. It challenges us as educators to think, speak, and act in four core areas, or goals:

The plan include new priorities for ACTAA like, develop new communication course for CTE pathways, develop a strategic partner program to encourage support form outside of the organization, expand Arkansas Speech and Debate Month to a day at the Arkansas Capitol, and modernizing board and committee operations.

A full copy of the ACTAA in Action is accessible on website, actaa.org/vision.

2024 ACTAA in Action Strategic Plan

Following Fall Conference ACTAA Leadership would like to survey the member to assess community needs for future conferences. Based on feedback provided by members on Saturday, Sep 21,  the following survey was developed to collect information that will be used to plan future conference.

Conference Needs Assessment Survey

The ACTAA TAC Committee met at the 2024 Fall Conference on 09/20/2024 and Sean Petersen, TAC Chair, hereby puts out the following notes and summations of discussions from the TAC Forum Meeting to inform and guide Tournament Directors and competitive coaches for the 24’-25’ competitive season. 

• Tournament Directors are encouraged to clarify LD topics that are used by early tournaments for Jr. High division and perhaps think twice before using the Novice topic as these students will have the opportunity to debate that topic their Novice year of high school. 

• Tournament Directors are encouraged to recognize that if junior high students are going to be charged the same as high school students, there should be parity in judging, awards, and experience if entry costs are comparable.  

• Tournament Directors are encouraged to provide quality judges who can give high level quality and adjudication in Jr. High rounds and that student judges should only judge Jr. High students if they have 250 NSDA points. 

• Tournament Directors are encouraged to, in the current economy, to be mindful of raising costs at tournaments be those entry fees, judging fees, school fees, and concessions prices. Costs continue to escalate while students and family costs can stifle competitive entries. We were reminded that entry fees can not turn a profit for a tournament per AAA policy and instruction and must be kept low for all students are able to attend. 

• Coaches and Tournament Directors are encouraged to reexamine their culture of entering students in more that one draw events. Additionally the collected members wanted to stress that double entry in draw events harms tournaments and causes rounds and tournaments as a whole to run late. Please refrain from entering students into two different draw events at tournament (Ex: Extemp and IPDA) 

• There was a discussion of a return to Individual Events and Acting events returning to Saturday only competition. We agreed that this choice is best left with individual tournaments and directors as the size of tournaments varies and there should be no “one size fits all” rule.

• Tournament Directors are encouraged to take great care in drafting tournament invites to include all details on event times, judge requirements and other important information of note. It is incumbent on attending coaches to make sure to fully read each tournament’s invitation to know any changes from year to year before registering for all tournaments held in our state. When in doubt, coaches should reach out to Tournament Directors for clarification well in advance of any contest. 

• Coaches and Tournament Directors are encouraged to include and be explicit in their arrival details for the tournament and try as best they can to respect these instructions or contact tournament directors in advance if a team may be arriving earlier than the start time established in the invite. 

• Coaches and Tournament Directors are encouraged to clarify IPDA rules for prep, computer usage, times, weighing and other procedures of the event. If coaches and Tournament Directors need clarification of the rules of the IPDA format, please contact the IPDA High School Committee (Daniel Caudle offered to be the point person, his email address is daniel.caudle@sdale.org) or consult the IPDA established rules at the IPDA website at http://www.ipdadebate.info/constitution--bylaws.html. 

• Coaches and Tournament Directors are encouraged to highlight what Tournament Etiquette is and to stress to their teams that students should be professional in their interactions with adults at tournaments, watch their language, not run, etc. The committee briefly discussed that perhaps drafting a ACTAA Etiquette Guide as a base level of team expectation may be helpful, but no actions were taken towards that end. 

• The TAC Committee assembled encourages all coaches to note that if you have a Missing Judge Fee or Nuisance Fee for not having judges for your entries at tournaments that requesting that additional members of that school’s adult chaperone (be it parent of Coach)to  judge, as it is not a standard for our tournament circuit. If the school paid the Missing Judge or Nuisance Fee then they should be free of judging requirements and those fees should go to help recruiting or hiring judges for the tournament. We also discussed the difference between a Missing Judge and Nuisance Fee and when it is acceptable to include tournament fees and that they should be kept reasonable and not excessive as it limits those in our community who can compete. 

• Tournament Directors are encouraged to take note of judge overuse and to diversify the judging pool in all events. Additionally, Tournament Directors are encouraged to not overuse Coach judges so that we can be helpful to our teams at competitions. Often parent judges brought by teams report not getting judging rounds, Tournament Directors should make an effort to utilize all judges in the pool for preliminary rounds to allow for more qualified/ coach judge availability in elimination rounds.

• The TAC Committee assembled encourages all coaches to utilize the Neutrality notation in Tabroom.com to allow for judges to show their judging strikes or openness. Judges and Coaches need to make sure these settings are done before arriving at tournaments, but the fix is fairly easy and most Tabroom directors and assistants can help with these settings before rounds get underway if need be. Additionally, please have Judges use the notes feature in Tabroom to help better direct them if they have specific aspects that the tournament may need to know prior to judge pairing.

• The TAC Committee assembled encourages all coaches to maintain professional conduct when interacting with their teams both at their school and at tournaments. Teenagers talk and information and negative opinions often get back to teams that can cause animosity and upset. If we can’t stop focusing on our negative opinions our students will pick up on that and carry those negative associations to competitions. We should endeavor to be professional and positive whenever possible as Coaches and leaders of our teams. 

• The TAC Committee assembled encourages all coaches that the Grievance procedures of individual tournaments and of ACTAA as an organization should be reviewed and utilized as needed. Please keep in mind that these may differ, individual grievance complaints for individual tournaments should be outlined and highlighted in tournament instructions in the tournament invitation, and ACTAA’s Grievance Procedure per its Ethic Committee can be found on the ACTAA website, actaa.org/Governing-Documents.

Sep. 19-21, the Arkansas Communication & Theatre Arts Association (ACTAA) hosted its annual Fall Conference which included the organization’s annual General Business Meeting and regular meeting of the Board of Directors. The following outlines approved proposals of policies and programs that hope to advance the association's ability to better serve its membership and ensure continuity.

Membership Action:

The ASC Qualifying Tournament Document was amended to add back five theatre events (dramatic song lyric interpretation, solo acting, duet acting, solo musical acting, & duet musical acting) and the development of a Tabroom.com tournament shell for use on the Arkansas circuit. Ballots for these new theatre events have been added to the Membership Library on the website, actaa.org/ballots.

Support document(s): Updated ASC Qualifying Tournament Document 

The ACTAA Bylaws are amended to allow the Board of Directors to initiate changes outside of the annual general membership business following a thirty (30) day comment period before ratification. 

Support document(s): Updated ACTAA Bylaws

The Student Congress Bylaws were amended to add a late drop fee, limit use of fall competition topics for bills, require use of committee provided placards and other minor edits for clarification. 

Support document(s): Updated Student Congress Bylaws

A Nomination Committee was elected for the 2024-2026 term, namely Brittney McGloflin of Fayetteville (chair), Beck Greenway of Bentonville, & Breanne Selah of Cabot.

 

Board Action:

The ACTAA in Action Strategic Plan was adopted by the Board and announced to membership. The outstanding goals of the 2021 DEI Working Plan adopted by the DEI Taskforce was added to the draft strategic plan document that shared with the membership at Summer Workshop. 

Support document(s): Finalized ACTAA in Action Strategic Plan

The scholarship program named after Jennifer Akers, the individual Akers Scholarship established in 2021 was eliminated, the college scholarship amount was lowered from $1,000 to $500, and the forensics & theater scholarship was separated into two scholarships.

Support document(s): Approved scholarship proposal

The Student Advisory Board was more formalized with meeting schedule, participation requirements, and leadership training. Brittney McGloflin has agreed to serve as SAB Advisor. McGloflin and Tucker will work together to build out more resources over the next year to further structure of the program.

 Support document(s): Student Advisory Board Policy

The awards & recognition process and timelines were formalized for the organization’s five existing awards  (e.g., Teacher of the Year, Administrator of the Year, Spirit of ACTAA, Lifetime Member recognition, and NFHS Outstanding Educator recognition), and the board approved the creation of five additional new awards:

Support document(s): Awards & Recognition Policy

Appointments. Following Fall Conference, President Zackery Tucker appointed and the board confirmed the following appointments:

Spring Workshop 2025 was approved by the Board to be held July 20-22 in Little Rock. The facility will be announced before the Board's Winter Meeting on January 5, 2025.

Fall Conference 2025 was approved by the Board to be held at the Hotel Hot Springs August 28-30, 2025.

A new Board Meeting Schedule was approved for the 2024-2025 academic year. The Board agreed to start meeting bi-monthly on the first Sunday of scheduled month at 1:30 p.m. All meetings will be virtual, outside of the three in-person meeting we historically have (Summer Workshop, Fall Conference, & Winter Meeting).

2024-2025:

• July (during Summer Workshop, as required by the Constitution)
• September (during Fall Conference, as required by the Constitution)
• November 3, 2024 (virtually)
• January 5, 2025 (Winter Meeting, required by the Constitution)
• March 2, 2025 (virtually)
• May 4, 2025 (virtually)

As we return to the classroom for the 2024-2025 school year, I want to take this opportunity to remind our members and Arkansas’ communication and theatre teachers how important your work is to the students you serve and the future of the state of Arkansas. 

Without your hard work and commitment to communication and theatre education, the students of Arkansas wouldn’t have opportunities to think critically, interpret their feelings and opinions healthily, express themselves, communicate effectively and engage in their communities.  The unique opportunities our profession is afforded through hours of extra contact with your students open the door for students to grow and learn from each other and for them to have a trusted mentor in you.

As we look at the world around us, it is easy to see that our communities need communication and theatre education now more than ever. Our students face mounting generational and societal pressure locally in their communities and globally through technology. Whether the activity is debate, forensics, acting or public speaking, whether it’s hosting a competition or supporting local educators in a communication and theater classroom, whether it's constructing an argument or discovering a piece of literature, you are providing your community’s students a platform to learn how to positively and professionally formulate their independent feelings and thoughts and how to communicate or express said thoughts to others respectfully. Equipping your students to be confident, independent, intentional communicators is one of the more powerful gifts they will receive in their lifetime. Research shows Arkansas students who have mastered your curriculum’s communication skills (e.g., interpersonal communication, active listening, critical thinking, verbal communication, collaboration, teamwork, etc.) are more employable right out of high school, more successful in college and more likely to advance out of poverty. You positively change lives.

The next time the bell rings, and you are tired or discouraged, remember Arkansas needs you in the classroom, and our students need opportunities to be transformed through participation in your communication, debate, and/or theatre arts classroom.

Thank you again for your work with students and for helping teach the next generation of Arkansas leaders in your classroom and ACTAA. Together, we are working to inspire Arkansas to think, speak and act for a brighter future.

Yours for better discourse,

Zackery A. Tucker, ACTAA President

Not only can a positive volunteer experience be educational and fulfilling, it can also be a great way to connect with colleagues across the state who share your passions and are committed to advancing speech, debate, & theatre as a profession, life skill, & art form through service.

No matter your current skill level, years of experience in the classroom, or available time, you can tap into long-term career success through the many pathways into ACTAA leadership. Now is the time to communicate your interest in many of the leadership positions across the association, as well as dozens of committee and work team opportunities that will begin service in 2024-2025.

ACTAA Leadership Opportunities:

·        Arkansas State Championship Committee

·        Arkansas Student Congress Committee

·        Ethical Practices Committee

•   Newsletter Coordinator

·        Professional Standards Committee

·        Publicity & Promotion Committee

·        Recruitment & Mentoring Committee

·        Scholarship Committee

·        Student Advisory Board Sponsor(s)

Share your interest in serving. 

Following the Summer Workshop, July 21-23, the Board of Directors convened and approved several proposed policies and programs that hope to advance the association's ability to better serve its membership and ensure continuity.

Board & Committee Reform

To better lead the organization and be more responsive to the membership needs, the board approved increasing its regular meeting schedule from three times a year to bi-monthly. Additional action included adopting a board attendance policy, a requirement to publish board agendas three days before the meeting, standardizing board reports, procedures for asynchronous board votes via email.

Board Document(s): Proposed Board of Directors Reform.

Fundraising Initiative

In December 2023, the association was granted its 501(c)3 tax-exempt status. As ACTAA enters its new fiscal year on August 1, the board adopted a Strategic/ Corporate Partners Program. The initiative provides a structured program for soliciting financial donations through sponsorships for ACTAA core activities (e.g., Arkansas Forensics and Debate State Championship Tournament (ASC), Arkansas Student Congress (STUCO), Annual Fall Conference, Annual Summer Workshop, Scholarships). With the program, ACTAA Leadership will develop partnerships with external individuals and businesses to financially support the growth of the association’s programs. In addition to a three-level recognition program (e.g., Partner ($500.00-$999.99), Advocate ($1,000.00-$2,999.99), & Champion ($3,000 <), the initiative allows for naming rights to sessions, events, and meetings based on a financial contribution.

Board Document(s): Proposed Strategic/  Corporate Partners Program.

Website Policies

In February, Wild Apricot, Inc., our association’s website and membership management platform provider, advised its customers on new features to ensure compliance with recent data privacy laws adopted in areas of the United States. Although Arkansas does not currently require websites of businesses based in the state that collect user data and financial transitions to have a published privacy policy, cookie policy, and terms of services, state-wide media suggest that legislation proposed by the State Cybersecurity Office may be introduced this spring. Additionally, since Wild Apricot currently provides an affordable partnership with its preferred provider of non-profit web-based legal policies, Termly, Inc.,  the board approved several website policies.

Board Document(s): Website Privacy Policies, Website Cookie Policies, Website Terms of Service, & Website Design Guide.

ACTAA is seeking applications for the Student Advisory Board for the Arkansas speech & debate. Each year, ACTAA Leadership appoints eight students who have exhibited outstanding leadership skills, achievements in academics and activities, and a commitment to making a positive impact in their communities.

The Student Advisory Board is a team of high school students from diverse backgrounds who come together virtually to grow their leadership skills, bring youth perspectives to speech & debate, and support inter-program comradery and community within the Arkansas speech & debate circuit and the Arkansas Forensics & Debate State Championship.

Student Advisory Board Application Timeline:

Student Advisory Board Member Commitment:

Ready to apply to be a Student Advisory Board member?

Apply today

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