Dear Tuna,
Good questions. At this point I think the appropriate place to ask these questions is to the general membership and what they would like to do about them.
My opinion is based on a reminder that this organization has one function, to streamline and make sense of the process of selecting a host for USU. So concerns about sanctioning, deciding who gets to participate, etc. are not relevant to the organization.
As far as insurance goes, I believe any host would need to look into the liability matter as they would for any tournament, and follow their procedures. Since this organization does no sanctioning and is not hosting any competitions, I don't think there would be any need for insurance. I think there's a big difference between hosting your event on someone's campus and facilitating someone's desire to host an event. I believe the host would not be USU, but the school who is bidding, as it's always been.
Of course, general membership can change this as they see fit and explore these options.
On the money issue, I believe it would be great for this organization to raise money to make USU free or inexpensive to all who wish to come, so that's why I included the development officer position. This of course will require some work to see what needs to be done in order to raise and distribute funds to hosts in ways that do not violate non-profit status of host institutions, etc. It's something that will be explored in the future by those who wish to hold this position or work with those who hold the position, and most likely will require some legal assistance.
Please note that having a position in the organization officially does not preclude someone working with the person who has that title, or forgoing the title and having a committee work that position. But I find it strange to think that if something happened at a tournament that those who facilitated the bidding process would be held liable. It's possible I guess, but I think any host of any tournament should learn and apply the procedures that their institution follows. And as Mike pointed out, everyone who works in debate should be aware of them too.
Finally, I hope everyone realizes that this is not an organization that will sanction debates, say what debate is or is not, or say which tournaments matter and which don't. The only thing the organization exists to do is to facilitate the process of agreeing where we have a national championship tournament. I encourage everyone to carefully read the document outlining the organizations scope and powers and realize that this is not the creation of a national organization to govern BP debate in the US, but merely to make our process for choosing a national tournament site centralized, accessible, and easy to follow so that we can encourage a large, diverse number of bids in the future.
Best, Steve