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PBCFL Grand Finals
General information This is a High School tournament in Florida. View manager contact information The Palm Beach Catholic Forensic League The Barbara Dale Lauder McCall "Grand Finals" Tournament DATE: Saturday, March 8, 2025 @ Olympic Heights High School, 20101 Lyons Rd, Boca Raton, FL 33434 You are invited to attend the Palm Beach Catholic Forensic League Grand Finals competition 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 Chicago, over Memorial Day Weekend (May 24-25). 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. No student shall be allowed to compete in the Grand Finals tournament if their school has not attained league membership by the NCFL deadline AND if they have not competed in at least TWO NCFL tournaments that season. One league tournament consists of four (4) rounds or a complete Congressional Debate day where the individual earned points. Competition at no more than one reciprocal CFL tournament may count toward the two-tournament requirement. Competition at a Florida Forensic League (FFL) regional tournament, a National Speech & Debate Association (NSDA) tournament, or any other non-PBCFL function, may not count toward this two-tournament requirement 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. NOTE: Informative Speaking, Program of Oral Interpretation, and World Schools Debate are NOT offered. No double entry allowed. Entry limits: maximum of six entries per event per school. You may only enter a maximum of 3 students per congress chamber. (The PBCFL reserves the right to collapse houses and modify this rule when necessary.)
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. 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 3 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
ENTRY FEES:
$20 per student MEALS: $10 for adult meals. Coaches must order meals for all entries, adult judges, judge trainees, and coaches. Students: Pizza - Cheese and Pepperoni Adults: Publix buffet DROP FEES: Tuesday, March 4, at 3 p.m. is the deadline for registering students. At this time, schools are responsible for the $10 lunch fee (students, judges, coaches, observers), even if they are dropped from the tournament. Wednesday, March 5, 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 registration fee, the $10 lunch fee, and a $10 drop fee ($30 total per student). $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). TOPIC AREAS: EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEAKING: TBD LINCOLN DOUGLAS DEBATE: The March/April topic. Resolved: The development of Artificial General Intelligence is immoral. PUBLIC FORUM DEBATE: The March topic. Resolved: In the United States, the benefits of the use of generative artificial intelligence in education outweigh the harms.
CONGRESS-SPECIFIC INFORMATION:
All full-text legislation must be emailed as a Microsoft Word attachment in the proper format no later than 3pm FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21. Send legislation to pbcflcongress@gmail.com. NOTE: All legislation must be Federal in nature. No State legislation is allowed. NOTE: Good legislation has good arguments on BOTH SIDES. For example, “increasing the penalty on drunk drivers” is heavily weighted towards the affirmative. “Confiscating the cars of drunk drivers” has room for negative arguments. THE FOLLOWING TOPICS ARE PROHIBITED DUE TO HAVING BEEN DONE WAY TOO MANY TIMES IN THE PAST! 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 DeathPenalty Ban Abortion ANYTHING relating to the current Public Forum Debate topic ANYTHING relating to the current Lincoln Douglas Debate topic Schools may send no more than ONE piece of legislation for this tournament. ACTIVE LEGISLATION: Legislation should be up and running through the PBCFL web site (www.pbcfl.net) and on Speechwire by Wednesday, February 26. You will be notified via email when the legislation is active. Mixed chambers will set an agenda on the day of the tournament. LEGISLATION TEMPLATES: Legislative templates are available for use on http://www.pbcfl.net; they can be accessed through the "Legislation" link. Improperly formatted legislation can be rejected at the discretion of league officers. CONGRESS CHAMBER REMINDERS: Extending the questioning period is not allowed, nor are two-part questions. All authorship/sponsorship and first-negative speeches have a mandatory two-minute questioning period. All other speeches have a mandatory one-minute questioning period. Each legislative item must go through at least one complete cycle (three speeches). Recency does reset after lunch. Recesses are allowed under PBCFL rules, with a maximum of 10 minutes of recess per session. Students are encoraged to wait until the recess is called and NOT to move to a point of personal privilege during a session, as to maintaikn a smoother flow during the session. At least 2 hours of debate must take place each session. Recess time is included in this total. The 2 hours begins once the first speech of a session begins. There is 30 minutes prior to the morning session that should be used for electing presiding officers, setting dockets, etc. Traci Lowe Mailing address c/o Daryl Hall SpeechWire Tournament Services - Copyright 2004-2025 Ben Stewart. All Rights Reserved. Terms of use - Privacy and Security Policy
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