FFL Region 7 Qualifier

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General information

This is a High School tournament in Florida.

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Florida Forensic League

Gullah Geechee Regional (Region 7) Tournament

Saturday, February 3, 2024

Dear Coach,

Happy New Year!

As you return to school from a (hopefully) restful holiday break, it’s time to plan your entry for the 2024 Florida Forensic League Gullah Geechee Regional Qualifying Tournament! 

This event will be held at Samuel Wolfson High School on Saturday, February 3, 2024 (7000 Powers Avenue, Jacksonville FL 32217).

OVERVIEW

This tournament is the gateway into participation in FFL activities for the remainder of the year. The top 2 entries in each event will qualify to compete at the State Championship tournament, which will be held on Saturday, March 2nd and Sunday, March 3rd at Wellington HS.

Whether or not your students qualify to the State Championship, participation at the Regional Tournament will allow your school to enter the Novice State Tournament in April.

4 IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN PLANNING YOUR ENTRY:

1. If your school fails to enter the Regional Tournament, it forfeits the opportunity to attend Novice State and participate in Coach of the Year voting.
2. The number of qualifiers in each event is based on the number of schools that participate in the previous year’s Regional Tournament. Thus, it is imperative that every member school in the region send at least one student to compete at the qualifying tournament. If only a few schools in our region fail to participate, we could lose qualifying spots in 2025!
3. Every student you enter into the Regional Qualifying Tournament must be available to compete at the State Championship Tournament if they qualify. There are substantial financial penalties for dropping from the State Tournament. Thus, you should make sure that every student from your school who wants to enter this tournament is available to compete on March 2nd and 3rd.
4. First-year students are welcome to attend the Regional Tournament and are eligible to qualify for the State Championship. They WILL NOT lose their eligibility to compete at Novice State. In theory, a novice could win the State Championship and still compete at Novice State the following month!

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact your Regional Director - Melissa Losure (losurem@duvalschools.org or 904-504-9190).

REGION 7 COACH OF THE YEAR BALLOT

EACH COACH MUST VOTE BY THE MORNING OF THE TOURNAMENT!

ENTRY PROCESS

Entry will take place on www.speechwire.com. You must have a SpeechWire account to register for any of the FFL Tournaments.

ENTRY DEADLINES

Tuesday, January 30th, 3:00 PM is the deadline for entering students and meals.

Wednesday, January 31st, 3:00 PM is the deadline for entering judges.

MEMBERSHIP REQUIREMENT & SCHOOL-SANCTIONED ADULT

Only schools that are members of the league for 2023-2024 may participate at this tournament. Also, please remember that a school-approved adult must accompany students to the tournament and remain onsite for the ENTIRE competition. If the school-approved adult is NOT the Head Coach or Assistant Coach on record with the league, then a letter signed by the school principal and printed on school stationery MUST be submitted with the school’s entry. The letter needs to specifically name the adult in charge. The penalty for failing to submit this document is disqualification of all contestants from the school involved.

EVENTS OFFERED

ENTRY LIMITS

• Each member school may submit up to six (6) entries per event, except for World Schools (1 entry per school).
• Schools that purchased a membership supplement may enter up to four (4) additional entries per event, except in World Schools. All entries on the supplement must be students in 9th grade (for ninth grade supplement).  Entering students in grades 10-12 on the supplemental form will result in automatic disqualification of those students. Enter mixed teams/units (eg: a 9th grader and 11th grader on a Policy Debate team) on the high school form.

DOUBLE ENTRY

Double entry and double qualification is permitted, except in Policy Debate, Lincoln Douglas Debate, Public Forum Debate, World Schools Debate, and Student Congress. Also, cross-entry between Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking and International Extemporaneous Speaking is prohibited.

MIDDLE SCHOOLS may only enter Policy Debate at this Regional tournament.

EVENT REMINDERS

The Bylaws and Standing Rules of Florida Forensic League, Inc. shall govern the operation of this event. All coaches and students are responsible for reviewing the rules in the Governing Documents. Questions about rules should be addressed to the Tournament Director.

ALL EVENTS

Internet Access and Laptop Use

The use of laptop computers shall be permitted in all debate events at all FFL sanctioned events. During debate rounds computers or other electronic devices may not be used to receive information from any source (coaches or assistants included) outside the room in which the competition occurs. During debate rounds Internet access, use of e-mail, instant messaging, or other means of receiving information from sources outside the debate round is prohibited. (This does not prohibit non-electronic communication between debate partners during prep time.) Contestants found to have violated these provisions may face the following actions: forfeit the round of competition and receive zero points or disqualification from the tournament and forfeiture of all rounds.

In Extemporaneous Speaking, students can access information on jump drives, which will be screened by a tournament official/extemp prep room proctor. Competitors will be permitted to use the Internet at all FFL Sanctioned Tournaments when internet access is publicly available. Publicly available being defined as – WiFi Internet access is available to all students competing or all competitors will have access to desktop computers with internet availability. 

Evidence

Availability of Evidence: Contestants electing to use computers shall have the responsibility to promptly provide a copy of any evidence read in a speech for inspection by the judge or opponent. Printers may be used. Evidence may be printed in the round or produced electronically, but must be provided in a format readable by the opposing team and the judge.

Rules in A Nutshell – Regarding Evidence

• Debaters are responsible for the validity of all evidence that they introduce in the debate.
• Evidence must be provided orally or written and must include primary author(s) and year of publication. Any other information such as qualifications etc. may be given, but not required.
• Judges are responsible for resolving disputes between debaters – both oral and written sources.
• Judge decisions may not be appealed unless – judge misapplied, misinterpreted, or ignored the rule.
• EVIDENCE CHALLENGES DO NOT GUARANTEE A DECISION REVERSAL!

Student Congress

Student Congress will follow the FFL Congress Manual. Entries will determine the number of chambers; if there are two or more chambers, there will be a Super Congress. All schools must submit legislation (see ENTRY PROCESS above). Legislation will be available on the SpeechWire site under “Files for Download” by Friday, January 19th.

Speech/Interpretation Events

• There is a 30-second grace period in these events. A contestant who goes beyond the grace period may not be ranked first in that round.
• All contestants (or their coaches) must have a copy of their piece/speech available for review by tournament officials. Failure to present a copy of the applicable document(s) and evidence of publication (if applicable) will result in disqualification.

TOPICS

DX: 2024 Elections; Education and Health Care; The Biden Administration; US Foreign Policy and Immigration; Military and Defense

IX: Asia and the MIddle East; The Americas; Europe; Africa; Global Institutions

IMP: Quotations; Merriam Webster; Speech & Debate; Oscar Contenders; Recency in Stuff

World Schools Debate Prepared Motions:

Round 1: This House would make farming subsidies contingent on the adoption of Green farming.

Round 3: This House supports granting megacities autonomous control over their economic and social policy (e.g. immigration, health, criminal justice) with national taxation policy remaining under the federal government's control.

Round 5: This House supports universities treating students as customers.

PF: 2024 February Topic - Resolved: The United States federal government should ban single-use plastics.

LD: 2024 January/February Topic - Resolved: The United States ought to substantially reduce its military presence in the West Asia-North Africa region.

Policy: 2023-2024 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.

SC: Preliminary Round and Final Round legislation is under Files for Download.

ANTI-VANDALISM REQUIREMENTS

To protect the property of our host school, the following rules are in effect:

1. No contestant or student observer shall enter or remain in a contest room without a judge present. The penalty for violation of this regulation shall be immediate disqualification from the tournament.
2. Vandalism of property by any person at an FFL tournament shall result in immediate notification of school and/or local police authorities. The Board of Directors shall notify the principal of the school associated with the vandal(s) in writing and insist upon appropriate remuneration. In the case of vandalism by a contestant, the additional penalty of immediate disqualification from the tournament shall also apply.

RULES COMPLIANCE

Reviewing the following documents in advance of the tournament will help to ensure that your students comply with all FFL rules and regulations.  Questions regarding these rules should be addressed to the Tournament Director.

All of the following documents are available online at https://floridaforensicleague.org/ 

FFL Governing Documents 

You should review the general tournament rules with your students; it is strongly recommended that you ALSO print a copy of the event-specific rules and give them to your students so that they can make sure they are in compliance.

FFL Civility Code

This document prescribes rules of behavior that are generally observed by all contestants and adults at forensic contests.  If you have inexperienced contestants and/or judges, you should give them a copy of this document.

Student Congress Manual

You should make available a copy of this document to each of your contestants in Student Congress.

State of Florida Uniform Judging Manual

You should give a copy of this document to each of your judges.  There will be no copies available at the tournament.

Although this tournament will utilize online balloting via Speechwire, paper versions of the individual ballots, master ballots, critique sheets, and protest forms are also available for download from the above web page.

JUDGES & REQUIREMENTS

1. All judges should be properly trained using the statewide judging manual. Please make sure that each of your judges has their own copy; the tournament will not provide them.
2. All judges should bring a laptop or tablet to complete eBallots on SpeechWire.
3. The following judge requirements are in place for this tournament:

• Lincoln Douglas: One judge for every two debaters, or fraction thereof
• Policy Debate: One judge for every two teams, or fraction thereof
• Public Forum: One judge for every two teams, or fraction thereof
• World Schools Debate: One judge for every two teams, or fraction thereof
• Speech/IE: One judge for every five entries, or fraction thereof
• Congress: One judge for every five entries, or fraction thereof.

The Tournament Director reserves the right to disqualify students from any school that is unable to meet its judging quota. Wednesday, January 31st, 3:00 PM is the deadline for entering judges in Speechwire.

ENTRY FEES

Each Contestant: $25.00 ($7 for FFL; $18 for meals/regional expenses).

This is a “per student” entry fee; thus events with 2 people per entry pay 2 fees; World Schools, pays as many entry fees as there are students in the group; THERE IS NO ADDITIONAL FEE FOR DOUBLE ENTRY

Extra Lunches: $10 each (purchase for all coaches, judges, observers, etc.)

Fees are due at registration; no exceptions!  Please check with the Tournament Director regarding check payments and to whom the checks should be made payable.

DROP FEES

Fees freeze on Tuesday, January 30th at 3:00 PM. **NOTE: This is the deadline for entering students and meals.** If you drop a student after this time, you will forfeit your entry fee ($25.00) for that student.

If you drop a student after Wednesday, January 31st at 3:00 PM, you will forfeit your entry fee ($25.00) for that student PLUS a $10.00 drop fee (so, $35.00 total).

MEALS

Contestant meals are included in the cost of entry. Additional meals for coaches, judges, parents, observers, etc. are $10 each and must be ordered on SpeechWire as well.

The tournament will be “closed campus.” Any contestant found leaving campus is subject to disqualification.

STUDENT MEAL OPTIONS:

Cheese Pizza

Pepperoni Pizza

ADULT MEAL OPTIONS: 

Buffet

CONCESSIONS

Concessions will be available for purchase. Please bring cash (recommended $5-10) to purchase items.

TOURNAMENT FORMAT & SCHEDULE

Final Registration: 7:30 - 8:00 AM

Any school not registered by 8:00 AM will be eliminated from competition. 

The first round will begin shortly after 8:00 AM.

The format for each event will depend on the number of entries received. The Tournament Director will publish the number of preliminary and elimination rounds (if any) along with any power-matching schemes at final registration.

Please plan for an Awards Ceremony beginning in the late afternoon or early evening.

Manager contact information

Melissa Losure
Email address: losurem@duvalschools.org
Phone number: 904-504-9190

Mailing address

Samuel Wolfson HS
7000 Powers Avenue
Jacksonville, FL 32217