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The Golden State Academy
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    48TH ANNUAL HARVARD NATIONAL FORENSICS TOURNAMENT​

    18-21 February 2022

    DEADLINE
    12 February 2022
    NO REFUNDS AFTER 2/12
    ELIGIBILITY
    Open to middle and high school students
    PLATFORM
    Online through classrooms.cloud and Zoom

    Information

    We are delighted to invite you to attend the Forty-Eighth annual Harvard National Forensics Tournament, which will be held online on Presidents' Day Weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, & Monday, February 18-21, 2022.
    We have several announcements concerning this year’s tournament.

    First, once again this year’s tournament will be conducted online via the classrooms.cloud platform. We look forward to the opportunity to host everyone back in person in Cambridge in 2023.

    We have made the decision to go with classrooms.cloud because it is the best way to administer the tournament. However, this system, along with staff necessary to run the tournament, incurs considerable expenses. We will also be shipping our customary awards to all students who qualify for any elimination rounds. These will be mailed to the school.
    ​
    We will continue to offer a Middle School Public Forum division and a Middle School Congressional Debate division open to students in the sixth through eighth grades. We will continue to have international breakout elimination rounds in the Junior Varsity Public Forum division. We will continue to offer two additional divisions in policy: novice and Spanish language debate (debate en espanol). We will not be offering Duo Interpretation this year.

    All judges will be required to use electronic ballots in all divisions and to judge rounds via the classrooms.cloud zoom platform.
    Lastly, JV/Var Public Forum and JV/Var Lincoln-Douglas divisions will begin on Friday, February 18, 2022.


    Due to scheduling conflicts, no student may enter more than one of the following tournaments.

    • The Public Forum Debate Tournament
    Location: Online
    There will be four divisions of public forum debate – varsity, junior varsity, novice, and middle school – on the February National Speech and Debate Association topic. In the Junior Varsity division, there will be an international schools breakout division in the elimination rounds. To be eligible to participate in the breakout, students must attend a school located outside of the United States and indicate so when entering the tournament. All divisions will use National Speech & Debate Association time format and rules. We encourage coaches to enter students in the division that best approximates their skill and experience level, and we leave that judgment up to you.
    The novice division is intended for high school students in their first year of competition. The middle school division is intended for students in the sixth through eighth grade.  Ordinarily, students must attend the same school to compete as a team. However, we will accept entries from clubs or other debate organizations provided that the schools represented do not otherwise have a debate team.
    Vital Stats:  Varsity and Junior Varsity: 7 Preliminary Rounds, Clear to Triple Octafinals.  We will add a partial quad round if necessary in order to clear all 5-2s up to 128 seeds. Novice and Middle School 5 preliminary rounds, clear to Triple Octa-finals.  JV International Schools – Breakout to Quarterfinals. No Entry Limits.
     
    • The Lincoln-Douglas Debate Tournament
    Location: Online
    There will be two divisions, varsity and junior-varsity. Both will use the January-February National Speech and Debate Association topic and time limits.  We encourage coaches to enter students in the division that best approximates their skill and experience level, and we leave that judgment up to you. We will utilize a mutual preference judging system for the Varsity division. All judges must post a paradigm on Tabroom.com and must have a high school diploma in order be qualified to judge in either division.
    Vital Stats: Prelims: 7. Elims: Triple-octas in both divisions (top 64). No Entry Limit.

    • The Speech Tournament
    Location: Online
    The tournament will feature competition in six events:
    ●          extemporaneous speaking (no foreign/domestic split),
    ●          informative speaking.
    ●          dramatic interpretation.
    ●          original oratory,
    ●          humorous interpretation,
    ●          program oral interpretation,
    Double-entry is permitted, and triple-entry is not unheard of. National Speech & Debate Association rules will govern all competitions.  The individual events tournament director will be prepared to enforce National Speech & Debate Association rules if objections are brought to her attention in a timely manner.  Judges will be required to submit ranks and ballots electronically.  Elimination rounds will be sectioned by preliminary round seeds to balance out the competition.
    Vital Stats:  Prelims: 4. Elims: Octafinals, or Double-Octafinals for events with more than 300 entries.
     
     
    General Tournament Rules 
     
    Judge Requirements 
    All judges provided by schools must be qualified, which at a minimum means a high school diploma.
    All judges are bound by the codes of conduct governing activities at Harvard College and those promulgated by the NSDA. Judges will be required to attest that they have read and understand these codes of conduct before being able to judge. Instructions will be provided closer to the start of the tournament.
    Judges may not simultaneously judge at any other tournaments. If we discover that you are doing so, we will remove you from the judge pool and notify the other tournament.
    Any complaints about judge qualifications must be addressed to the tournament director prior to or immediately after the competition involved. All tournament directors have been authorized to impose penalties against schools whose judges do not appear for the rounds to which they have been assigned.
     
    Elimination Round Participation 
    We expect participants in the various tournaments to compete in the elimination rounds.  Debaters who choose not to debate rounds for any reason (other than that they are scheduled against another competitor from the same school) will be treated as having forfeited the round.  The tournaments will no longer certify “co-champions” in final rounds.
     
    Conduct Policy 
    The tournament strives to foster an environment promoting inclusivity and respect. The tournament will abide by Harvard College’s policies and procedures for sexual, gender-based, and racial harassment and discrimination. The Interim Policy on Sexual Harassment and the Interim Policy on Other Sexual Misconduct are available here: https://titleix.harvard.edu/policies-procedures. Per its regulations, Harvard College has a designated representative of its Title IX office to receive any complaints directly or indirectly by means of the tournament director. The tournament will also abide by policies governing codes of conduct within the Harvard community, including those prohibiting racial discrimination and harassment. They are available here: https://handbook.fas.harvard.edu/book/conduct-within-community.
     
    Tournament Ombuds Committee 
    The tournament will designate an ombuds committee of three individuals to receive complaints and concerns regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion issues. Please note that this is not the appropriate place to report sexual or racial discrimination and harassment as detailed in the prior section; those reports should be made to the Tournament Director directly who will report to the appropriate Harvard offices. Additionally, concerns about tournament procedure and tabulation should be reported to your event’s tab room.
     
    Online Technology Policies: Recording, Observers, Platforms 
    Recording: For the privacy and protection of students and other participants, any recording of speeches is prohibited, with the exception that students are permitted to record their own speeches. 
    Observers: Observers are permitted but must remain on mute, with videos off at all times, and rename themselves as “Observer -- Name.” All observers must be affiliated with an institution with active entries at the tournament and must be registered as an observer to the roster of that institution. Any individuals who wish to observe will need: (A) to have a tabroom.com account, (B) be added as competitors or judges to the team roster, (C) have their account linked, and (D) entered into the “Observer Division” as a competitor or as a judge. Unregistered observers will not be able to access the classrooms.cloud zoom rooms. The tournament reserves the right to remove any observers from any room at any time. 
    Alternative Platforms:  For the safety of all participants, no one (judge, coach, student) may switch their rounds to an alternative video platform outside of the tournament hosted zoom rooms in classrooms.cloud. If anyone suggests moving to an alternative platform, please alert tournament personnel immediately. Judges who move to a separate platform will be fined as if they did not judge their rounds and removed from the tournament. 
    Judge Video: The tournament believes that competitors deserve to be able to see their judges as much as possible. Accordingly, to the maximum extent possible, the cameras of competitors and judges should be on (and on them) while a student is speaking and during RFDs. Brief pauses are understandable. To the extent needed, cameras can be off to enhance streaming quality.


    Judging 
    • All judges must be available for all preliminary rounds, the first elimination round, and for one round beyond elimination of the last contestant from the school that the judge represents in the tournament.
    • In Speech, judges must be available for the entire tournament, including through the final round.
    • All judges must be qualified, which at a minimum means a high school diploma.
    • All schools providing judges for the three debate tournaments with divisions should be flexible as to which division judges are assigned.

    ​Entry Price

    LD and parent is judging $145
    LD and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $265

    MS/Novice PF and parent is judging $105
    MS/Novice PF and parent is OPTING OUT ​of judging $225

    JV/Varsity PF and parent is judging $113
    JV/Varsity PF and parent is OPTING OUT ​of judging $233

    One Speech Event and parent is judging $100
    Two Speech Events and parent is judging $150
    Three Speech Events and parent is judging $200

    One Speech Event and parent is OPTING OUT ​of judging $220
    Two Speech Events and parent is OPTING OUT ​of judging $270
    Three Speech Events and parent is OPTING OUT ​of judging $320
    ​
    Each person in a PF/Policy/Duo team would be responsible of providing their own judge, so one PF/Policy/Duo team would need to either provide two judges, both pay the judge fee, or one of each option.

    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 EASTERN STANDARD TIME (EST)
    ​

    Click here to see tentative schedule for all events
    *click on the right tab to see specific event schedules

    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
    If this is your first time competing, make sure to first create a Tabroom account here: https://www.tabroom.com/user/login/new_user.mhtml
    It's super simple and quick (<1 minute), but follow the guidelines here in case anything is confusing: ​https://docs.tabroom.com/Sign_Up

    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 if there are any. We are not responsible for schedule conflicts.
    BOTH partners must fill out form and pay in order to be registered!

    ​JUDGE PROVISION
    Debate judges are required to be available the whole 4 days from Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.
    Speech judges are required to be available the whole 3 days from Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.
    What event you'll be judging depends on what your child is signed up for.

    ​
    ​For LD at this tournament, judges are REQUIRED to add 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".
    Click here to complete the highly recommended Cultural Competency judge training course

    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 literally takes less than a minute.


    First time judging? Click here to learn how to do it! Or watch our Youtube playlist here.
    ​There are also these training cards available that include a summary of each event's rules and comments.​

    ​Tournaments encourage 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".​

    ​
    More tournament resources can be found here.

    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
    • Ohlone Spring 2023
    • MS/HS Spring 2023
    • Late MS/HS Spring 2023
    • Elementary Spring 2023
    • Private Coaching >
      • Speech Private Coaching
      • Debate Private Coaching
    • MS/HS Summer 2023
    • GSA Tournaments
  • Store
  • Blog
  • Career Opportunities
  • Newsletter