Dear Forensic Moderators and Coaches:

 

The Phillipsburg High School Forensics Team cordially invites you to the Phillipsburg Fall Invitational on Saturday, October 26, 2019.  We hope you can join us for an educational and enjoyable day of forensics competition amid stunning vistas at our new high school.

 

We are offering competition in Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum, as well as Congressional and Parliamentary debate.  There will be eleven individual events  including Humorous Interpretation, Dramatic Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Oral Interpretation, Original Oratory, Extemporaneous Speaking, Declamation*(OPEN TO 9^TH &10^TH GRADERS ONLY), Program Oral Interpretation, Impromptu, Improvisational Acting, and Informative Speaking.

NEW THIS YEAR--Parliamentary Debate

We are offering this fun, extemporaneous debate event in an effort to interest more students in World Schools debate, a similar style, and to emphasize that strong argumentation, explanation, & delivery is what makes debate an enjoyable event for both competitors and judges alike!  In this event, the 2-person team affirming the resolution is the government and the 2-person team negating is the opposition.  After the topic is announced, the teams have 15 minutes to prepare before the debate commences.  A parli debate information guide will be posted on Speechwire to help you prepare your students.  Please encourage them to try parli since no prior preparation is required.

E-BALLOTS

We will be using e-ballots with Speechwire for both speech and debate.  We need you, the coaches and moderators, to ensure clear communication to your judges about this.  Please ask your judges to ensure that they bring a device on which they can complete their ballots, as well as any necessary equipment (i.e. chargers) and provide judges’ emails at registration.  E-ballots are easy to use and have been used successfully at the national and state tournaments.  We will train all judges on the process the morning of the tournament, and we will also have paper ballots as backups if any judge needs one. 

 

COMPETITION

There will be three preliminary rounds and a final round in all individual speech events, as well as two sessions & a final round of Congress.  There will be four double-flighted rounds of LD and PF debate.  Each will have 3 divisions:  novice, JV, & varsity.  Novice is only open to 9^th or 10^th graders in their first year of debate.  There will be 5 rounds of parliamentary debate. Awards will be presented to the top six competitors in each event and the top three schools.  In addition, top advancing novices will also receive awards.

Food will be available all day for students to purchase in the cafeteria.  All judges and coaches will be served complimentary breakfast items, snacks, and a full lunch in the teachers’ lunchroom.  We kindly request that you eat all food in the cafeteria or common area, and do not take any food into the auditorium.    

 

All NSDA and NJSDL rules for registration, source integrity, ethics, and timing are in effect.  We will be using the NSDA Pilot Rules concerning PF times, making each summary speech and each team’s prep time 3 minutes.  If you have any questions, please consult the official NSDA and/or NJSDL rules or contact us if you need clarification.

ALL Lincoln-Douglas debaters (THIS INCLUDES NOVICE) will be debating the September/October resolution:
Resolved: In the United States, colleges and universities ought not consider standardized tests in undergraduate admissions decisions.         WE WILL NOT BE USING THE NSDA NOVICE LD TOPIC.

All Public Forum debaters will be debating the September/October resolution:  Resolved: The European Union should join the Belt and Road Initiative.

REGISTRATION

All registration must be done online at www.SpeechWire.com.  If you need assistance using this site, let us know.  Only 6 entries per school per category will be registered.  The rest will be placed on a waitlist, subject to room and judge availability.  Coaches will be notified if and when students are removed from the waitlist. 

Students may double enter in any of the speech events but may not double enter if competing in student congress or debate (LD, PF, or Parli).  Mavericks in PF are not permitted.   We ask that you make sure to mark all your novice speech competitors (in their first year of competition) in registration so that we can recognize the highest-placing novice at awards or hold novice honors rounds if numbers allow it. 

Registration will begin Saturday at 8:00 a.m. and continue until 8:45 a.m.  We hope to begin Round 1 promptly at 9:30.  A complete tournament schedule will be available on speechwire.com. 

DEADLINES

Please submit all Congress bills to fraulaurie@hotmail.com by Friday, October 18.  We will upload the bills to SpeechWire by Saturday, October 19th.  We will try to utilize all pieces of legislation submitted, but if the number is excessive, some may not be used. 

Entry deadline is Wednesday, October 23, 2019 @ 3pm.  We will begin to assess nuisance fees for any registration changes other than name changes after 12 pm on Friday, Oct. 25, 2019.

 

FEES

Please present payment in the form of cash, check, or purchase order on the day of the tournament.  Make payments out to:  Phillipsburg Forensics Team

• School entry fee--$20 per school
• Individual Speakers (including Congress)--$10 per entry
• All LD Debaters & Duo Competitors--$15 per entry
• All PF and Parli Teams--$20 per entry
• Administrative Fees    
  • Late entry fee--$10 per entry after 12 pm on 10/25
  • Drop fee--$10 per entry after 12 pm on 10/25
  • Entire school late withdrawal fee—50% of full invoice after 12 pm on 10/25; 100% for day-of or no show
• Judge fees
• $90 per missing judge, per requirements below
• $125 dropped & non-replaced judge after 12 pm on 10/25
• $20 per missed judge call

 

JUDGES/JUDGING QUOTAS

LD Debate

• Teams must provide 1 judge for every 3 entries or fraction thereof.
• Student debaters with at least 2 full years of experience may judge Novice LD or Novice PF ONLY, as long as they are clearly marked in registration notes.  Failure to do so may result in a judge fee being assessed. 
• Student judges cannot be used to fulfill judging obligations for JV & Varsity entries

PF & Parliamentary Debate

• 1 judge for every 3 teams or fraction thereof.
• No student judges allowed for Parli but student judges may be used for Novice PF.

IE Events and Congress

• Teams must provide 1 judge for every 5 entries or fraction thereof.
• No student judges allowed

Judge Requests

• Deadline for Hired Judge requests—Tuesday, October 22, 2019. 
• If you have any extra judges, please call or email Laurie Schmid

**Please stress to your judges that they are obligated for the entire tournament and must be available to judge the final round of any event. 

When registering your judges, if you have a judge who is able to judge your own team without conflict, please mark him or her as “Clean” on the drop-down menu.

We may be forced to assign judges based on need, regardless of category.  This is something we will try never to do, but if circumstances demand it, it would be helpful for coaches to let us know of any judges who would feel comfortable doing other events.  However, speech judges will be used to judge Congress rounds.  Please let your judges know this.

 

A short judges training will be held Saturday morning at 9 am., primarily to answer any general questions and explain e-balloting.  Please make sure your judges are trained prior to the tournament because we will not have the time to adequately train them before the tournament begins.  There are a number of judges training sessions that are being offered throughout the month of October.  Please see the NJSDL website for the dates.   

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