Our 6th AST will be on Tuesday, February 13th at Fort Lauderdale High School!

COMPETITORS: ASTs are for NOVICE debaters in their first year of high school debate (9-12).

VARSITY JUDGES: Varsity debaters with at least 150 NSDA points and who are not in their first year of high school debate are welcome to attend and judge.

***If you have varsity debaters who are able to judge and/or P.O. for Congressional Debate, please email sarah.beauchamp@browardschools.com directly with their names and put it into the notes section of the judge.

JUDGES:

• Judges are required for any tournament to run and schools are obligated to cover their entries.
• 1 judge covers 2 debate entries, or 1 judge covers any combination of 5 speech/congress entries.
• Coaches are in charge of knowing their judges, contact information, and training their judges.

Judge Check-In: 2nd Floor of the Cafeteria

• First-time judge: You should have received an email from Speechwire to follow and create an account.
• Judged before: It is important to make sure you have logged into live.speechwire.com and are able to sign in with the same email address you used previously. Once signed in, please make sure the cell number is correct/added to your account.
• In order to have a smoother start to the tournament, it is a huge help for all judges to arrive on time, have checked-in, and have logged into live.speechwire.com prior to coming to the tournament. If for whatever reason you cannot initially log in, click "forgot password" but use the same email you entered.
• Electronic Device: All ballots are electronic, so judges will need to bring a working, charged, smart phone, tablet, or laptop (preferably with a keyboard) to complete the eballots.

Judge During Round:

• Click "Start Round" after they confirm the correct competitors are in the room with them.
• Type comments while students are speaking, which will expedite the tournament. Comments are open for editing overnight, but results must be submitted asap.
• Save/submit ranks, points, and decisions when the round is finished. We cannot move on to the next round or close the tournament until all ballots are submitted.

REGISTERING ENTRIES:

ENTRY CAPS:

• Remember, each school may only initially enter FIVE students in all events except Congress, in which you can enter TEN. Any entries over that number will go on the waitlist, which will be cleared pending available space at Fort Lauderdale High and sufficient judge numbers.
• No double or cross entries are allowed.

DEADLINE:

• Registration for NEW ENTRIES will close on THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8th. At that time, we will begin releasing competitors off of the waitlist if team judge numbers and room space allow.
• Double check your sign-up sheet has been registered correctly BEFORE the Thursday, February 8th deadline. 
• Changes (drops or name changes only) and judge adds can be made until the day of the tournament. Any changes after that, please text Sarah Beauchamp: 412-719-3314 the school name, student who is dropping, and their event.
• NO LATE ADDS OR EVENT CHANGES. Do not bring competitors who are not registered to the tournament.

ARRIVAL:

• You MUST arrive for the tournament between 1:30pm and 2:15pm. If you arrive after 2:15 you will get caught in Fort Lauderdale's dismissal traffic and could miss/forfeit the first round.
• *Students cannot be allowed onto FLHS Campus prior to 1:15pm. Several groups of students arrived without coaches and walked to McDonald’s and local convenience stores. They also must go directly to the cafeteria as soon as they are allowed onto the property as several students were “exploring” the campus which cannot be allowed.

TOPICS:

• Public Forum (PF) Debate – 2024 February Topic: “Resolved: The United States federal government should ban single-use plastics.”
• Lincoln Douglas (LD) Debate - 2024 January/February Topic: “Resolved: The United States ought to substantially reduce its military presence in the West Asia-North Africa region.”
• Policy Debate, the 2023-24 Topic: “Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase fiscal redistribution in the United States by adopting a federal jobs guarantee, expanding Social Security, and/or providing a basic income. In addition, at the ASTs all teams MUST use the Novice Policy Packet. The Novice Policy Packet can be accessed at the NDCA website: http://www.debatecoaches.org/ and click on the Google Drive.”
• Extemp topic areas will be “U.S. Business & Industry”, & “Central/South America”
• Impromptu topic areas will be released at the tournament.
• Congress legislation for the entire second semester was sent in multiple December Monday email updates and is posted in the BCPS Coaches Corner Canvas course. It is also accessible electronically here under the "Files for Download" section. Per usual, chambers might not debate all 4 bills if time does not allow.

More information may be sent out as the tournament approaches. Please let your mentor know if you have any questions or need assistance with judges.