Palm Beach Catholic Forensic League: The Barbara Dale Lauder McCall "Grand Finals" Tournament

Olympic Heights HS.

20101 Lyons Rd,

Boca Raton, FL 33434

You are invited to attend the Palm Beach Catholic Forensic League Grand Finals competition Saturday, March 11, at Olympic Heights High School. Grand Finals is the National Qualifier for the PBCFL, and the top six finishers in each event from this tournament will qualify to compete at the Grand National Tournament of the National Catholic Forensic League (aka/"CatNats") in Louisville, over Memorial Day Weekend (May 26-29).

DIRECTIONS: I-95 to Glades Rd. West to Lyons Rd. North 1/4 mile. School on left.

Tuesday, March 7, at 3 p.m. is the deadline for registering students.

Wednesday, March 8, at 3 p.m. is the last opportunity to drop students before the website shuts down. At this time, schools are responsible for the $8 entry fee.

IF SCHOOLS HAVE NOT PAID IN FULL ANY AND ALL PRIOR PBCFL REGISTRATION FEES AND DROP FEES BY FRIDAY, MARCH 3, THEIR PROGRAM RISKS BEING DROPPED FROM COMPETITION AT UPCOMING PBCFL TOURNAMENT.

COACHES: If you have any concerns or questions about the Grand Finals entry process (script legalities, formats, judge requirements, etc.), PLEASE contact PBCFL President Traci Lowe or Vice President of Individual Events Paul Gaba. This will allow you to be walked through the process smoothly in advance, and save you a ton of grief down the road! Students may compete if they meet these requirements.

FULL-TEXT LEGISLATION IS DUE BY 3pm FRIDAY, MARCH 3. Send it to pbcflcongress@gmail.com
TO BE ELIGIBLE, STUDENTS MUST HAVE COMPETED AT TWO PBCFL TOURNAMENTS DURING THE CURRENT SCHOOL YEAR. BOTH STUDENTS' TWO PRIOR TOURNAMENT COMPETITIONS MUST BE PBCFL TOURNAMENTS. PRINTED VERIFICATION (TOURNAMENT RESULTS) MUST BE AVAILABLE.

REQUIRED PAPERWORK
Since we have many rules to uphold for the national office, it is imperative that you follow all rules for required paperwork
Coaches must have available original copies of manuscripts to the tournament in case of a challenge. Inability to provide an original manuscript could lead to disqualification of the entry.
Coaches must have available original copies of all oratories. Inability to provide an original manuscript could lead to disqualification of the entry.
One item of legislation MUST be submitted by ALL schools with Congressional Debate entries. Congress legislation must be submitted in appropriate format, and cannot have been used by the school prior in the competition year.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS:

Events offered: Declamation, Dramatic Performance, Duo Interpretation, Extemporaneous Speaking, Oral Interpretation, Original Oratory, Lincoln Douglas Debate, Public Forum Debate, and Congressional Debate. ALL I
Events NOT offered (that have been during prior PBCFLs): Informative Speaking, Program of Oral Interpretation, World Schools Debate.
No double entry allowed.
Entry limits: maximum of six entries per event.
You may only enter 2 students per congress chamber. (The PBCFL reserves the right to collapse houses and modify this rule when necessary.)
Two-Tournament Requirement: All students who are entered in Grand Finals must have completed at least two previous PBCFL tournaments this school year. They may have competed in any event in those two previous tournaments. In order to meet the two-tournament requirement, the student must have completed the ENTIRE tournament (spoken ALL FOUR rounds), and have speaker points recorded in the results packet for the documented tournament. (Students disqualified from a tournament may not count that tournament toward this requirement.) Ethics Bowl, Youth Court, Mock Trial, Model UN, DECA competitions, Florida Oceanfront NSDA tournaments, FCDI tournaments, FFL Macaw, judging novice events, etc., do not count. (A maximum of one reciprocal CFL Diocese tournament is allowed to count.) 
ONLY SIX ENTRIES ARE ALLOWED PER EVENT PER SCHOOL. THIS IS NON-NEGOTIABLE.

TOURNAMENT GUIDELINES:

This is the Grand Finals qualifying tournament for NCFL Nationals

Any student will be allowed to compete in Declamation, Dramatic Performance, Duo Interpretation, Extemporaneous, Oral Interpretation, Original Oratory, Lincoln Douglas, Public Forum, and Congressional Debate as long as they have fulfilled the PBCFL two-tournament requirement. 

Each member school that participates in the Grand Finals Tournament shall pay a $75 guarantee at the time of registration (in addition to the entry fees). This money can be refunded or said $75 may be applied to membership dues for the next school year if a given school does not register students for the Grand National Tournament

LD will be able to compete using the March/April topic.

PFD will be able to compete using the March topic.

All schools must register on the Speechwire.com website in order to legitimately participate in this competition.

The legislation will be posted as full text on the PBCFL website (www.pbcfl.net) and on Speechwire.com

NEW COACHES (first- and second-year in particular) should plan on judging (choose an event group!) 

ENTRY PROCEDURES and REGISTRATION INFORMATION:

You may register up to 6 entries/teams in each event and up to 6 entries in Student Congress.

You may only enter 2 students per congress chamber. (The PBCFL reserves the right to collapse houses and modify this rule when necessary.)

Once registration closes, houses may be balanced and students may be shifted to another chamber. All efforts will be made to keep the same group of students together.

No changes will be made after the Tuesday 3 p.m. drop deadline ... please plan accordingly.

Double-check your registration. No student will be added to the tournament on the morning of the tournament.

PREPARATIONS BEFORE THE TOURNAMENT:

Assign the authorship speech to one person from your school in each chamber.

Because full-text legislation will be on-line, it is each school's responsibility to access legislation in advance.

DOUBLE-CHECK your entries. If a student is not listed on your registration they will NOT be added on the morning of the tournament.

Make sure all your students have signed a behavior/attire contract

REGISTRATION ON SATURDAY:

Be at the tournament host cafeteria by 7:30 a.m. to do attendance and submit debate and speech event drops by 7:45 a.m. (Congress attendance will take place during Session 1.)

Extemp Draw for Round 1 is at 7:45 a.m.

Students/programs that are late may be dropped from the tournament by league officers.

Check your registration carefully; there will be a "hidden drop fee" for any drop that is not reported at registration.

Refer to the chamber breakdown list in order to make sure all competitors know where to report.

Make sure all judges check their email and text messages for ballot assignments.

RULE REMINDERS:

No student member shall use an original oration, a non-original oration, an original informative speech, or a selection of poetry, prose, or drama during a given league season that has been used by the student in any tournament of a previous season(s).

No school shall substitute a non-registered competitor in the place of a registered competitor on the day of the competition. This includes “event-shifting.”

PRESIDING OFFICER: Please remind Congress judges that the PO gets 2 speech ranks (equivalent of 2 speeches = up to 12 points) and that the PO can be ranked.

SPEECH COMPETITORS: Students who are in Speech events CANNOT wear AirPods, headphones, etc. when performing.

ORAL INTERPRETATION: While there are no rules governing binders, they should be the smaller 5x8.5” black binders. Students could also use plastic sheet covers for their pages to reduce distracting page turn sounds during performances.

JUDGE QUOTAS:

CONGRESS: 1 judge per every 6 entries or fraction thereof 

SPEECH/INTERP: 1 judge for every combination of 5 entries or fraction thereof

PUBLIC FORUM DEBATE: 1 judge for every 2 entries or fraction thereof

LINCOLN DOUGLAS DEBATE: 1 judge for every 2 entries or fraction thereof

Register ALL judges on Speechwire.com

Make sure you distinguish any student judge from adult judges when registering on Speechwire.com by informing us in the "notes" section.

There is currently a $100 per missing judge fee in the system, BUT you must drop students if you do not meet your judge requirement.

ENTRY FEES:

School fee: $75 guarantee. Include this with your entry fees. In the event your school does not qualify students for nationals, this fee will be applied for membership fees for the next school year.

Make tournament checks payable to: Palm Beach Catholic Forensic League. Do NOT include meals in this check.

$8 per student

MEALS: $7 each

Coaches must order meals for all entries, adult judges, and coaches.

Student lunch options: cheese or pepperoni pizza, and will also include a bag of chips as well as a beverage

Adults: Buffet

DROP FEES:

Tuesday, March 7, at 3 p.m. is the deadline for registering students. 

Wednesday, March 8, at 3 p.m. is the last opportunity to drop students before the website shuts down. At this time, schools are responsible for the $10 entry fee plus the registration and meal fees.

$100 - judge drop fee for any no-show judge on Saturday morning. In addition, you will be required to drop students until the team meets the judge quota.

$50 - missed judge rounds (hidden judges).

• Legalize Prostitution
• Legalize Marijuana
• Legalize Euthanasia
• Require Drivers over 65 Retest for Driver’s License
• Raise or Lower the Voting Age
• Lower the Drinking Age
• Institute Stem Cell Research
• Ban Animal Testing Ban the Death Penalty
• Ban Abortion
• ANYTHING relating to the current Public Forum Debate topic
• ANYTHING relating to the current Lincoln Douglas Debate topic

(vr)