Bloomington Middle School Tournament

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General information

This information is from a tournament in a past season!

This is a Middle School tournament in Indiana.

View manager contact information

You are invited to the fifth annual Bloomington Debate & Speech Tournament, co-sponsored by Jackson Creek Middle School, Bloomington High School South, and Indiana University.

Synchronous competition will be hosted on Saturday December 11 for Debate, Discussion, Impromptu, & Radio Broadcasting via Zoom: https://iu.zoom.us/j/8122692710

Asynchronous entries must be submitted by Thursday December 9 by 6:00 p.m. See event rules at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BdlN0bUFOUOkSVaMfrpNIHgb8PXc-j7e/view

The no-cost DROP DEADLINE is Saturday December 11 at 6:00 a.m., after which you may be assessed a $5 fine for each late drop of either competitors or judges. SpeechWire will allow self-drops up until the deadline, so please enter drops as soon as you become aware of them.

Doubling (i.e. entering 2 events) is allowed with the following exceptions: Debate & Radio Broadcasting are mutually exclusive, and students in Discussion may only double in an asynchronous event. Debate or Broadcasting MAY be combined with Impromptu—but each round of Impromptu must be done AFTER the corresponding round of Debate/Broadcasting; Debate doublers will debate TWICE before giving their first Impromptu speech!

Entries (students & judges) are due on Monday December 6 at 5 p.m. There is no limit on the number of entries, but schools are asked to pay $2 per entry to offset hosting costs (i.e. ribbons and SpeechWire). Late adds are discouraged, but may be permitted on a case by case basis.

Each school is responsible for bringing one judge for every five entries or fraction thereof (6 entries = 2 judges). Please designate each judge as “Speech: Sync & Async,” “Speech: Asynchronous Only,” “Debate (Sync) & Speech (Async only),” or “Debate Only.” (The most useful judge type is “Speech: Sync & Async,” so if you have the flexibility, make this selection!) We anticipate covering most of the debate judging with experienced high-school debaters.

Judging Instructions for Speech: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AM3E3spA24x5AuvOrXZrSm1uaVS_PP211aWJAuebGn4/edit

Judging Instructions for Debate: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YIeqLviF3GO7CsgXrKfWaKD5QvSdya0B/view

There will be a meeting for coaches (to which judges are welcome) on Thursday December 9 at 4 p.m. via Zoom: https://iu.zoom.us/j/8122692710. Whether or not you can attend, please email me at least one cell phone number for each school; please consider keeping near you a list of cell phone numbers for all of your students and judges in case we need to find someone quickly. Please also email me your preferred address for mailing ribbons and sweepstakes certificates.

There will be 3 rounds of speech and 4 rounds of debate.

We will double ribbon up to 10 places (20 awards) per speech event. For Debate, we will instead offer Novice (first or second tournament debating) and Varsity (third+ tournament debating) divisions, awarding single ribbons up to 10 places in each division. For team sweepstakes, there will be Large and Small school divisions, with up to 5 places awarded in each division; Jackson Creek will abstain from the sweepstakes competition.

We will be offering the IN MS Debate format (26-minute rounds) instead of Big Questions. 

MS Debate Resolution for 2021-22: In United States courts, victim impact statements ought to influence sentencing.

MS Discussion Theme for 2021-22: What role should the United States play in global affairs?
Round 1: How should the U.S. respond to COVID beyond U.S. borders?
Round 2: Should the U.S. intervene in international conflicts (e.g. Afghanistan)?
Round 3: How should the U.S. contribute to reforming the Olympics?

Schedule for Saturday December 11
6:00 Drop Deadline (after this deadline $5/drop)

7:30-8:00 Student Roll Call & Judges’ Meeting: https://iu.zoom.us/j/8122692710

8:00-8:30 Debate 1 

8:15-8:45 Radio Broadcasting Prep: https://iu.zoom.us/j/88995821694
8:45-9:45 Debate 2 & Speech 1
10:00-11:00 Debate 3 & Speech 2
11:15-12:15 Debate 4 & Speech 3
1:30-2:00 (tentative) Live Awards (also recorded for asynchronous viewing)

All synchronous competitors and judges should update Zoom to the most recent version (which allows self-assignment to breakout rooms).

Please remember that in order to enter students in the tournament, you must first collect gmail addresses from them, set up SpeechWire accounts for them, and remind each of them to activate their accounts. If you intend to record NSDA points, sync your students' NSDA and SpeechWire accounts before the tournament; this allows for autoposting of points--a huge time saver for you!

In order to get updates on tournament plans, log into SpeechWire and click "Yes" (or "Maybe") you are attending. If you no longer wish to receive invitations from SpeechWire, then please update your information on the SpeechWire website.

If you have any questions about this tournament, please contact Candy Brown at browncg@indiana.edu or 812-269-2710.

Best,

Candy Brown and Linda Scott

Manager contact information

Candy Brown
Email address: candygbrown@gmail.com
Phone number: 812-269-2710

Mailing address

2425 E. Canada Drive
Bloomington, IN 47401