Board Code

B. Each officer shall be asked to sign the Officer Consent Form prior to the start of their term.
Items 1 and 2 shall be required; items 3 and 4 shall be optional.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O01cfFtgAyqsOHb9aIDo6LDd_b-FagH8GpmElOzBoks/

C. Officers shall attend Board meetings.

D. Officers shall have read through the full current text of the League Rules (not counting appendices).

E. Officers shall, if necessary, serve on protest committees.

F. Officers may delegate part of their duties to a designee.

G. Officers must use coast [DOT] forensic [DOT] league [AT] gmail [DOT] com for official league business.

SECTION 2. Duties of the President

A. The President shall serve on the Board of the California High School Speech Association (see IV.7.A). The President shall attend CHSSA meetings, serve on CHSSA committees and help to run the State Tournament as assigned. The President shall inform CFL members of any changes in CHSSA rules or policies. (See Article III Section 11 of the CHSSA Rules and Regulations).

B. The President shall represent CFL to other organizations (see IV.7.A).

C. The President shall assist other officers with their duties (see IV.7.A).

D. In the event of a vacancy in any other officer position, the President shall carry out the duties of the vacant position until the vacancy is filled (see IV.7.A).

SECTION 3. Duties of the Secretary

A. The Secretary shall keep or cause to be kept, at the corporation’s principal office or such other place as the Board may direct, a book of minutes of all meetings, proceedings, and actions of the Board and of the membership. The minutes of meetings shall include the time and place that the meeting was held, whether the meeting was annual or special, and, if special, how authorized, the notice given, and the names of those present at the Board meetings and at meetings of members (see IV.7.B). The Secretary shall publish the minutes within 30 days of the meeting.

B. The Secretary shall keep or cause to be kept, at the principal office in California, a copy of the Articles of Incorporation, the Bylaws, and the Code, as amended to date (see IV.7.B). Within 30 days of passage of any amendment, the Secretary shall make the appropriate edits to the League Rules on the official CFL website.
Within 30 days of passage of any Bylaw amendment, the Secretary shall send the amended Bylaws as a Word document to the CFL lawyer.

C. The Secretary shall give, or cause to be given, notice of all meetings of the Board required by these Bylaws (see IV.7.A).

D. The Secretary shall maintain a roster of all member schools. The Secretary shall update the schools' voting eligibility (see XI.3.A). The Secretary shall maintain a list of member school voting representatives (see II.1.G) and ensure that it is updated prior to each meeting of members. The Secretary shall keep a record of the addresses to which invoices should be sent, and the names, emails, and phone numbers of all school-approved CFL tournament chaperones. The Secretary shall provide this information to all other CFL officers upon request as soon as possible.

E. The Secretary shall maintain the CFLcoaches Google group and ensure that it includes all CFL officers, member school representatives (see II.1.G), and other emails submitted to the School Information Google Form (see XXII.2).

F. In October of every odd year, the Secretary shall digitally submit an updated form SI-100 to the California Secretary of State and pay the required filing fee (see XXV.1.F). The Secretary shall not list a street address for CFL and shall list the CFL PO Box as the mailing address. The President, Treasurer, and Secretary may provide their business addresses instead of their residential addresses. The Secretary shall then notify coast.forensic.league@gmail.com of the submission.

G. In December, the Secretary shall renew the league’s subscription with its registered agent (see XXV.1.G). The registered agent of CFL shall be CALIFORNIA CORPORATE AGENTS, INC. (3035398)
The Secretary shall then notify coast.forensic.league@gmail.com of the renewal.

H. The Secretary shall
- see that all necessary awards are ordered,
- work with the tournament directors to bring awards to tournaments,
- work with the Treasurer to maintain a digital record of awards payments and invoices/receipts,
- maintain the CFL inventory:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GWKCdWV9UmFV5tpzU_fNuJsoU253qpCZU1HjIaupCoo/

SECTION 4. Duties of the Treasurer

A. The Treasurer shall keep and maintain, or cause to be kept and maintained, adequate and correct books and accounts of the corporation’s properties and transactions. The Treasurer shall send or cause to be given to the directors such financial statements and reports as are required to be given by law, by the Bylaws, or by the Board. The books of account shall be open to inspection by any director/officer at all reasonable times (see IV.7.C).

B. The Treasurer shall collect and deposit all dues payments (see XII.2) and tournament fees (see XII.3).

C. The Treasurer shall pay all CFL expenses in a timely manner and keep all receipts/invoices on file (see XII.5 and XII.6).

D. The Treasurer shall maintain the CFL account at Chase Bank. The President, the VP/O, and the Secretary may also have access to this account. The Treasurer shall create a ‘See activity only’ user account that can see check images, statements, and documents, but not authorize transactions, and shall give all other officers access to this account.

E. The Treasurer shall adjust all dollar numbers in this Code for inflation (see XII.1)

F. The Treasurer shall set up the Tabroom Finances Template to implement the current league finances rules (see XII) in the current Tabroom.com software.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dyCIiNhUthGPAJDuv5Y6p38eB32m33WwqozQPIkhFqA/

G. By October 31, the Treasurer shall submit form 990-EZ to the IRS, form 199 to the Franchise Tax Board, and form RRF-1 to the Registry of Charitable Trusts for the immediately preceding fiscal year.

H. At the Winter meeting (see XXIII.3), the Treasurer shall present a report on:
- the status of 990-EZ, 199, and RRF-1 filings for the immediately preceding fiscal year (see G),
- the most current available net balance for CFL,
- total revenue, total expenses, and net gain/loss for the immediately preceding fiscal year.
If the Treasurer is not present at the meeting, they shall submit a written report, to be presented by the Chair.

I. By July 31, the Treasurer shall notify coast.forensic.league@gmail.com confirming that the CFL UPS P.O. Box has been paid for.

J. By November 1, the Treasurer shall mail (with tracking) to the CHSSA Treasurer a check made out to “California High School Speech Association” covering the costs of CHSSA participation fees for all schools that have registered for both CFL and CHSSA by that point. The Treasurer shall mail a second check to the CHSSA Treasurer covering the costs of CHSSA participation fees for all schools that have registered for both CFL and CHSSA by November 20. The Treasurer shall ensure that the second check arrives by December 1. The Treasurer shall notify coast.forensic.league@gmail.com and treasurer@chssa.org when the checks are sent.

K. The Treasurer shall obtain from CHSSA a list of schools with judge bond rollovers. The Treasurer shall deduct the rollovers from the CFL checks sent to CHSSA (see J). The Treasurer shall give a CFL credit to each school with a judge bond rollover.

SECTION 5. Duties of the Vice President of Operations (VP/O)

A. The VP/O shall chair official CFL meetings. The VP/O shall distribute proposed amendments to the League Rules to members.

B. The VP/O shall obtain for CFL a liability insurance policy that satisfies CA Corporations Code Section 5239 (see V.4) and the requirements of league tournament host schools.

C. The VP/O shall, with the assistance of the Treasurer and the CHSSA Area Chair, ascertain schools' eligibility to compete in league tournaments.

D. The VP/O shall designate an individual to tabulate sweepstakes awards for the State Qualifying Tournaments (see XIII.9).

E. The VP/O shall appoint student volunteers to league intern positions. The VP/O shall direct student interns to compile data needed for league operations.

F. The VP/O shall post an up-to-date CFL tournament calendar to the official CFL website.

G. The VP/O shall create all CFL tournaments on Tabroom.com using the coast.forensic.league@gmail.com account and shall then give access to the appropriate VP in September. The VP/O shall ensure that the CFL Tabroom circuit includes all CFL tournaments and no other tournaments.

H. The VP/O shall monitor the coast.forensic.league@gmail.com inbox and ensure that all officers have access to it.

SECTION 6. Duties of the Vice President of Debate (VP/D)

A. The VP/D shall act as the Tournament Director (see XXVII.4) for all CFL Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Policy Debate, Parliamentary Debate, and Public Forum Debate tournaments.

B. The VP/D shall verify that all debate state qualifier entries are eligible to attend (see XIV.4.A.3)

C. The VP/D shall manage the drafting of novice Policy Debate topic areas (see XV.3).

SECTION 7. Duties of the Vice President of Speech (VP/S)

A. The VP/S shall act as the Tournament Director (see XXVII.4) for all CFL speech tournaments.

B. The VP/S shall obtain competent personnel to write U.S. and Foreign Extemp and Impromptu topics for all league tournaments.

SECTION 8. Duties of the Vice President of Congress (VP/C)

A. The VP/C shall act as the Tournament Director (see XXVII.4) for all CFL Congressional Debate tournaments.

B. The VP/C shall receive those bills and/or resolutions drafted by schools with entries prior to each CFL Congress tournament. The VP/C will select the bills/resolutions to be debated on at each tournament and distribute a docket of bills/resolutions to CFL coaches in a timely manner prior to the start of each tournament.

C. The VP/C shall be responsible for the operation of the State Qualifying Tournaments for Congress. Specific duties include:
- Distributing bills and/or resolutions for competition to member schools to participate in the State Qualifier for Congress.
- Assigning Parliamentarians to Houses.
- If necessary, when the number of Presiding Officers exceeds the number of houses, administering such test accepted by the membership to reduce the number of applicants to the acceptable number.

SECTION 9. Duties of the Vice President of Topics (VP/T)

A. The VP/T shall chair the Topic Committee (see XV.4).

B. The VP/T shall manage the announcement of parli resolutions.

C. The VP/T shall publish on the CFL website a list of resolutions and side bias data from each league tournament once it has concluded.

D. The VP/T shall assist the VP/D.

ARTICLE XXII. MEMBERSHIP REGISTRATION

To register for CFL membership (or observer status), a school must submit all of the following:

SECTION 1. Membership Form

A. The CFL Membership Form shall be available at www.coastforensicleague.org/membership

B. The text of the Membership Form may be changed by a joint decision of the VP/O and the Secretary. The Secretary shall notify the Board of any significant changes.

C. The membership form must be signed and then scanned. It must then be uploaded using the School Information Google Form (see 2).

SECTION 2. School Information Google Form

A. The CFL School Information Google Form shall be available at www.coastforensicleague.org/membership

B. The text of the School Information Google Form may be changed by a joint decision of the VP/O and the Secretary. The Secretary shall notify the Board of any significant changes.

C. The School Information Google Form shall, at the minimum, ask for the Membership Form (see 1.C), the name of the school, the name, email, and phone number of the head coach, and the name and email of the person to whom invoices for that school should be sent.

SECTION 3. Membership Dues (see XII.2)

A. The Membership Form shall contain the invoice for membership dues.

B. A single check or PayPal payment cannot cover both membership dues and another item.

C. (See XXIV.1.B and XXIV.1.C)

ARTICLE XXIII. MEETINGS

SECTION 1. Annual Spring Meeting

A. The annual special meeting of members (see II.12.B) shall be held on the third Thursday of May, 5PM - 7:30PM.

B. The annual meeting shall include the election of Board directors for the following term.

SECTION 2. Fall Meeting

A. A special meeting of members shall be held on the last Tuesday of August, 5PM - 7:30PM.

B. The Fall meeting shall include the election of the Parliamentary Debate Topic Committee (not counting the VP/T) for the current term (see XV.4).

SECTION 3. Winter Meeting

A. A special meeting of members shall be held on the last Monday of January, 5PM - 7:30PM.

B. The Winter meeting shall include the Treasurer Report (see XXI.4.H).

SECTION 4. Board Meetings

A. Each meeting of members listed in this article shall be followed by a Board meeting. The Board meeting shall begin as soon as the meeting of members is adjourned.

B. The annual Board meeting shall be held following the Fall meeting of members.

SECTION 5. Place

A. All meetings of members and all Board meetings shall be held online via Zoom (see II.12.A, III.6.D), except as below.

B. The Board may designate an alternative meeting place or online platform. If this is done for a meeting of members, the membership must then be notified at least 21 days prior to the meeting (see II.12.E).

ARTICLE XXIV. COLLECTION OF PAYMENTS

SECTION 1. Checks

A. CFL shall accept check payments mailed to the CFL address. The Treasurer may announce additional methods through which she/he is willing to accept checks.

B. Check payments submitted on time shall be considered received if they arrive at the CFL mailbox within 30 days of the school receiving the invoice (and by October 1 for membership dues).

C. Check payments submitted late shall be considered received when they are picked up from the CFL mailbox by the Treasurer or designee.

SECTION 2. PayPal

A. CFL shall accept payments submitted through PayPal buttons on www.coastforensicleague.org

B. CFL shall absorb the PayPal transaction fees (2.2% + ¢30).

C. The Treasurer may refuse to accept PayPal payments that are over $1000.

SECTION 3. Memos

A. Checks and PayPal payments shall not be credited to a school if they do not contain the school name.

B. Checks and PayPal payments shall not be accepted if they do not contain the memos required by the Treasurer.

SECTION 4. Errors

If a statement contains an error, the school must report that error to coast [DOT] forensic [DOT] league [AT] gmail [DOT] com prior to the payment deadline for the original statement (see XII.4.A). The Treasurer should then issue a corrected statement, which shall be due within 30 days of receipt of that new statement. Failure to either pay the statement or to report a statement error by the deadline shall result in a late payment fine (see XII.4.B).

ARTICLE XXV. BUDGET

SECTION 1. Regular Expenditures

The following list of regular expenditures is exhaustive. Any expenditure that is not a regular expenditure shall be considered a special expenditure.

A. 990-EZ category 13: Professional fees. Sub-category: Compliance.

Description:

- California Corporate Agents subscription renewal

- Boman Accounting tax preparation

B. 990-EZ category 13: Professional fees. Sub-category: Topic writers.

Description: payments to Extemporaneous Speaking topic writers (see XV.5.D), not exceeding $599 per person per fiscal year, not exceeding $200 total per tournament.

C. 990-EZ category 13: Professional fees. Sub-category: Hired judges.

Description: payments to hired tournament judges, not exceeding $599 per person per fiscal year, not exceeding $100 per person per day.

D. 990-EZ category 14: Occupancy. Subcategory: Tournament facilities.

Description: reimbursement to host school for custodial and security (see XII.6.C).

E. 990-EZ category 15: Printing. Sub-category: Printing.

Description: printers, cartridges, toner printing/copying tournament materials.

F. 990-EZ category 16: Schedule O. Sub-category: Tournament food.

Description: reimbursement to host school for feeding coaches/judges (see XII.6.B).

G. 990-EZ category 16: Schedule O. Sub-category: Tournament Software.

Description: Tabroom.com, NSDA Campus.

H. 990-EZ category 16: Schedule O. Sub-category: Non-tournament events.
Description:
- reimbursements for Demo Day expenses
- reimbursements for league meeting food expenses
- reimbursements to representatives CFL sends to CHSSA meetings (see XII.6.E)

I. 990-EZ category 16: Schedule O. Sub-category: Government fees.
Description:
- SI-100 filing fee
- RRF-1 filing fee

J. 990-EZ category 16: Schedule O. Sub-category: Awards.
Description: see inventory
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GWKCdWV9UmFV5tpzU_fNuJsoU253qpCZU1HjIaupCoo/

K. 990-EZ category 16: Schedule O. Sub-category: Insurance.

L. 990-EZ category 16: Schedule O. Sub-category: Logistics.

Description:
- GoDaddy fees for the www.coastforensicleague.org domain
- OPAvote.com election expenses
- P.O. Box expenses
- PayPal transaction fees (see XXIV.2)
- Chase bank fees

M. 990-EZ category 16: Schedule O. Sub-category: CHSSA participation fees.
Description: Covering the costs of CHSSA participation fees for all schools that have registered for both CFL and CHSSA by November 20.

SECTION 2. Expenditure Authorization

A. The VP/O shall have the power to unilaterally authorize any regular expenditure.

B. The Treasurer shall have the power to unilaterally authorize any regular expenditure.

C. The Secretary shall have the power to unilaterally authorize any regular expenditure on government fees (see 1.I) or elections (see 1.L) .

D. The VP/S shall have the power to unilaterally authorize any regular expenditure on topic writers (see 1.B).

E. Any special expenditure may be authorized by a joint decision of the VP/O and the Treasurer. The Treasurer shall notify the Board of any special expenditure exceeding $100 at least 24 hours before the expenditure is made. A series of payments to the same person or entity between one Board meeting and the next shall be considered one expenditure.

F. Every CFL officer shall have the right to request that the decision on any special expenditure (see 2.E and 3.D) exceeding $100 be delayed until the next Board meeting.

G. The Treasurer shall note in the CFL financial records which officer(s) authorized which expenditure.

SECTION 3. Assistance to Member Schools

A. CFL shall waive membership dues and tournament entry fees (but not fines) for any member school that requests this in writing and has a Speech and Debate program that is in its first year of competition and/or is a public school where at least 60% of the student population is eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.

B. The VP/O and the Treasurer may, by a joint decision, waive membership dues and tournament entry fees (but not fines) for any member school that requests this in writing, and that is public school where at least 40% of the student population is eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, and that makes active efforts to promote and financially support Speech and Debate participation of students from its school who are socioeconomically disadvantaged.

C. Free/reduced-price lunch data shall be based on the California Department of Education “Unduplicated Student Poverty – Free or Reduced Price Meals Data” spreadsheet from the previous academic year (see https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sd/sd/filessp.asp ). The percentage to be used to determine waivers for the League is the column titled: “Percent (%) Eligible FRPM (K-12)”.

D. The VP/O and the Treasurer may, by a joint decision, give grants to member schools that satisfy the criteria in 3.A or 3.B. A member school that requests a grant on the basis that it is a new program must submit a plan to become financially self-sufficient once the CFL grant runs out.

ARTICLE XXVI. TOURNAMENT ELIGIBILITY

SECTION 1. Deadline

To attend a tournament, a school must satisfy all tournament eligibility requirements (see XII.4.C, XIII.1, XXII, XXVI.2, XXVI.3) as of the entry deadline for that tournament (see XIII.6.B) (contingent on treasurer notification of outstanding dues at least 30 days prior to the tournament date).

SECTION 2. Payment of Statement Balance

A. A school that loses tournament eligibility due to failure to pay its statement balance (see XII.4.C) may request that its eligibility be extended. The request must be emailed to coast [DOT] forensic [DOT] league [AT] gmail [DOT] com prior to the entry deadline for that tournament (see XIII.6.B), must include the rationale for extension, and must specify by when the school intends to pay the statement balance. Upon such request, tournament eligibility may be extended (see XII.4.E) by a joint decision of the VP/O and the Treasurer for up to 30 active-season days (see B) beyond the deadline (see XII.4.C).

B. Active season lasts from October 1 to March 31.

SECTION 3. CHSSA Registration

A. To participate in a CFL tournament, a school must first register for CHSSA.

B. This requirement may be temporarily suspended league-wide by a joint decision of the VP/O and the President.

ARTICLE XXVII. TOURNAMENT OPERATIONS (Board Code)

SECTION 1. Judge Requirements

All schools entered in a tournament are responsible for providing a number of eligible (see XIII.3) judges based on the following ratios:

LD, Parli, PF (regular season): 1 judge for every 3 entries.

Policy (regular season): 1 judge for every 2 entries.

Speech (regular season): 1 judge for every 4 entries unless a school’s entries made up 20% or more of the total entries at the most recent speech tournament. These schools may bring unaffiliated judges at a rate of 1 judge per 12 entries. These schools are obligated to bring judging at the standard ratio of 1 judge per 4 entries for any judging requirements not covered by unconflicted judges.

Congress (regular season): 1 judge for every 8 entries.

Debate (state qualifier): 1 judge for every 2 students.

Speech (state qualifier): 1 judge for every 2 students.

Congress (state qualifier): 1 judge for every 1 school.

League members will be informed at least one week before the start of the tournament of any increase in the judging commitments arising from Board action.

SECTION 2. Flighting

All events at the debate state qualifier except Policy and Parli shall be double flighted.

SECTION 3. Tabroom Invitation Template

Regular-season debate league tournaments must have an invitation on Tabroom.com that follows the guidelines of following template:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aNQ5opFYkCg29xMZs8lr6p5D9-1P5_eY4O9tGRtyxsE/

SECTION 4. Duties of the Tournament Director (TD)

A. No later than 21 days prior to the tournament, the TD shall open tournament registration on Tabroom.com and finalize competitor entry deadlines, judge entry deadlines, and drop deadlines (see XIII.6, XIII.7).

B. The TD shall set up the ‘Money’ settings of Tabroom.com in accordance with the Tabroom Finances Template (see XXI.4.F).

C. The TD shall publish a tournament invitation containing the tournament location, schedule, entry fees, judge requirements, and a link to the CFL website (see 3).

D. The TD shall ensure that tournament campus maps and CFL written judge instructions are provided to each judge.

E. The TD shall ensure that schools receive their students’ ballots after each tournament.

F. The TD shall assign coaches at the tournament (see XIII.5.B) to duties including:
- checking school medical forms during Registration
- managing coach check-in before Round 1
- giving oral judge instructions
- running the judge room
- answering the phone helpline
- managing runners
- tabulating pairings on Tabroom.com
- running the awards ceremony

G. The TD shall ensure that by the end of the tournament a finalized invoice for each school in attendance including all fees and fines (see XII.3) is made available to the Treasurer.

H. The TD shall ensure that all students at the tournament are eligible to attend (see XIII.1, XIII.2).

I. The TD shall ensure that all schools at the tournament provide the required number of judges (see 1).

J. The TD shall work with the host school site director to obtain a room list and ensure that the site director knows how many coaches, judges, and students the host school will need to provide food for.

K. The TD shall, at their discretion, appoint an Assistant Tournament Director. The TD shall make an effort to appoint a different person to that position for each tournament. The TD shall make an effort to avoid appointing to that position people who served as league TDs in previous terms. The TD shall use the tournament to train the Assistant Tournament Director in how to direct a tournament. The Assistant Tournament Director shall perform all TD duties at any time when the TD is not present on the host school campus during the tournament.

SECTION 5. Novice-only Tournaments

A. This section shall only apply to novice-only league tournaments. Such tournaments shall be run by varsity student volunteers under the supervision of the TD.

B. The TD shall excuse most coaches from tournament operation duties (see XIII.5.B and 4.F), though not from chaperone duties.

C. Each school attending a novice-only tournament shall be required to provide at least one varsity student, preferably the club president or another senior officer, to perform tournament operation duties (see 4.F). The TD shall guide the student volunteers in the process of delegating specific tournament tasks.

This Board Code was adopted by unanimous written consent of the Board on August 27, 2022. It was last amended at a Board meeting on January 29, 2024.