Greetings Area Speech Coaches,

 

 

The 2025 Burwell Speech meet will be on Saturday, February 15th in Burwell.  We welcome new teams to our meet and would love to host your team.  

 

Burwell Public Schools works hard to ensure a quality meet for you and your team. Please review our updated meet letter to ensure that we can meet the needs of all teams attending our meet. We strive to meet all levels of fair play and sportsmanship.   

 

The Burwell Invitational Speech Meet will be held on Saturday, February 15, 2025  at Burwell High School. Please note we are using online registration.

 

For 2025 the base camp will be the high school and the elementary will only be used for morning rounds to 1 pm.

 

We will run an open meet and varsity and novice speaking will be competing in the same round. We will be giving a top novice award in each event. On the day of the meet, you will mark your novice students at check-in. Please note for the top novice award in duet and OID, all team members must be novice speakers.  Novice speakers are defined as students who are out for speech for the first time in NSAA speech this season.

 

Entry fees will be $10.00 for all events. Refunds will not be given for cancellations. Substitutions straight across can be used the day of the meet if a person is in the same event. No adds on the day of the meet. Entries will be due Sunday, February 9th, 2025.  Entry fees will be set the WEDNESDAY at 7am prior to the meet.

 

Each school needs to provide one qualified judge for every six entries or pay $90.00 per judge. We ask that you remind any judge used, they must follow all NSAA rules and fill out ballots in a complete manner and if needed give additional feedback if requested by the tabulation staff.   A full and complete ballot is for the benefit of all students at the meet and schools are paying entry and judge fees for this insight.  Writing vague and general feedback will not be allowed.  Judges should also act at all times at the meet in a professional manner towards students, coaches, tabulation staff, and others in attendance.  Judges are expected to remain at the meet through the end of finals and judge events as requested by the meet. Please do not let your judges switch rounds after they pick-up schedules without a notification to tabulation staff. 

 

A limited number of judges are available for purchase. If you have any extra judges, let me know and I'll be glad to pay them at our school’s speech judge rate. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE JUDGES YOU INTEND TO BRING TO THE MEET. ¨IF YOU DO NOT ARRIVE WITH THE NUMBER OF JUDGES THAT YOU SPECIFIED IN YOUR ENTRY, YOU WILL BE BILLED ACCORDINGLY.  

 

If you must DROP a judge PLEASE call this in BEFORE you arrive, this will greatly alleviate problems of reslateing judges for the event.  Judges dropped any time after Wednesday at 7am will need to remit the fee for that judge and an extra fee for needing to locate another judge.  If a full team drops, judge fees will still apply once the meet is set on Thursday night.  THE ONLY EXCEPTION is for weather team drops done for weather the day of the meet.   

 

All payments should be handed in at meet check-in and if it is not remitted should be within one week! 

 

We will offer all nine Nebraska School Activities Association (NSAA) speech events plus impromptu speaking. We will follow ALL NSAA rules on NSAA events. Extemporaneous speakers will have one hour of prep time.  Extemporaneous speakers must make draw times on time to speak.  Impromptu is a solo event and will be 3-5 min. humorous topics with a 5 min. prep time. Please contact me if you would like to see a ballot.

 

BRACKET A                                BRACKET B

Humorous Prose                            Extemporaneous Speaking

Persuasive Speaking                    Informative Speaking

Serious Prose                              Poetry

OID                                    Entertainment

Impromptu                                  Duet

        Program of Interpretation * new for 2023

 

Please be mindful of the students you allow to triple.  Due to the campus layout, we ask that extempers only double-enter the meet.  

 

 Inform your participants that they will have only one hour to perform for the judge, as judges will be instructed to wait one hour and no longer for students double entered. Some events are at the grade school across the street.  If you have a student or judge who may have a hard time getting around, let me know so that I can make sure to schedule them in the high school only or on ground floors only. Please give this notice the Monday before the meet to help in event planning.  Any NSAA waivers for performance rule amendments must also be in the Monday prior to the meet to ensure that proper communication is being shared with our meet event staff and judges at the meet.  

 

Schedules will be given out the day of the meet. Registration will be between 7:00-7:45 with the first round starting at 8:00. Drop will be posted on the wall.  Any moves in entries will be posted.

 

Medals will be awarded for the first through sixth place in each individual event and in duet acting and drama. Plaques will be given to the top two teams. Section winners in rounds will be given ribbons. Top novice award will also be given.

 

 

We will have a homeroom area in the high school gym throughout the day. Please no loud TVs, radios, video games or music players due to nearby rooms being used for speaking. Cell phones should be off during rounds. We would like all competitors to remain in speech rounds until they are over to provide a courteous audience for all speakers. The only exception is if a contestant is double or triple-entered. Please remind students to be quiet when traveling through the halls.

 

We will have a concession stand for students and a lounge for judges and coaches.

 

If the weather is bad, we will email you, so put the number of the person to contact on the sheet accompanying the entry forms when you sign up on www.tabroom-staff.com. If you are unsure of the weather, call Candace Cain at the number listed below.  

 

We are looking forward to hosting your team at our meet.    Good luck during your season!

 

Candace Cain, Head Speech Coach

Cell 402-340-2618

School: 308-346-4150 E-mail:Candace.cain@burwellpublicschools.com

 

(vr24)