Pennsylvania Forensic Association

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General information

This is a College tournament in Pennsylvania.

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Pennsylvania Forensic Association

Championship Tournament

February 15- 16, 2025

BLOOMSBURG UNIVERSITY, BLOOMSBURG, PA

Tournament Host: Neil Strine

On behalf of the Pennsylvania Forensic Association, we invite you to attend the 2025 PFA Championship tournament to be held on Saturday and Sunday, February 15 – 16, 2025.  Please plan to join us!

Tournament Features:

• In-person tournament. Debate and brand new event READER”S THEATRE on Saturday. Speech is on Sunday.  

• Two preliminary rounds of all NFA I.E. events, Declamation, and finals.

• The tournament will offer four preliminary rounds of IPDA and two-person Parliamentary Debate along with appropriate out rounds.

• Recognized by the Interstate Oratorical Association as the official State Championship.

• Includes quadrathon and two-tiered sweepstakes awards.  Small programs are excellent, too; we are committed to recognizing talent across the community.

• Top six contestants in finals.

• Group A: Extemporaneous, Program Oral Interpretation, Duo, Informative, Poetry, Rhetorical Criticism

• Group B: Prose, Dramatic Interpretation, Impromptu, After Dinner Speaking, Persuasion, Declamation.

• Schools entering speech on Sunday cannot enter competitors in one event of their choice. The restriction  provides more opportunities for school judges to be able to adjudicate rounds.

• Each school is required to bring at least one judge. If this is a problem, please contact Scott Placke.

• PFA MEMBERSHIP DUES OF $25.00 AND ENTRY FEES PAYABLE AT REGISTRATION. PARTICIPATION IS DEPENDANT ON PAYMENT

Forensically Yours,

Scott Placke, PFA Executive Secretary                  Neil Strine, PFA Host, 

Lafayette College                                               Bloomsburg University

PFA Tournament Schedule

Saturday

(Preliminary Reader’s Theatre rounds will be held on Saturday concurrently with preliminary debate rounds. The exact schedule for this event is based on the number of entries participating and will be released after all entries are submitted on the week of the tournament)

8:00 Registration

8:30 Debate Prep

9:00 Round 1 IPDA and Parli

10:00 Debate Prep

10:30 Round 2 IPDA and Parli

11:30 Debate prep

12:00 Round 3 IPDA and Parli

1:00 Lunch

1:30 Debate Prep

2:00 Round 4 IPDA and Parli

3:30 Quarterfinals Debate Prep

4:00 Quarters IPDA and Parli (as entries permit)

5:00 Debate prep

5:30 Semis IPDA and Parli

6:30 Finals Debate Prep

7:00 Finals IPDA, Parli, and Reader’s Theatre

8:00 Awards

Sunday
8:00 Registration

8:30 Extemp Prep

9:00 Round 1A: (RC/Extemp/POI/Duo/Informative/Poe)
10:15 Round 1B: (DI/Imp/Pers/Pro/ADS/Dec)

12:00 Lunch and PFA Business Meeting

12:30 Extemp Prep and PFA Business Meeting Continued

1:00 Round 2A: (RC/Extemp/POI/Duo/Informative/Poe)
2:15 Round 2B: (DI/Imp/Pers/Pro/ADS/Dec)

3:45 Extemp Prep Finals

4:00 Finals A Flight: Round 2A: (RC/Extemp/POI/Duo/Informative/Poe)

5:15 Finals B Flight: (DI/Imp/Pers/Pro/ADS/Dec)

6:45 Awards (or ASAP)

 

The event brackets can be rearranged based on the needs of the tournament.

If you have any questions regarding the tournament please, contact Scott Placke, PFA Executive Secretary, at 610-533-8331(Cell) for emergencies. Having last minute drops before registration, even if it is the hour before, helps make the tournament run more smoothly.

PFA TOURNAMENT RULES AND INFORMATION

1. Contestants must be undergraduate students at a college or university in Pennsylvania and may not hold a baccalaureate degree.

2. All materials must not have been used in competition prior to the 2024-2025 academic year.

3. Each school may enter a maximum of four (4) contestants per event.

4. Students may enter up to three events in a bracket. Students may not be entered in both types of debate. Students may only participate in either debate or reader’s theatre; students may not cross enter.

5. Manuscripts are to be used for all oral interpretation events.

6. Visual aids are permitted in all public address events.

7. While a distinctive competitive advantage is obvious for all memorized presentation of public address events, limited notes for these events are permitted. Contestants should be aware (especially in close rounds) that the use of notes will likely be one of the judge’s deciding factors in ranking.

8. Fees and dates:

a. All fees are to be used to cover tournament expenses. Schools will not be allowed to participate in the tournament unless their entry fees are accounted for by the tournament staff.

b. Cash is accepted and appreciated.

c. Additional drop fee invoices, if necessary, will be sent out at registration.

d. All checks should be made payable to Scott Placke. Checks made payable to West Chester University or Pennsylvania Forensic Association cannot be cashed.

e. A membership fee of $25 per school is due at registration.

f.  Tournament entry fees will be $8.00 per entry; each duo counts as one entry.

g. Quadrathon fees will be $8.00 per contestant.  Quadrathon entries will NOT count toward a school’s judging quota.

h. Entry Deadline: All entries are to be submitted on SpeechWire received by Scott Placke (PFA Executive Secretary) no later than 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 11, 2025.

i.  Drops made after this time will be charged the following fees: Drops in IE.s are $5.00 per slot through Friday at noon; $15 per slot after noon on Friday; and $25 on Saturday and at registration.  Drops in debate or reader’s theatre are $10.00 per entry through Friday at noon; $30 per entry after noon on Friday; and $50 on Saturday and at registration.  Dropped judges will result in a $50.00 fee plus the cost of covering the slots.  Please call in any changes as early as possible using the contact information listed earlier in this invitation.

9. Judging requirements:

a. Each school is required to bring at least one judge. If this is a problem, please contact Scott Placke.

b. Judging ratios: A team is only responsible for judges on days in which they have entries (ex: If team A has only debate, they are only responsible for providing judges on Saturday). Each judge covers up to 8 IE slots or up to 2 debate teams / reader’s theatre teams (depending on the day).  Each school is obligated to cover their slots or fraction thereof (e.g. 9 IE slots = 2 judges, 17 IE slots = 3 judges).  A very limited number of judges may be hired at $12.00 per uncovered IE slot or $40.00 per uncovered debate / reader’s theatre team.

c. Judges ideally should have a minimum of an undergraduate degree in communication studies or a related field.

d. Judges will be expected to cover any event, IE, Debate, Reader’s Theatre event unless limitations are indicated.  No school bringing debate teams may opt out of judging debate rounds.

e. Two rounds of preliminary competition will be held in each IE event.  Final rounds will be held in all events having more than one section of competition.  There will be four preliminary rounds of Debate and appropriate elimination rounds.

f. Schools entering speech on Sunday cannot enter competitors in one event of their choice. The restriction was decided at the 2023 coaches meeting to provide more opportunities for school judges to be able to adjudicate rounds.

10. Awards:

a. Awards will be given to the top six students in each event based on the results of the final round.  Each member of a duo will receive an award.  All debaters advancing to elimination rounds will receive awards. The top reader’s theatre team will receive a group award.

b. Quadrathon: Students entered in four or more events qualify for quadrathon.  If a student has more than four events, points will be counted from only the top four. A genre requirement of at least 2 genres is also required.  If a competitor has more than four events only the four best within genres would be used to calculate points. Parli and IPDA count as a limited preparation event. Reader’s Theatre counts as an interpretive event. 

c. Sweepstakes awards will be given to the top six schools in Open Division and the top three schools in President’s Division comprised of the 50% of schools with the smallest entries at the close of entries at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 11.  No entry additions will be accepted after that time.

1.)   Only a school’s top two speakers in any event will count toward the school’s sweepstakes total from preliminary rounds.

2.)   All students in final rounds contribute to sweepstakes.

3.)   Preliminary round counts for individual events:

1st place = 3 points

2nd place = 2 points

3rd place = 1 points

4.)   Preliminary round counts for Debate

Win = 2 points

Loss = 0 points

5.)   Final Round counts for individual events:

1st place = 12 points

2nd place = 10 points

3rd place = 8 points

4th place = 7 points

5th place = 5 points

6th place = 3 points

6.)   Elimination round counts for Debate:

1st place = 10 points

2nd place = 8 points

Semifinalist = 6 points

Quarterfinalist = 4 points

d. The speakers in each event qualify for the National Forensic Association or American Forensic Association Championships based on each organization’s rules. Go to http://www.mnsu.edu/cmst/niet/eventdescriptions-new09-10.htm for AFA event descriptions or http:// http://www.nationalforensics.org/ for NFA event rules.

e. The top two contestants in persuasive speaking will represent the State of Pennsylvania at the Interstate Oratorical Contest, usually the weekend after the NFA Championships.  In the event that one or both of these students cannot attend, the remaining finalists will serve as alternates in descending order of tournament rank.  The PFA will pay all entry/registration fees for the students.  The PFA will also contribute $200.00 to help cover costs for each contestant if tournament revenues are sufficient.

11. Impromptu Prompts: Round 1 - Quotations; Round 2 - Proverbs; Finals - Single words

12. Declamation - This event involves the oral interpretation of a public address. The chosen speech may be contemporary or historical, but, either way, the selection should be in some manner significant—politically so, historically so, socially so, or an excellent example of a genre. As with other interpretive events, the competitor may choose to deliver the speech as it might originally have been or to offer a fresh interpretation of it. A brief, original introduction should precede the speech. It is included in the competitor’s time.  The use of manuscript is required.  Ten minutes maximum.

Parliamentary Debate: Rules & Procedures

1. Each debate team shall consist of two people prepared to debate as either the Government or Opposition. Tournament postings will identify which side of the debate each team will be on or it is a round in which teams flip for sides. 

2. There will be four preliminary rounds at the tournament and the appropriate number of elimination rounds based upon entry.  With respect to the types of resolutions that will be used, there will be specific rounds for policy, fact, value, and metaphor resolutions.

3. For topic selection the teams will have one list with the three topic choices. The Opposition team  will have one minute to strike one of the three choices.  Immediately following the Opposition strike  the Government team will then have one minute to read and strike one of the two remaining topics.  The remaining topic after the Government strike will be the official resolution for the round.                                          

4. Teams shall be given thirty minutes preparation time for the debate after the resolution has been read into the round. The Government team reserves the right to prepare in the competition room if they like.  If the Government team uses the debating room for preparation, both the judge and the opposition must vacate the room until the time for the debate to begin.                                            

5. No coaching is allowed in Parliamentary Debate during preparation time. Judges will patrol prep time in order to ensure compliance with these rules.                     

6. Internet research is allowed during parliamentary preparation time. Use of almanacs is also strongly encouraged.                              

7. For rules other than those listed above (i.e. Points of Information procedure), the NPDA constitution, by-laws and guidelines (most recently updated) shall be followed for the tournament.                                                                                             

8. Format of the debate   (there is not prep time between speeches)

- First Government Constructive Speech: 7 minutes
- First Opposition Constructive Speech: 8 minutes
- Second Government Constructive Speech: 8 minutes
- Second Opposition Constructive Speech: 8 minutes
- Opposition Rebuttal by First Opposition Speaker: 4 minutes
- Government Rebuttal by First Government Speaker: 5 minutes

IPDA Debate: Rules & Procedures

A. Debaters will be presented with three resolutions. Both debaters will alternatively strike one resolution each, starting with the negative. The 30-minute preparation period begins at the first negative strike. We will follow the time constraints set forth by the IPDA: 5-2-6-2-3-5-3. 

B. During prep time, students are allowed to access any prepared material and/or electronic materials. This includes access to the Internet. In addition, students are allowed to prep with other students, but NOT COACHES. 

C. All preliminary rounds will be randomly preset. Brackets will NOT be broken in elimination rounds. 

D. There will be a designated room for topic draw. Students MUST report there ON TIME for draw! IPDA will most likely be flighted so students should note which flight they are. Further info can be found at www.ipdadebate.info 

Reader’s Theatre: 

Reader’s Theatre is defined as interpretation of literature by a group of oral readers who act as a medium of expression for an audience. While reader’s theatre is both oral and visual, the emphasis is on the oral interpretation of the printed word and its resultant effects on the minds, emotions, and imaginations of the listeners/viewers. The audience should have the feeling of a unified whole in which each performer at all times contributes to the total effect desired. The time limitation for the performance is 25 minutes. An additional two minutes shall be allowed for both set-up an takedown of material. Reader’s theatre entries must include a minimum of three and a maximum of 14 participants. Students may not enter more than one reader’s theatre. Programs (handouts) are not allowed in this event. 

Mechanics of Presentation are Limited as Follows: 

1. The audience must have a sense of production being interpreted from a manuscript. Director, performer, and judges should be allowed freedom to exercise artistic, interpretive judgment; however, manuscripts must be interpreted from during the presentation. 

2. Suggestions in contemporary or ensemble dress may be used. The literature should determine the nature of this suggestion, although costuming should not be a focus of the presentation.

3. Reading stands, chairs, stools, ladders, platforms, steps, props, and/or lighting effects may be used. However, the limitation of facilities (space, time, equipment, etc.) should govern a director’s concept. 

4. Readers may sit, stand, or both and may move from one reading stand or locale to another so long as the movement is consistent with the ideas or moods of the literature and the director’s concept. 

5. Music/sound effects, recorded or live, are acceptable as background accompaniment and part of the context. 

6. A performer whose sole function is to play a musical instrument on or off stage will be counted in the total number of performers. A Note on Recent Changes to Parliam 

Manager contact information

Scott Placke
Email address: plackeh@lafayette.edu
Phone number: 6105338331

Mailing address

None provided