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Folder

Administration, 1934-2006

The Administration series details the interactions between the governing heads of MIFA (the Forensic Council and State Manager), their members, and their sponsoring institution. The series also documents special initiatives undertaken to assist in MIFA's administration. The series is divided into four subseries: Forensic Council, Mailings, Standing Committees, and Topical Files. The Forensic Council contains the agendas, minutes, reports, and supporting documents of the Council's meetings and is, by far, the most comprehensive and orderly subseries. The files are arranged chronologically in this subseries. The Standing Committees subseries is composed of records pertaining to meetings of the debate, individual events, drama/theatre, and discussion/student congress committees. There are also a few files of the Middle Level individual events committee. These files are typically arranged chronologically by school year and are not complete. Many of the items in these files will also be found in the Forensic Council subseries, but it might be easier to first check the committee files to locate information concerning one of the MIFA activities. The subseries Mailings, 1967-2004, is arranged chronologically and contains materials mailed to coaches and participating schools. While a portion of these records can also be found in the Forensic Council series, these documents have been retained in this arrangement as full examples of the volume of material received by member schools during their participation in MIFA activities. The last subseries in this portion of the collection is of Topical Files, which arranges information alphabetically by topic rather than chronologically.

Collection

Michigan Interscholastic Forensic Association records, 1897-2006 (majority within 1974-2002)

53 linear feet

The Michigan Interscholastic Forensic Association (MIFA) was founded in 1933 to administer high school forensics contests throughout the state of Michigan. The policies and activities of MIFA are determined by a Forensic Council, and records pertaining to the council are included as a subseries in this collection. There are four main speech activities that are sponsored by MIFA: debate, individual events, drama/theatre, and legislative debate. Materials pertaining to specific components of these general activities form the bulk of the collection. Overall, the records largely span the years 1974-2004, although older items are scattered throughout the collection, including materials from two legacy organizations.

The records of the Michigan Interscholastic Forensic Association (MIFA) document the organization's growth from the 1930s to the 2000s, but most of its records concern the years after 1964, and in particular, the period from 1974 to 2002. The records are divided into eight: Administration, Publications, Photographs, Scrapbooks, Multimedia, Activities, Michigan High School Oratorical Association, and Files of Jon Fitzgerald, Executive Director of MIFA. The Forensic Council Minutes (in the Administration Series) and the Publications Series are the most useful parts of the collection for the researcher to gain an understanding of MIFA. The Activities, Photographs, and Multimedia series provide the best accounts of student participation.