Dear Forensic Moderators and Coaches:

 

The Phillipsburg High School Forensics Team cordially invites you to the first ever online Phillipsburg Fall Invitational on Saturday, October 31, 2020.  We hope you can join us for an educational and enjoyable day of forensics competition. . . in the comfort of your own home!   We ask that you carefully read the following invitation since changes have been made from previous years to accommodate a virtual tournament. 

 

We are offering competition in the following events:

 

Speech Events	Debate Events
Humorous Interpretation Dramatic Interpretation Duo Interpretation Oral Interpretation Original Oratory Extemporaneous Speaking Informative Speaking Program Oral Interpretation Impromptu Improvisational Acting Declamation (9th & 10th Grade Only)	Lincoln-Douglas Debate (Novice, JV, & Varsity) Public Forum Debate (Novice, JV, & Varsity) Congressional Debate (Novice & Varsity) World Schools Debate (All Impromptu motions)
	All LD debaters (INCLUDING NOVICE) will debate Sept/Oct. Resolution:  Resolved: In a democracy, voting ought to be compulsory.  WE WILL NOT BE USING THE NSDA NOVICE LD TOPIC.
	All PF debaters will be debating the Sept./Oct Resolution: Resolved: The United States federal government should enact the Medicare-For-All Act of 2019.
World Schools Motions: Round 1:  . This House would increase the number of United States Supreme Court justices. Round 2:  This House prefers containment as opposed to cooperation in its relations with Russia. Rounds 3 and 4 will be impromptu and taken from the World Schools October 2020 Debate Motions found on the NSDA website.

 

COMPETITION

There will be three preliminary rounds and a final round in all individual speech events, as well as two sessions & a final round of Congress.  If an event has fewer than 5 contestants, the event will not be held.  There will be four single-flighted rounds of LD and PF debate.  Each will have 3 divisions:  novice, JV, & varsity, which will be collapsed if numbers warrant.  Novice is only open to 9^th or 10^th graders in their first year of debate.  There will be 4 rounds of World Schools Debate.  All NSDA and NJSDL rules for registration, source integrity, ethics, and timing are in effect.

 

To ensure equity, contestants in partner/team events (Duo Interpretation, Public Forum Debate, and World Schools Debate) must compete in different physical room locations. 

 

Students may double enter in any of the speech events but may not double enter if competing in student congress or debate (LD, PF, or World Schools).  Mavericks in PF are not permitted.   We ask that you make sure to mark all your novice speech competitors (in their first year of competition) in registration so that we can recognize the highest-placing novice at awards or hold novice honors rounds if numbers allow it. 

 

VIRTUAL PLATFORM

We will be using NSDA Campus (all competitors will perform their events live) but will access NSDA through Speechwire.  All coaches must have a team roster with accurate email addresses uploaded onto Speechwire.  Likewise, coaches must ensure that judges are trained to complete electronic ballots and have a linked Speechwire account. 

 

REGISTRATION

All registration must be done online at www.SpeechWire.com.  If you need assistance using this site, let us know.  Only 6 entries per school per category will be registered.  The rest will be placed on a waitlist until October 26 when entries will be reviewed and cleared to ensure rooms are balanced.

 

Registration will open online on Saturday, October 31, 2020 at 7:45 am EST and close at 8:30 am EST.  It is the responsibility of all coaches to check in with their competitors and judges prior to registration.  One coach from each school MUST check in with us during registration. 

 

DEADLINES

Please submit all Congress bills to fraulaurie@hotmail.com by Friday, October 23.  We will upload the bills to SpeechWire by Saturday, October 24th.  We will try to utilize all pieces of legislation submitted, but if the number is excessive, some may not be used.

 

Registration will close and the names of all judges are due on Wednesday, October 28, 2020 @ 6pm.  We will begin to assess nuisance fees for any registration changes other than name changes after this deadline.

 

FEES

Please send payment in the form of check, or purchase order.  Make payments out to:  Phillipsburg Forensics Team

• School entry fee--$25 per school
• Individual Speakers (including Congress)--$10 per entry
• All LD Debaters--$15 per entry
• All PF, Duo, and World Schools Teams--$20 per entry
• Administrative Fees    
  • Late entry fee--$10 per entry after 6 pm on 10/28
  • Drop fee--$10 per entry after 6 pm on 10/28
  • Entire school late withdrawal fee—50% of full invoice after 6 pm on 10/28; 100% for day-of or no show
• Judge fees
• $90 per missing judge, per requirements below
• $125 dropped & non-replaced judge after 6 pm on 10/28
• $20 per missed judge call

 

JUDGES/JUDGING QUOTAS

LD & PF Debate

• Teams must provide 1 judge for every 2 entries or fraction thereof.
• Student debaters with at least 2 full years of experience may judge Novice LD or Novice PF ONLY, as long as they are clearly marked in registration notes.  Failure to do so may result in a judge fee being assessed. 
• Student judges cannot be used to fulfill judging obligations for JV & Varsity entries
• Student judges may not be used to fulfill a school’s entire judging obligation

World Schools Debate

• 1 judge for every 2 teams or fraction thereof.
• No student judges allowed for World Schools Debate.

IE Events and Congress

• Teams must provide 1 judge for every 5 entries or fraction thereof.
• No student judges allowed

Judge Requests

• Deadline for Hired Judge requests—Tuesday, October 27, 2020. 
• If you have any extra judges, please call or email Laurie Schmid

**Please stress to your judges that they are obligated for the entire tournament and must be available to judge the final round of any event. 

 

When registering your judges, if you have a judge who is able to judge your own team without conflict, please mark him or her as “Clean” on the drop-down menu.

 

We may be forced to assign judges based on need, regardless of category.  This is something we will try never to do, but if circumstances demand it, it would be helpful for coaches to let us know of any judges who would feel comfortable doing other events.  However, speech judges will be used to judge Congress rounds.  Please let your judges know this.

 

Please make sure your judges are trained prior to the tournament because we will not have the time to adequately train them before the tournament begins.  Schools will be holding judges training sessions throughout the month of October.  Please see the NJSDL website for the dates.  If any of your judges would like to attend my training session which will be held on Wed, Oct. 21^st from 6:30 – 8:30, please have them send me an email so that I can send them the link.

 

 

 

AWARDS CEREMONY

The awards ceremony will begin at the conclusion of the final round.  The top 6 Congress entries, speech finalists,  contestants in debate events, top non-advancing novices, and sweepstakes awards will be presented.  Awards will be  mailed to the coach’s address provided  on Speechwire  unless told otherwise.  In order to save on shipping costs, awards won’t be sent out until after the Randolph tournament so that both Phillipsburg and Randolph awards can be mailed together.        

 

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