PBCFL #1

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General information

This is a High School tournament in Florida.

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Palm Beach Catholic Forensic League Tournament Invitation

PBCFL #1 - The Congressional

DATE: Saturday, September 14 @ Suncoast High School, 1717 Avenue S, Riviera Beach, FL 33404

ARRIVE NO EARLIER THAN 7:45am.

REGISTRATION takes place in the Cafeteria.

REGISTRATION CLOSES AT 8:30am.

JUDGE CALL is at 8:30am in the Media Center.

THE MORNING SESSION starts at 9am.

TOURNAMENT GUIDELINES:

• This is a mixed varsity-novice tournament.
• Any student, varsity or novice, will be allowed to compete in Congressional Debate.
• Varsity may be designated as Novice Congress Presiding Officer Candidates.
• Varsity Congress students will be entered in a "Senate."
• Novice Congress students will be entered in a "House."
• A "novice" is considered any student who is in their first year of high school debate competition.
• Legislation will be posted as full-text on the PBCFL website (www.pbcfl.net) .
• NEW COACHES (first- and second-year in particular) should plan on judging.
• There will be a Judge Training Workshop at this tournament, but adults do not need to register in advance.

ENTRY PROCEDURES and REGISTRATION INFORMATION:

• You may enter unlimited entries in Congressional Debate.
• No changes will be made after the Tuesday 3 p.m. drop deadline, as we want to post chambers that afternoon/evening ... please plan accordingly.
• Double-check your registration. No student will be added to the tournament on the morning of the tournament.
• FOR CONGRESS: Coaches must designate varsity who choose to perform as Presiding Officers in Novice Houses. To do so, register them as "Congress - Novice Chamber PO Candidate" entries.
• After this is done, make sure to set your Chamber/PO preferences. To do this, go to TOURNAMENT HOME, then select CHAMBER/PO PREFERENCES. Designate your "Congress - Novice Chamber PO Candidate" entries as "Willing to PO" in the drop-down box.
• Coaches do NOT need to designate POs for varsity Senates.

PREPARATIONS BEFORE THE TOURNAMENT:

• Assign the sponsorship 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, or is listed in the wrong event or experience status, they will NOT be added or changed on the morning of the tournament.
• Make sure you tell us who your student judges are (juniors or seniors with 150+ NSDA points) when registering them - include info in the notes section.
• Make sure all your students have signed a behavior/attire contract.

REGISTRATION ON SATURDAY:

• Arrive at Suncoast NO EARLIER than 7:45am.
• 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.

JUDGE QUOTAS:

• CONGRESS: 1 judge per every 10 entries or fraction thereof
• Register ALL judges on Speechwire.
• Make sure you distinguish any varsity student judge from adult judges when registering on Speechwire by informing us in the "notes" section. At this tournament, varsity students may only Novice Congress.
• PLEASE ENTER ACCURATE JUDGE EMAIL ADDRESSES INTO SPEECHWIRE (they all need to have an individual Speechwire account to access and submit electronic ballots).

JUDGE TRAINING WORKSHOP:

Judge Trainee Workshop participants do NOT need to be regisatered in advance. However, coaches do need to order adult lunches for them.

JUDGES ENTERED FOR THE JUDGE TRAINING WORKSHOP DO NOT COUNT TOWARD A SCHOOL'S REQUIRE JUDGE COUNT. YOU MUST ENTER TRAINED JUDGES TO MEET YOUR QUOTA!

ENTRY FEES:

Each school's PBCFL membership fees ($75) and league data card must have been received by PBCFL Treasurer Daryl Hall by Tuesday, September 10, in order to compete at the tournament. Schools that do not achieve both of these will be ineligible to compete, and any registered students and judges will be dropped from the tournament.

$20 per student, includes meals

MEALS:

$10 for adult meals. Coaches must order meals for all entries, adult judges, judge trainees, and coaches.

Once registration closes that Tuesday at 3 p.m., schools are responsible to pay for all meals.

STUDENT LUNCHES: Pizza (Cheese or Pepperoni)

ADULT LUNCHES: Buffet

DROP FEES:

Tuesday, September 10, at 3 p.m. is the deadline for registering students. At this time, schools are responsible for the lunch fee (students, judges, coaches, observers), even if they are dropped from the tournament.

Wednesday, September 11, at 3 p.m. is the last opportunity to drop students before the website shuts down. At this time, schools are responsible for the full $20 registration/lunch fee, plus 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).

CONGRESS-SPECIFIC INFORMATION:

All full-text legislation must be emailed as a Microsoft Word attachment in the proper format no later than 3pm FRIDAY, AUGUST 23. Legislation submitted in PDF format will be rejected. 

Send legislation to pbcflcongress@gmail.com.

NOTE: All legislation must be Federal in nature. No State legislation is allowed.

NOTE: Good legislation has solid arguments on BOTH SIDES. For example, “increasing the penalty on drunken drivers” is heavily weighted towards the affirmative. “Confiscating the cars of drunken 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

"Ageism" legislation (Require Drivers over 65 Retest for Driver’s License, Raise or Lower the Voting Age, Lower the Drinking Age, etc.)

Institute Stem Cell Research

Ban Animal Testing

Ban the Death Penalty

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. It is imperative you designate your legislation clearly.

ACTIVE LEGISLATION:

Legislation should be up and running through the PBCFL web site (www.pbcfl.net) and on Speechwire by Wednesday, August 27. Coaches will be notified via email when the legislation is active.

Varsity will set an agenda on the day of the tournament; the novice chambers will have pre-set randomized agendas set by the PBCFL.

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.

PRESIDING OFFICERS:

The following is required of all Novice Chamber Presiding Officer candidates:

Coaches must register varsity students as novice chamber Presiding Officer Candidates in advance of the tournament.

The PO candidate MUST be trained properly in advance by his/her coach.

All presiding officers MUST be able to adequately control the chamber. They MUST be VERY familiar with parliamentary procedure. They MUST use a FAIR system of RECENCY. They MUST understand how to document a speaking system on a seating chart. They MUST know all rules of Student Congress.

PO candidates should know how to incorproate Direct Questioning during the round, as its usage is required now.

Do NOT put students unfamiliar with the event in this position.

Varsity serving as Novice chamber presiding officers WILL be assigned to a novice House chamber for the entire tournament.

League officers reserve the right to designate POs for novice chambers from the designees.

There is no guarantee PO candidates will be used to preside over novice chambers.

Coaches do not need to designate POs to preside in varsity chambers.

CHAMBER REMINDERS:

Direct Questioning is now required as part of chamber proceedings.

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 NOT reset after lunch.

Recesses are allowed under PBCFL rules, with a maximum of 10 minutes of recess per 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.

Manager contact information

Traci Lowe
Email address: traci.lowe@palmbeachschools.org
Phone number: 561-889-3649

Mailing address

c/o Daryl Hall
325 Orange Way
West Palm Beach, FL 33405