• Home
  • About
    • Meet Our Coaches
    • Why Speech and Debate
    • What is Speech and Debate? >
      • Speech Events
      • Debate Events
    • Why Golden State Academy
    • Tournament Photos
    • Tournament results
    • FAQ
  • Forms
  • Registration
    • MS/HS Spring 2023
    • Late MS/HS Spring 2023
    • Elementary Spring 2023
    • Private Coaching >
      • Speech Private Coaching
      • Debate Private Coaching
    • Elementary Summer 2023
    • Ohlone Summer 2023
    • MS/HS Summer 2023
    • GSA Tournaments
  • Store
  • Blog
  • Career Opportunities
  • Newsletter
The Golden State Academy
  • Home
  • About
    • Meet Our Coaches
    • Why Speech and Debate
    • What is Speech and Debate? >
      • Speech Events
      • Debate Events
    • Why Golden State Academy
    • Tournament Photos
    • Tournament results
    • FAQ
  • Forms
  • Registration
    • MS/HS Spring 2023
    • Late MS/HS Spring 2023
    • Elementary Spring 2023
    • Private Coaching >
      • Speech Private Coaching
      • Debate Private Coaching
    • Elementary Summer 2023
    • Ohlone Summer 2023
    • MS/HS Summer 2023
    • GSA Tournaments
  • Store
  • Blog
  • Career Opportunities
  • Newsletter

    BERMAN SPEECH INVITATIONAL ​

    27 February 2021

    DEADLINE
    To register: 19 Feb 2021
    ​​To drop: 21 Feb 2021
    ELIGIBILITY
    Open to middle and high school students
    PLATFORM
    Online through NSDA Campus

    Information

    Greetings to All,

    El Cerrito High School Speech and Debate and public speaking non-profit The Practice Space welcome you to attend our Berman Speech Invitational, a one-day tournament to encourage participation in individual events. The tournament will feature traditional 7-10 minute long California speech events, in addition to shorter 3-5 minute unconventional events in poetry, storytelling, and issue speeches. This tournament is open to middle and high school students. Novices are particularly encouraged to attend.

    The tournament will be held on Saturday, February 27, 2021, online using NSDA Campus. All speech events will be performed live (no videos required).

    Cathy and Sandy Berman were beloved long-time coaches here at El Cerrito, who were both devoted to promoting diversity and inclusion in the speech and debate community. We dedicate this tournament to them to continue their legacy of helping every student use their voice. This tournament will also feature a lunch-time guest speaker, Patrick Seals, a former speech and debate competitor and expert storyteller, who will be delivering inspirational remarks on life after forensics.

    Speech Events
    Conventional Events (5-10 minutes long)
    • Dramatic Interpretation (DI): a 10-min dramatic performance of a published piece.
    • Humorous Interpretation (HI): a 10-min humorous performance of a published piece.
    • Oratorical Interpretation (OI): a 10-min performance of a speech by a famous speaker.
    • Expository Speaking (EXPOS): a 10-min original speech to inform about a topic.
    • Original Oratory (OO): a 10-min original persuasive speech by the student, drawing attention to a societal issue or problem.
    • ​Impromptu Speaking (IMP): a 5-minute original speech by the student, prepared in only 2 minutes out of a choice of 3 prompts.
    • Extemporaneous Speaking (EXTEMP): a 7-minute original speech commenting about domestic and international events, prepared in 30 minutes out of a choice of 3 prompts.

    Divisions
    We plan to offer novice and varsity divisions in all events, but reserve the right to collapse divisions based on entries. Novice is defined as the first year of competition. This tournament is especially geared towards novices and first-time competitors.

    Double and Triple Entry, and Beyond
    Competitors may enter as many events as they like, as long as they are responsible for being in the right place at the right time.

    Finals and Awards Ceremony
    Each event will have 3 preliminary rounds of competition, with no final rounds. Awards will also be presented via livestream. Instead of finals, the top speaker in each event will be featured in a public livestream performance at a later date (with permission).

    ​
    We look forward to seeing you on February 27th!
    AnnMarie Baines, Speech Tournament Director
    El Cerrito Speech and Debate Team
    The Practice Space Team

    ​Entry Price

    One speech event $70
    Two speech events $85
    Three speech events $100

    If you don't provide a judge, you will pay an additional $70

    Registration will not be complete until payment is received.
    NOTE: We will charge set up fees if we have to create tabroom.com accounts for judges. It is recommended you do so on your own.

    Schedule

    Please note that all times are in PACIFIC STANDARD TIME (PST).
    ​
    Events
    DI, HI, OI, OO, Imp, Extemp

    Tentative Schedule
    8:30am: Check-In through GSA Slack
    9:00am - 11:00am: Round 1
    11:00am - 12:00pm: Lunchtime Guest Speaker
    12:00pm - 3:00pm: Rounds 2 and 3
    4:00pm: Awards

    Drop Fee

    Drop fees will be the same amounts as the entry fee PLUS any fees the tournament charges us for late drops. Drop requests should be made to Victor and Nadia.

    Please do not drop out last minute to avoid being charged these fees.

    Contact Info

    Victor Rivas Umana
    Contact email:  vrivasumana@tgsastaff.com

    Nadia Budiman 
    Contact email: nbudiman@tgsastaff.com

    Or info@tgsastaff.com

    Registration Form


    STUDENT INFORMATION

    PARENT CONTACT INFORMATION
    Your email address will be the one included when we send the logistics email.

    EVENT SELECTION
    Make sure you have checked the double-entry policies. We are not responsible for schedule conflicts.
    Descriptions of each speech event can be read above.

    ​JUDGE PROVISION
    Signing up a judge without having a Tabroom account will result in us charging you for the set up fee. You can do this easily on your own by going to tabroom.com. It takes less than a minute.

    First time judging? Click here to learn how to do it! Or watch our Youtube playlist here.

    ​This tournament requires judges to have a paradigm on their Tabroom account, which can be a few sentences on your preferences of debating styles, etc. See here for example. It doesn't need to be this long, but make sure to add something before you sign up. For example: 
    "I am a parent, please speak clearly and slowly and avoid technical jargon".

    TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Submit/take to payment

We would love to have you visit soon at one of our open houses.
Check our home page for the schedule!


School year Hours

M-F: 3:45 pm - 8:30 pm 
Sun: 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Telephone

510-270-8480
510-470-0531

Email (preferred)

For more info email us at: info@tgsastaff.com

Locations

Fremont: 200 Brown Rd #201, Fremont, CA 94539

Cupertino: 20432 Silverado Avenue Suite 211, Cupertino, CA 95014

Aborn Institute: 2804 Riedel Road, San Jose, CA 95135 
  • Home
  • About
    • Meet Our Coaches
    • Why Speech and Debate
    • What is Speech and Debate? >
      • Speech Events
      • Debate Events
    • Why Golden State Academy
    • Tournament Photos
    • Tournament results
    • FAQ
  • Forms
  • Registration
    • MS/HS Spring 2023
    • Late MS/HS Spring 2023
    • Elementary Spring 2023
    • Private Coaching >
      • Speech Private Coaching
      • Debate Private Coaching
    • Elementary Summer 2023
    • Ohlone Summer 2023
    • MS/HS Summer 2023
    • GSA Tournaments
  • Store
  • Blog
  • Career Opportunities
  • Newsletter