South St Paul Hilke Invitational

Registration	General information	Schematics	Files for download	Tournament schedule	Fees	Final results

Information Doc for Hilke

Welcome to the 29th Annual South St Paul Hilke Memorial Invitational!

This competition requires masking except when you are competing, eating, or drinking. Thank you for respecting this practice.

WiFi: No username or password is needed to access the Wi-Fi at SSPPS. You SHOULD easily be able to connect!

FINDING YOUR WAY AROUND SSPHS:  Everything on our campus is either in Building A or Building B. If you entered our building from the parking lot, you were already in Building B.  As you approach the main hallway, the rest of Building B is to your right, and all of Building A is to your left.  Both buildings have a 3rd floor,

HOWEVER the two third floors are not connected. If you are assigned to a room on 3rd floor, please check to see if you need to go to Building A or Building B. If you need to use the elevator, use the one in Building B. Unfortunately, the elevator in Building A (near the judge/coach lounge) needs a key to operate.  

Tournament Schedule

Because we are able to keep rounds at no more that six, we are tightening up the schedule. Rounds will be 1 hour, 20 minutes apart.

Round 1 Draws: 8:30

Round 1: All but Discussion–9:00

Round 1 Discussion: 9:15

Round 2 Draws: 9:50

Round 2: All but Discussion–10:20

Round 2 Discussion: 10:35

Round 3 Draws: 11:10

Round 3: All but Discussion: 11:40

Round 3 Discussion:  11:55

Final Rounds Draws: 1:00 or as soon as possible

Finals for all but Discussion: 1:30

Finals for Discussion: 1:45

AWARDS: 3:15 in the Auditorium

Finals and Next-In Finals

The top six in a category* will break to Finals.

If a category has more than 20 competitors, there will also be a “Next-In” Final Roun

*Categories with only one section throughout the day will not have a Final Round. As of Friday night, that is true only for POI.

Information for COMPETITORS:

ROOM ASSIGNMENTS:  If you must move classroom furnishings, PLEASE REPLACE THEM AT THE END OF YOUR ROUND.  Of course, we are confident that you will be respectful of all classroom property.  We also ask that you wait for the judge to arrive BEFORE entering the classroom.

DRAW AREAS:  Draws will take place in Room A120B, with access through the library.  Please, no food or drink in the library!   

DISCUSSION:  IF YOU ARE DOUBLE-ENTERED, go to your other round, because you must speak there, first.

IMPROMPTU:  Since you also are entered in another event, we all need to be flexible to make this work.  Basically, you need to speak around your main event.  If you are one of the first speakers in your regular event, do that first before you go to Impromptu, or switch that around if you speak later in the round. When you have finished speaking, you should leave and head to wherever your impromptu round is scheduled.  The staggered round should allow you to compete, as scheduled, in your regular event; however, you do not need to follow the impromptu schedule.  The impromptu judge should take people, one-at-a-time as they arrive, and should not leave until ALL the assigned speakers have arrived!  If you believe your judge has left BEFORE you had an opportunity to speak, please go the Tabroom, A120C (near the Coach/Judge Lounge) RIGHT AWAY, and we will solve the problem!

INFORMATION FOR JUDGES:

 We know you join us in the desire to give student competitors a positive experience.  The following information is intended to achieve that end for the competitors—and for you.

JUDGES’ LOUNGE—Coffee and food items will be waiting for you in Room A149.  If you have a stand-by for a given round during the day, please remain in or near the lounge in case you are called upon to judge.  A brief judges’ meeting will be held in the lounge about 8:50 a.m. 

BALLOTS—Most judges will be using the electronic balloting and critiques through SpeechWire. 

If you are someone who will be using paper ballots/critiques, you must pick them up from the table in front of the Tab Room, A120C, which is on your way to the judge/coach lounge.

• Return your completed ballot to the TAB ROOM as soon as possible after each round—even if you are running late.  If you forget, we will hunt you down (!), because the tab room needs those ballots at the end of each round! 

• Please return critique sheets to the tab room.

• If you are assigned a round of DISCUSSION, you MUST pick up a set of discussion tasks at the Tabroom table on your way to that round. 

SCORING—Please rank competitors from 1 (high) to 4, with all others 5.  You must also award a percent score from 100 (high) to 85 (abysmal).  We strongly encourage you to rate your “1” as 96 or above, and to reserve scores lower than 90 for really deficient and/or offensive performances.  Keep in mind that those really weak performances probably come from very inexperienced kids. I promise you, if they are getting a 5 in the round, giving a score in the 80’s isn’t necessary to get your point across. PLEASE, NO TIES in percentages or ranks (except for 5’s, obviously).  

If possible, time speeches, but do NOT penalize speakers for going up to 30 seconds over the time limit for their event.  A student going over that 30-sec grace period should not receive the “1” in the round. Also, it is unfair to penalize a speaker in a limited prep event (extemp speaking, extemp reading, and Storytelling for going over time UNLESS you have advised the students that you are going to do so, and given time signals throughout the speech. 

If you see something you believe may be a rules violation, note that concern in your written comments  so that the student and his/her coach can check it out before the section tournaments, but PLEASE do not make it a major issue when you score the student’s performance. We do not disqualify competitors at invitationals for rules violations.

CRITIQUES—Please write a balanced critique with both positive and constructive feedback for the students.

DOUBLE ENTRIES—Double entries are allowed at our tournament for ALL events, not just impromptu.  If a student is listed as a double entry on your ballot, please allow for a reasonable adjustment to the speaking order!  Since DISCUSSION has a staggered start time, students double-entered in this event MUST SPEAK FIRST.

IMPROMPTU:  This is a new event for most students and coaches, so we all need to be flexible to make it work. 

• First, if you are scheduled to judge a round of impromptu, YOU MUST HAVE A TIMER!  Please be sure to have a timer when you go to the round. 

• Secondly, you must stop by the ballot drop table on your way to your impromptu round to pick up the prompts! 

• Please take the competitors in the order they arrive, rather than following the printed schedule.  Students CANNOT listen to other speakers before their turn to speak. 

• Be sure to keep your one copy of the two prompts; do not let a previous speaker leave with it.  Should you do so, you won’t have the prompts for the next person. 

• Finally, DO NOT LEAVE until all assigned speakers have arrived, even if you think you’ve waited a long time!  Everyone in Impromptu is double-entered. You will judge each student as they arrive. The order they are listed on your ballot is immaterial.  If you need to check on the status of a student, please call my cell, 651-900-3797.   

 We wish you all an enjoyable day! 

Thank you for coming to our Hilke Memorial Invitational.