August 2018

 

Dear Colleagues:

 

Bradley University is pleased to invite you to the 71^st annual L.E. Norton Memorial Tournament to be held November 3^rd & 4^th, 2018. Team officers Megan Magee, Greg Huber, and Melissa Fuentes are busy planning what we hope will be a fun, competitive, and educational event for you and your students. Our tournament offers strong national and local competition towards the end of the first semester of the year, providing a good test at the halfway point of our seasons.

 

We offer a novice division in all events where there are at least 35 varsity entries. We will also be giving our traditional pottery mugs as awards to the top five schools in open and 2-year team sweepstakes, top five pentathlon speakers in both 2-year and open, and top six speakers in each event (both varsity and novice). Congratulations to last year’s open team sweepstakes winner, Western Kentucky University, 2-year team sweepstakes winner, Tallahassee Community College, open pentathlon winner Lily Nellans from Western Kentucky University, and novice pentathlon winner Susan Liss from Tallahassee Community College. Finally, we will continue to present the L.E. Norton award to someone who represents Dr. Norton’s commitment, compassion, and dedication to collegiate forensics. Congratulations to last year’s winner, Mary Moore from Ball State University.

 

We hope you can join us in November for this celebration of both our tournament and our mentor, Dr. L.E. Norton.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

Justin Helmley

Interim Director of Forensics   

 

 

L.E. Norton Memorial

Information and Procedures 

RULES and GUIDELINES:

1.    The L.E. Norton Memorial will adhere to the ethical standards and event descriptions of the American Forensic Association National Individual Events Tournament. They can be accessed online at afa-niet.org. All judges AND competitors are expected to be aware of and well-versed in these standards. Bradley University guest access to WIFI will be offered for Extemp, but online access and quality will not be guaranteed by the tournament.

2.    The Varsity Extemporaneous Speaking final round will feature an open cross-examination period of 2 minutes.  Each speaker will be questioned by the previous speaker, with the last speaker questioning the first speaker.  Contestants who will cross-examine the speaker are required to watch the speech and are permitted to take notes during the speech.  We ask that all finalists report to draw first so that speaker order can be assigned to accommodate multiple entries and the questioning period.  It is at the judges’ discretion to include or not to include the cross-examination period in their ranking of the round.  

3.    No material may have been performed by a student in any competition (high school or college) prior to this academic year (2018-2019). Students in violation of this rule will be disqualified.

4. Tabulation procedures will be similar to AFA-NIET practices where applicable sans majority of 1’s.

5. A variation from the AFA-NIET rules:

-Impromptu Speaking rounds may use non-traditional prompts for some rounds of competition.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REGISTRATION:

1.    Novice divisions will be offered in events containing at least 35 varsity entries and at least 12 novice entries. Novice designates students from four year schools with NO intercollegiate forensics experience prior to August 1, 2018 and any students from two year schools/community colleges.  In other words, novice categories are open to 4-year students in their first year of competition and any two-year student.

2.    Each school may enter an unlimited number of students per event.

3.    Each student may enter a maximum of two events per group. Two duos count as two events.

GROUP A:	GROUP B:	GROUP C:
Impromptu Speaking	Duo Interpretation	After Dinner Speaking
Informative Speaking	Extemporaneous Speaking	Communication Analysis
Prose Interpretation	Persuasive Speaking	Dramatic Interpretation
	Program Oral Interpretation	Poetry Interpretation

 

4.    Semi-Finals will be held for events containing over 60 entries. Quarter-Finals will be held for events containing at least 120 entries.

5.    Entries must be submitted via Speechwire.com.  Entries must be received by 12:00 p.m. (noon), CST, Tuesday, October 30, 2018. No additions will be accepted after this time.  Drops can be made on Speechwire.com until noon on Wednesday, October 31^st  at which point entries and fees will be assessed.

 

 

AWARDS:

1.    Individual event trophies will be awarded to the top six competitors and semi-finalists in each event (Both Novice and Varsity).

2.    Team trophies will be awarded to the top five schools in both open and 2-year team sweepstakes.

3.    Pentathlon trophies will be awarded to the top five speakers of the tournament, in both novice and 
open categories (if there are at least 5 entries in each category). To be eligible for open Pentathlon, a student must compete in at least five open events. Two Duos WILL count as two events in Pentathlon. Points are based on elimination rounds only. The student’s five best events will be tabulated for Pentathlon points. If entries warrant, we will also offer awards for novice (2-year) Pentathlon. Only students whose five events are novice will be eligible.

4.    Team sweepstakes and Pentathlon are calculated according to the following point scale.

*12 points:	1st place in varsity final	*6 points:	1st place in novice final
*10 points:	2nd place in varsity final	*5 points:	2nd place in novice final
*8 points:	3rd place in varsity final	*4 points:	3rd place in novice final
*6 points:	4th place in varsity final	*3 points:	4th place in novice final
*4 points:	5th place in varsity final	*2 points:	5th place in novice final
*2 points:	6th/7th place in varsity final	*1 point:	6th/7th place in novice final
*1 point:	Non-advancing elimination (varsity and novice)

FEES:

1.    A fee of $15 will be charged for each entry slot.

2.    One judge is needed for every six slots entered. Judges may be hired for an additional $10 per slot not covered by your school. Hired judges will be paid $10 per round.

Please note:  Any school bringing a Bradley Alumnus as a judge will have that judge cover 10 slots rather than the typical six.  It is your responsibility to register any alumni judges.

3.     Drop penalties are as follows:

-NO CHARGE for drops up to 12:00 noon CST, Wednesday, October 31, 2018.

-$15 charge per dropped or changed slot plus original entry fee, $30 per dropped judge plus new uncovered slots after 12:00 noon CST, Wednesday, October 31, 2018 until 5:00pm CST, Thursday, November 1, 2018.

-$25 charge per dropped slot and $75 charge per dropped judge after 5:00pm CST, Thursday, November 1, 2018.

4.     Checks should be made payable to Bradley University Speech Team.

 

 

 

Anticipated Schedule

 

FRIDAY, November 2, 2018

                     7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.         Early Registration (Michel Student Center Atrium)

 

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2018

                     8:00 a.m. – 8:45 a.m.          Late Registration (Student Center Atrium)

                     9:00 a.m.                               Extemp Draw (Olin Hall 164)

                     9:15 a.m.                               Round 1, Group B (DUO, EXT, PER, POI)

                   10:30 a.m.                               Extemp Draw (Olin Hall 164)

                   10:45 a.m.                               Round 2, Group B

                   12:00 p.m.                               LUNCH BREAK

                   12:45 p.m.                               Extemp Draw (Olin Hall 164)

                     1:00 p.m.                               Round 3, Group B

                     2:15 p.m.                               Round 1, Group A (IMP, INF, PRO)

                     3:30 p.m.                               Round 2, Group A

                     4:45 p.m.                               Round 3, Group A

                   6:00 p.m.                             Round 1, Group C (ADS, CA, DI, POE)

 

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2018

                     7:00 a.m.                               Buildings Open for Warm-Ups

                     8:00 a.m.                               Round 2, Group C

                     9:15 a.m.                               Round 3, Group C

                   11:30 a.m.                             Extemp Draw (Olin Hall 164)

           12:00 p.m.                               Flight B Finals

            1:15 p.m.                               LUNCH BREAK

                     1:45 p.m.                               Flight A Finals

 

                     3:00 p.m.                               Flight C Finals

                     

      ASAP                                      Awards ceremony (Student Center Ballroom)

 

            Following Awards                Social Gathering – Kouri's Grill & Bar (4421 N. Sterling Ave.)

 

HOUSING ACCOMMODATIONS:

 

Regardless of where you choose to stay, book immediately! Other activities on campus and in town can make getting hotel rooms difficult. However, the Peoria, East Peoria, Pekin, and even Morton areas have many hotels. All reservations must be a transaction between your school and the lodging establishment. This year we have brought in the folks at Travel Advocates to help you negotiate the lowest rates at the hotels YOU prefer.  See below:

           

                  TRAVEL ADVOCATES                                                 

                  Melody Carlisle                                                          

                  Sales Manager                                                             

                  (201) 222-1990 x207                                                  

                  melody@traveladvocates.com                                

 

 

DACA Information – Bradley University is committed to inclusiveness and welcome students and coaches from all identities and social roles. In light of ongoing harassment and discrimination, and the current administration's most recent action to repeal DACA, our program stands in solidarity with, and will continue to offer safe, educational space for, our most vulnerable members. Peoria is not a sanctuary city. However, the Migra Map does not show any ICE activity in Central Illinois, and the State of Illinois recently signed into law the TRUST Act which enacted the nation’s strongest state-level due process protections for immigrants who fear any interaction with local police could result in deportation. We have found http://www.icirr.org/ to be a useful resource.