Florida Oceanfront NSDA District Speech & Debate

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General information

This information is from a tournament in a past season!

This is a High School tournament in Florida.

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FLORIDA OCEANFRONT NATIONAL SPEECH & DEBATE ASSOCIATION DISTRICT TOURNAMENT

Saturday, February 27: Virtual Speech & Debate

Entry in the Florida Oceanfront NSDA District Speech & Debate is $10.

Fees for Speech & Debate must be received by Florida Oceanfront NSDA District Chair Paul Gaba no later than the tournament date of Saturday, February 27.

Fees are set as of 5pm Friday, February 19. This is in order to allow schools to get checks cut and sent by the start of the tournament. Coaches are asked to take a screen shot of their school's check prior to mailing the payment to Paul Gaba.

Make fees payable to Florida Oceanfront National Forensic League District.

Please read EVERYTHING carefully!

Questions about entries or NSDA rules? Contact Paul Gaba, paul.gaba@palmbeachschools.org, 561-795-4911 or 561-352-0635

An Overview

All NSDA chapters in the Florida Oceanfront District are cordially invited to participate in this year’s Speech & Debate District Tournament, to be virtually on Saturday, February 27 from 8am-5pm.

This tournament determines our district’s event qualifiers to the NSDA VIRTUAL National Championship to be held June 13-19.

NSDA District Tournament entry procedures and event rules are different from CFL and FFL tournaments; please expect to meet all of the requirements established by NSDA. The NSDA staff will audit the entire tournament. Our failure to follow NSDA procedures could result in the invalidation of our results, so it is imperative you meet all deadlines and follow all NSDA rules. The District Committee must follow and enforce NSDA policies!

The District Tournament Philosophy: The Florida Oceanfront NSDA District will be running pilot events in 2021.

FOR DEBATE EVENTS:

• Minimum four prelim rounds (unless there are only four entries; in this case, running three rounds is acceptable)
• 1 judge for prelim rounds, 3 judges for elim rounds
• Judges need to start including points for prelim debate rounds since it's not a 2-down system. Half-points are allowed.
• Rounds 1-2 are random preset; rounds 3+ are powered
• We need to run elim debate rounds - either all entries with a winning record or only teams with zero or one losses. These go into a single-elimination bracket. Rounds are held until we are at the two finalists (since those two entries are our national representatives).

FOR INTERP/SPEECH EVENTS:

• Minimum three speech prelim rounds
• 1 judge for prelim rounds, 3 judges for elim rounds
• Any event with 8+ entries must break to elims
• Quarterfinals for 22+ entries in an event
• Semifinals if 15-21 entries in an event

Each member school has an affirmative responsibility to review the rules that are published by NSDA. Specifically, all coaches should go to the NSDA website and review the most recent NSDA Unified High School Manual. Coaches should make the event-specific rules and judging guidelines available for their students and judges so everyone knows what to expect. Coaches have an affirmative duty to verify their students’ interpretation pieces, informative speeches, and oratories conform to NSDA publication guidelines. Coaches should also confirm that their debaters’ case citations conform to NSDA citation guidelines. All of this information is available in the publication mentioned above.

It is imperative that all member schools update student memberships and NSDA points no later than 5pm Friday, February 19.

NATIONAL QUALIFIER NUMBERS (for 2021 only, per Scott Wunn's "2021 District and National Tournament Announcement" email of January 7, 2021):

• 4 entries = 2 qualifiers
• 10 entries = 3 qualifiers
• 20 entries and up = 4 qualifiers

For the 2021 National Tournament only, the NSDA Board of Directors has decided to expand competition opportunities to more member students and schools by implementing the following change to supplemental events. Every member school that participates in the district tournament series will have the opportunity to enter up to two non-qualifying students in supplemental events at the online 2021 National Tournament. These students must have attended the district tournament but not earned qualification in any event. This applies to every school that participated in the district tournament, regardless of whether they qualified other students to the National Tournament, and it only applies to the 2021 National Tournament.

Speech & Debate Entry Requirements: Please review the district tournament manual for specifics, but we are able to qualify 2 entries per event to nationals as long as we meet the NSDA's rule of 4 entries from two different schools (minimum) per event. If we do not have at least 4 entries in an event, we won't be able to qualify any entries for that event.

The District Committee strongly encourages every member school to enter the maximum number of students possible so that we can maximize the number of qualifying slots in each event. The number of entries from a school shall be based upon the number of active members and degrees on record in the National Office for that chapter by 4pm (CST) seven (7) days before the tournament begins. Congress entries were independent of this formula. The District Committee shall not allow any excess entries. Current school strength can be found on the school profile page of the NSDA points website.

Double Entry: Students that participate in the Florida Oceanfront NSDA District Congress Tournament are still eligible to double enter in the District Speech/Debate Tournament. The Congress national qualifier is a separate tournament.

ALL STUDENTS MAY DOUBLE ENTER IN ANY EVENTS AT THE FLORIDA OCEANFRONT NSDA DISTRICT TOURNAMENT, WITH THE FOLLOWING EXCEPTIONS:

a. Students may only enter one debate event at the District Tournament [Big Questions Debate, Policy Debate, Lincoln Douglas Debate, or Public Forum Debate].

b. Students may enter in one PARTNERED debate event [Policy Debate or Public Forum Debate] as partners and Duo Interpretation as the same partnership. A student may not enter a PARTNERED debate event and duo with different partners.  

c. If the student qualifies in a PARTNERED event (Public Forum Debate, Policy Debate, or Duo Interpretation) and a SOLO event, the student must attend Nationals in the partnered event unless:

• two students are entered in a team event as partners and both also qualify in an individual event, these students may choose to enter the individual event at the National Tournament if, pre-registered on the “Single Entry Letter of Intent” form prior to the ending of the District Tournament pre-registration; or
• two students are entered in a team debate event as partners (and qualify to Nationals) and the same partnership also qualifies in duo, these students may choose to enter ONE of the team events (as partners) at the National Tournament, if pre-registered on the “Single Entry Letter of Intent” form prior to the ending of the District Tournament in which the students will potentially double qualify.

Each contestant who elects to participate in more than one event must complete the "Single Entry Letter of Intent Form." This includes students who compete at the Florida Oceanfront NSDA District Congress Tournament and are also competing at this tournament. On this form, students must designate which event they will compete in at nationals if they qualify in multiple events. This step is necessary because students may only compete in one event at nationals. These decisions must be made in advance, and the choice must be affirmed by signature of the student, parent, coach, and principal. All intent letters are due with entry forms; any double-entered student who does not have a completed intent form will be disqualified. STUDENTS INTERESTED IN BEING PART OF FLORIDA OCEANFRONT NSDA'S WORLD SCHOOLS DEBATE TEAMS MUST INCLUDE WSD ON THEIR LETTER OF INTENT, EVEN IF THEY ONLY REGISTER FOR A SINGLE EVENT THAT FRIDAY OR SATURDAY.

REQUIRED PAPERWORK/DOCUMENTATION:

There are only two required documents that must be filled out and submitted by coaches for registration:

(1) The School Consent Form

(2) The Single Entry Letter of Intent

Both of these items are in the "Files for Download" section of the Speechwire tournament registration page.

Asynchronous Speech Requirements (DI, Duo, HI, Info, OO, POI): Students competing in asynchronous events must follow these rules, used at the National Tournament, while recording their performances. Rulings (answering questions or hearing protests) about this language will be made by the District Committee. “Submissions or recordings may not be edited using any software; all submissions must be non-stop footage of the entire performance done through the permitted submission platform. The camera being used must remain stationary throughout the entire performance, and no zooming or panning is permitted. Other individuals may be present while filming, but audience interaction (laughing, applause, etc.) must not be included in the performance.”

Duo Interpretation: Duo will be asynchronous recordings where students perform live together in the same room.

Extemporaneous Speaking: Extemporaneous Speaking preparation must be held live; students must have 30 minutes to prepare a speech on a topic they just learned. After the 30 minutes of prep, students will give their memorized speeches live to a judge.

Debate Events (PF, LD, CX, BQ): Debate events must be held live. NSDA evidence rules must be followed, but no specific method of file sharing is mandated. In partner events, partners may either compete together in the same room or from two different locations. Partners may share a device or use two separate devices.

Students competing in debate events must follow these rules. Rulings (answering questions or hearing protests) about this language will be made by the District Committee: “Competitors may not use green screens, virtual backdrops, on-screen text, or professional equipment enhancements such as professional lighting kits or professional grade camera recording and audio devices during their performance in any event. Professional equipment includes items like softboxes or an auditorium’s lighting system; use of these items is not permitted. Backdrops of a solid color with no special markings may be used by competitors and judges.”

Student Eligibility and Requirements: Only NSDA members in good standing are allowed to participate in the district tournament. It is the affirmative duty of each coach to provide proof of NSDA membership for each student entered in the district contest. The district committee must disqualify any non‐member student from competition.

a. Students must be members seven days or 168 hours prior to the official start time of the contest. All necessary points and fees must be submitted to the national office by this deadline. Please take time prior to this deadline to update all of your points on the NSDA website. If you are having difficulties with point entry, please reach out to any of the Florida Oceanfront NSDA District Committee members. They are more than happy to help.

b. A student may not have attended a secondary school more than nine semesters and must meet the age/eligibility requirements of his or her state activities association.

Each contestant who elects to participate in more than one NSDA event must complete the "Single Entry Letter of Intent Form." This includes students who compete at the Florida Oceanfront NSDA District Speech & Debate Tournament and are also competing at this tournament. On this form, students must designate which event they will compete in at nationals if they qualify in multiple events. This step is necessary because students may only compete in one event at nationals. These decisions must be made in advance, and the choice must be affirmed by signature of the student, parent, coach, and principal.

All intent letters are due with entry forms; any double-entered student who does not have a completed intent form will be disqualified.

Entry Limits: To maximize your school’s entries and increase the district’s chances of qualifying more students to nationals, all schools MUST enter NSDA points for all tournaments attended. This information must be entered by 5pm Friday, February 19. Failure to keep your NSDA points up-to-date will cost your school entry slots and cost our district qualification slots.

Entry limits for the District Tournament are different for each school. Limits are determined by the number of members and degrees that an NSDA school has on record 7 days before the tournament.

For purposes of this calculation, each PD, PFD, and DUO teams counts as ONE entry. A student entered in two events counts as two entries. The entry limit for each event is four (4) slots. The District Committee strongly encourages all schools to use ALL of the entry slots that they can, including the use of double entry where necessary.

Reserve Entries & Bonus Entries: There is a space on the entry form to place additional students on a reserve entry list. In the event that a student becomes ill or cannot attend, a substitute may be chosen from the reserve list. If the substitute is not listed, the coach must produce a letter from the principal certifying the eligibility of the substitute contestant. A $1 fee is charged for each substitution. No substitutions may be made after the close of final registration on the day of the District Tournament.

Any school that has 2 entries in EVERY event (PD, LD, PFD, UX, IX, OO, HI, DI, DUO, INFO, POI) who actually compete by participating in at least one round earns 2 bonus entries above its member & degree allocation. The bonus slots can be used in any event, but the limit of 4 entry slots in each event still applies.

Auto Qualification (effective 2012): In any given year at the National Tournament, any student who places in the top 14 in any main event, has not completed more than six semesters of high school, and is still enrolled in high school (as a student in good standing) may enter the following year’s National Tournament in the same solo event or in the same team event with the same partner. The district will permit an auto-qualified student to participate in the district contest and to double enter as specified by the district’s uniform double-entry policies. No rule regarding double entry may be violated by auto-qualification. The entry must indicate acceptance of the auto-qualification through his or her Single Entry Letter of Intent prior to its district competition. The district chair should notify the national office of acceptance of the auto-qualification in reporting district results. A student who accepts auto-qualification may double-enter based on rules above but must sign the single letter of intent, which is binding, in favor of the event of their auto-qualification. If the entry signs the single letter of intent and rejects auto-qualification, the results of the district contest are binding.

Events Offered

Debate: Big Questions Debate, Lincoln Douglas Debate, Policy Debate, Public Forum Debate

Speech: International Extemporaneous, United States Extemporaneous, Original Oratory, Informative Speaking

Interpretation: Dramatic Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Program of Oral Interpretation

World Schools Debate: see details below

General Tournament Regulations

1. Electronic Devices: All applicable rules are part of the NSDA High School Unified Manual, which is available on the NSDA website. It is imperative that all coaches and competitors be familiar with this manual.

2. Forfeit Rule: Each round will be posted with a start time. Any contestant who fails to appear in the assigned contest room 15 minutes after the posted start time will forfeit that round, receiving either a loss (in debate events) or last place (in all other events). The district committee has the right to waive this penalty.

3. Wrong Room: Any contestant who speaks in the wrong room through no fault of the tournament staff shall receive a loss (in debate events) or last place (in all other events).

4. Tab Room: The tab room is open to all coaches of record. Members of and alternates to district committee will conduct tabulation in conjunction with highly qualified coaches from our community.

5. Questions, Protests: Judges and coaches who have questions should direct them to the ballot table in the judge room.  Ballot table personnel will refer all serious issues to the tab room.

Protests must be filed in writing, in a timely manner (defined as within one hour of the end of the round in which the alleged infraction occurred). All protests will be considered by members of the District Committee (Gaba, Anyzeski, Hall, LoSardo, Lowe) who are present, or alternates selected in advance by the committee (in the event committee members are not available to be at the tournament), who shall have full power to adjudicate any protest, dispute, or interpretation of the rules. In the event of a protest involving one of the committee member’s schools, that person shall be recused.

6. Grace Period: There is a 30 second grace period for interp and speech events. If the judge(s) in the round agree(s) that the student has gone beyond the grace period, that student may not be ranked 1st, but need not be ranked last based on time. Contestants should not waive time signals if they are offered.

7. Contestant Codes: All contestants will be assigned an alphanumeric code. School names will not be used or posted. Judges shall not ask contestants to identify their school affiliation.

8. Informative and Oratory: These scripts must be available the district tournament. The script should identify the quoted materials, state the number of quoted words, include a work cited page in APA or MLA format, and both the competitor and coach must attest by signature that the piece is the original work of the contest. See the NSDA High School Unified Manual for complete speech and interp event script rules, including source verification.

9. Interp: All interpers must read the NSDA publication rules. Each interp entry must supply information about the piece on the entry form [title, author(s), ISBN/URL]. Under penalty of disqualification, contestants must perform the pieces listed. All interpers should bring a copy of their script and proof of publication to the tournament in case of protest; failure to do so risks disqualification. See the NSDA High School Unified Manual for complete speech and interp event script rules, including source verification.

WORLD SCHOOLS DEBATE

Districts may send up to two (2) "World Schools Debate" teams to the National Tournament. Teams are comprised of three to five members from each district opting to participate. After the entire district tournament series (speech, debate, congress) is complete, any student who competed at districts would be eligible for participation on the World Schools District Team. Districts must provide one full-time judge for each team that competes at the National Tournament.

The Florida Oceanfront NSDA District WSD application process is as follows:

- Students must rank WSD on the NSDA Letter of Intent (the higher the better) and must compete at the Florida Oceanfront NSDA District qualifier (in any event)

- Your Florida Oceanfront NSDA District committee will review students who have prioritized WSD

- Your Florida Oceanfront NSDA District committee will discuss the applicants, including their past WSD experience (NSDA, FFL, PBCFL, independents, etc.)

- Attempts will be made to keep students from the same school together as part of a specific team

A more detailed breakdown of these options, along with additional information, can be found in the USA World Schools Debate Invitation Manual.

BIG QUESTIONS DEBATE

Big Questions Debate is a new event being promoted by the NSDA. There is a single topic for the year. It's a fairly short 1-on-1 debate. There are no per-school limits on the BQD qualifier. BQD also does not count against overall school entry limits in the district tournament. 

Judges: The District Committee needs schools to bring their entire judge quota (and more if possible). Failure to satisfy the judge quota will result in forfeiture of the uncovered entry slots. Please let your judges know which of the pools they will be in, but also advise them they could be utilized in other events. Judges must be available for the ENTIRE TOURNAMENT; there is no “one round past elimination” rule at this tournament.  

We will have three competition pools for judges; however, judges may be asked to critique speakers in all debate and interpretation events: 

• Pool 1: Debate (1 per 2 or fraction thereof of all debate entries)
• Pool 2: Speech and Interpretation (1 per 3 or fraction thereof - this is a higher ratio than at PBCFL tournaments)

The District Committee will work hard to provide extra judges; please see and share the Google Docs link above to offer additional assistance!

ANY ASSISTANCE THAT COACHES CAN OFFER IN PROVIDING ADDITIONAL JUDGES WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. College-age judges are permitted at the discretion of the District Committee. Current high school students may not judge any portion of the district tournament series.

The Florida Oceanfront NSDA District Committee reserves the right to have coaches judge rounds and to use judges in pools other than those in which they are designated. If you have extra judges, or know of community judges who would like to help us, please let us know! It is also possible judges will be "shared" between pools if need be.

Please consider your judging options carefully! If you have a judge whom you know cannot be objective ... LEAVE THAT PERSON AT HOME! This is a high-stakes tournament. For some schools and students, NSDA Nationals is the most important tournament of the year, and the NSDA District Tournament is thus the second most important tournament. As a community of dedicated coaches, we ought to have enough respect for one another and enough consideration for students from other schools to eliminate untrained or biased judges from our rosters. It reflects poorly on your school and your integrity when you place poorly qualified or prejudiced judges into the pool.

Information on judging NSDA events can be found here: https://www.speechanddebate.org/judge-training/

LINCOLN DOUGLAS DEBATE: The January/February topic will be used: Resolved: States ought to ban lethal autonomous weapons.

Prep time is 4 minutes per debater. 

PUBLIC FORUM DEBATE: The February topic will be used. Resolved: On balance, the benefits of urbanization in West Africa outweigh the harms.

Prep time is 3 minutes per team. Judges must conduct the coin toss. Contestants should stand for Crossfire but sit for Grand Crossfire. 

POLICY DEBATE: The national topic for 2020-21 will be used. Resolved: The United States federal government should enact substantial criminal justice reform in the United States in one or more of the following: forensic science, policing, sentencing.

Prep time is 8 minutes per team.

BIG QUESTIONS DEBATE: The national topic for 2020-21 will be used. Resolved: Mathematics was discovered, not invented.

EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEAKING: The District Committee reserves the right to use separate prep rooms for USX and IX; please plan accordingly. The District Committee will make every effort to secure an independent and qualified individual to write the district tournament questions. Contestants may be disqualified for using illegal materials. There might be cross-examination in the final USX and IX rounds.

International: Africa; Americas & Caribbean; Asia & Oceania; Energy & Environment; Europe; Global Conflict; Middle East & North Africa

Manager contact information

Paul L Gaba
Email address: paul.gaba@palmbeachschools.org
Phone number: 561-352-0635

Mailing address

c/o Paul Gaba
4284 Deste Court, Apt. 104
Lake Worth, FL 33467