In the interest of preserving institutional memory, APDA Board created a History Committee in 2024-2025.

History of APDA Board

As of January 1981, there were three separate parliamentary circuits in the U.S. A Northeast circuit included the New England schools, extending as far south as Swarthmore. About 15 schools fielded teams on a regular basis, ranging from Harvard to Bronx Community College. A Midwestern circuit, anchored by the University of Chicago, included the major state universities like Iowa and Illinois. A small West Coast circuit centered on the smaller schools around Los Angeles, anchored by Pepperdine.

None of these circuits had a real structure. Tournaments were announced ad hoc, with schools tending to retain favored weekends to reduce conflicts. However, as parliamentary grew more significantly, especially in the Northeast, a more formal structure was clearly needed, if only to schedule the growing number of schools wanting tournament dates. 

The Northeast circuit schedule was driven primarily by the CUSID schedule, since Canadians were at the time the best in the world. Tournaments were often arranged to not conflict with the big Canadian tournaments, both because Americans wanted to participate in the big Canadian tournaments but also because they wanted to try to lure the Canadians to US tournaments. Another necessity was a national body that could talk to other national bodies, like CUSID, and try to deconflict on a national scale rather than just a local one. 

Americans had already conducted serious discussions with CUSID about the possibility of a joint league (CAN-ADL, the Canadian-American Debate League), to ensure deconfliction of schedules and to build off of CUSID’s existing infrastructure. However, the level of control desired by CUSID and a strong anti-internationalist sentiment from some U.S. schools rendered CAN-ADL a nonstarter. 

On January 23, 1981 (now considered APDA’s official birthday), on a vacation following the first Parliamentary World Championships at Glasgow, Princeton’s David Martland and Richard Sommer, and David Bailin and J.J. Gertler of Amherst College decided they would simply start an American league. 

Before the next U.S. tournament (fading memory suggests it may have been Yale), the four founders announced there would be an organizational meeting of the American Parliamentary Debate Association. No formalities, no consultations; each school would send one representative to vote for the league’s officers and to submit a requested date for their 1981-82 season tournament. Schools complied, and APDA was born. David Martland was elected the first president of APDA, J.J. Gertler the Vice-President of Operations, and Phil Sisson of Rhode Island College was elected the Vice-President of Finance. 

APDA was centered around a basic philosophy: It existed to facilitate debate, not to shape it. APDA would not make debating rules; each tournament would retain its own quirks and rules. APDA would create a ballot to reflect the realities of American parliamentary debate (most schools used either CUSID ballots or modified on-topic ones) if schools wanted to, but no school had to use the APDA ballot. Beyond creating the ballot, APDA would: 

• Deconflict tournament dates; 

• Act as liaison with other national and international debating organizations; 

• Attempt to raise funds to support parliamentary debate tournaments, 

• Organize and sanction a national championship tournament.

That year, the University of Chicago’s tournament was slated to be the last tournament of the year. As a result, it was officially designated as the first APDA National tournament. The first standalone APDA Nationals were at Swarthmore in 1982, and the first U.S.-hosted Worlds at Princeton in 1983. 

Between 1982 and 1989, APDA Board grew to include 3 new positions: the Members-at-Large. Members at Large serve as points of contact for schools, communicating with them about tournament scheduling and when body meetings occurred. 

APDA Board has remained the same since then, with 6 positions elected annually and body meetings held regularly.