JACK HOWE

REQUIRED FORMS
Code of Conduct form and Liability form that accounts for the new terrain of COVID-19. ALL parents, judges, coaches, and anyone who is attending in any capacity where one interacts with minors, must fill out these forms. Students must only fill out the Liability form. If you would like to turn in electronic copies, the form must be compliant with authentication protocols programs such as DocuSign or AdobeSign are REQUIRED.
Liability Form and Code of Conduct ( Chaperone)

IMPORTANT NOTES for 2026:

LD will have THREE divisions: TOC LD, CA Open LD, and Novice LD. To participate in Novice LD, a student must be in their first year of competition and/or in middle school or 9th grade. Any student in their second year of competition or in 10th grade (and beyond) must register for CA LD or above.

JUDGING REQUIREMENTS

All chaperone forms are for all folks that are above the age of 18 ( who aren't high school students) that come along with your group. Liability forms are for every single individual, regardless of age, in your group. You can find more details about this in the 'Judging Information' page. A link to the form can be found HERE Liability Form and Code of Conduct ( Chaperone) These are dropbox links which means, DOWNLOAD the form.
There is ABSOLUTELY NO RECORDING IN ROUNDS. Students have not signed a media release form authorized by their parents, which means no recording.
ALL judges must be 18 years of age or older and hold a GED/high school diploma. If this becomes an issue we will apply nuisance fees.

JUDGE OBLIGATION POLICY:

FIRST AND FOREMOST, when you are assigned a ballot PRESS START ROUND to let the tab room know you have claimed the ballot and are on your way to your room.
Judges in debate are obligated to stay and judge the first elimination round on Sunday/Monday OR one round past any round in which their students are actively competing. Even if none of your entries advance, your judges are obligated for the first elimination round. Judges in TOC LD, Public Forum who have entries that competed in the last elimination round on Sunday Night are obligated for the first elimination round on Monday Morning. Speech judges are obligated for all rounds at the tournament. Missed rounds will incur a fine owed to the tournament. Students may not appear or continue to appear in elimination rounds if there are unpaid fines.
Furthermore, TOC LD, Open Public Forum will continue to occur over three days (e.g., Saturday, 10/3 to Monday, 10/5). Judges in these events are obligated for all three days at the tournament if their program has entries competing on that day. Violation of these policies could cause tournament delays and offending teams/institutions will be fined for these actions.
All judges that need to have training should watch: NSDA Judge training
If you have further questions, please consult the head coach of your program.
DOFs: It is your responsibility to train judges for this and every tournament. We are trusting you to bring qualified adults who can judge and create a safe environment for our students. Please make sure they watch the judge training from NSDA.

HELP LINE / REPORT AN ISSUE

If a judge or competitor has not shown up within 8 minutes please alert the tournament via text message to the helpline number/Campus mechanism so that we can route that information to the tab room. PLEASE make sure that all your debaters and teams know this number to report issues.That number is: ‪(714) 699-3765‬ (TEXT ONLY - DO NOT CALL)

When reporting to the helpline make sure to (when applicable):

State who you are ( coach, judge, competitor, observer, other)
State your location by building and room
State the urgency of the issue
State a full detailed account of the particular issue and what would you like to see get done.
Report if a bathroom needs service or it a trash can is overflowing or generally if a place needs to be serviced.

NEW WIFI WIRELESS PROCESS
The new process is found on this address https://csulb.edu/wireless
TDLR: There will be a universal passkey that is given once the terms and conditions are accepted by a user. The passkey will update daily. If one person has the passkey they can share it with other to login on the guest wireless on the network.

HOTEL OPTIONS:
We have 2 options for hotels for 2026 :

LONG BEACH MARRIOTT - Airport
Jack Howe Link for Marriott
4700 Airport Plaza Dr, Long Beach, CA 90815
Cut off date - September 18, 2026
https://app.marriott.com/reslink?id=1780600102941&key=GRP&app=resvlink
BEST WESTERN ( EX-GOLDEN SAILS)
This is Vicki Arreguin’ new property
Best Western Los Alamitos
Group rate: $133.92 w tax.
1059 Los Alamitos Blvd
Los Alamitos CA 90720
Phone: 562-598-2299
RESERVATION METHOD:
Individuals call in on own (Group Reservations: 562-598-2299) or e-mail reservations to: [email protected]
Cut off date - September 19, 2026
Rate includes:
• Full American Breakfast, 4 people per room
•Complimentary parking
•Outdoor heated pool and Spa
•All rooms are equipped with microwave, refrigerator and coffee-maker

FOOD ON CAMPUS (Hours coming soon)

Caffeine Lab (located in Library)
Saturday 10a-3pm
Sunday 1pm-6pm
Food Trucks on (Saturday and Sunday) Specific trucks coming soon
There will be Mi Pollo California serving Breakfast for purchase. I believe it will be tasty breakfast burritos and side items, but it is limited. They will start prepping their famous Mexican food once breakfast items are done.
Subway will be open at 10AM !!! So folks that always go to subway for lunch. Stay on campus! We have it open for you. They direly want your business.

PARKING ON CAMPUS:
Visitors may purchase parking and then park in General (G) Lots including the three parking structures or in Short-Term parking spaces. Visitors may also choose to purchase parking in Employee (E) Lots after 5:30 p.m. and all day on weekends.
Please visit the campus map to view all available parking locations CSULB uses the License Plate Recognition (LPR), a paperless permitting system. Your license plate number is needed when purchasing parking. Please have your license plate information with you prior to leaving your vehicle. For more information click HERE

ALL GENDER BATHROOMS:
We are living in troubling times, where people who possess a diversity of gender identities are under constant scrutiny and criticism. We have provided a comprehensive list of all- gender bathroom that could at least provide a transient zone of safety for folks. This can be found HERE

Competition Tables(Long Term):
Due to ongoing construction we will continue to utilize the Grassy Knoll and competition tables for our lower divisions. The goal is to split table usage around CA LD, N LD, N PF, as well as utilize tables for Impromptu and Extemp as needed in order to allow higher numbers of entries. We hope that as construction concludes we will be able to transition more and more events back into classrooms in future years. We appreciate your patience and understanding.

GENERATIVE A.I USAGE (BANNED):
ALL competitors, tournament officials, observers, and coaches are BANNED from using generative artificial intelligence technologies in any capacity especially debate rounds, preparation time in limited prep events, and as a tool for writing speeches at the Jack Howe Memorial. Students are not prohibited from using generative AI to guide their research process or help them generate ideas BEFORE the tournament ONLY. In debate or speech events, students may use generative AI to assist with the research and idea generation process pre-tournament ONLY. There should be no excuse to not use google, yahoo, google scholar, or other search engines and resources to find information. Additionally, CSULB is an open database use university. This means you can use our research tools without a login. Here is our site for this https://www.csulb.edu/university-library . On our site you can go to the Onesearch or the database links to find information.
Our one exception to this rule is for judges who will be allowed to use AI for accessibility purposes, namely translation for ballot writing. This rule is to not encourage judges to use AI to record, flow, or use AI to write ballot comments. However, if a judge wishes to write their ballot in a language other than English and then translate it into English then they may. If you are a judge and have any questions about the hard limits of this policy please consult the tabroom.
The Jack Howe Memorial does not condone cheating of any kind. If there is a reasonable suspicion of this, please report it to the tournament officials in the appropriate tab room. Only coaches with the assistance of their students and evidence based proof can approach the tabroom with these allegations. Penalties can range from fines up to disqualification from the event where the act was committed.

REMINDERS ABOUT FACE-TO-FACE COMPETITION:
1. At the time this invitation is being published, mask-wearing on the CSULB campus is optional in classrooms and outdoor spaces. The tournament will provide hand sanitizer, but in a limited quantity. Guests should review the campus policies in detail at https://www.csulb.edu/covid-19. It is strongly recommended that vulnerable populations wear KN95-grade face coverings.
2. Sanitary stations will be placed in high-traffic corridors on campus. This information will be updated and provided to tournament guests.
3. By registering for the 2026 Jack Howe Memorial Invitational, you are accepting the risk of becoming infected by COVID-19. The tournament will do everything possible to reduce the risk of infection, but we cannot guarantee you will avoid contracting COVID-19. We are unable to offer refunds to competitors/for judges that contract COVID-19 after registration closes. The following recommendations will help the tournament and its guests the week of competition:
A. Refrain from unnecessary human contact the week of the tournament and test regularly.
B. Regularly and vigorously wash your hands, carry hand sanitizer, and if applicable wear a medical-grade face covering.
C. Keep water nearby and remain hydrated.

DISCLOSURE POLICY IN EFFECT:

For TOC LD we will be upholding the same standards of many other TOC level tournaments and be enforcing uploading arguments to their respective Debate Wikis as the tournament progresses. https://www.debatecoaches.org/resources/wikis

Failure to comply with this policy will risk losing their Judge Preferences.
It is the recommendation of the Long Beach Tab Staff that students arrive at least 15 minutes before round start time to facilitate disclosure.
Any complaints or issues should be directed to the appropriate tab room.

For other levels of LD and all levels of Public Forum wiki disclosure is appreciated but not mandatory. However, we will be upholding the evidence standards of the NSDA and CHSSA (for Parli exclusively with the exception that we will not be providing colored paper for prep).

Link to the NSDA Unified Manual- See Section 2 under the header “Evidence Rules for Public Forum, Lincoln-Douglas”
Link to CHSSA Debate Rules- See Section 1 Paragraph F
Coaches and Judges should report failure to comply with this policy to the appropriate tabroom immediately after the round concludes.

DOUBLE ENTRY POLICY:
*The Tournament cannot count on running on time all weekend. Doubling entry is at the risk of missing rounds.
The following policies are in place for double entries this year:

Entries are NOT allowed to “double enter” or “cross enter” in two limited prep events (e.g., Impromptu, or Extemporaneous Speaking).
Entries in debate may not double enter in any other event (no cross entry with Speech or Limited Prep).
Speech-only entries may double enter in up to two speech events.

FOR CLARIFICATION - NO DEBATE EVENT CAN DOUBLE ENTER WITH A SPEECH EVENT REGARDLESS OF THE TYPE.

ENTERING STUDENTS IN NOVICE DIVISIONS:
1. For Students That Competed In Middle School: A high school freshman [or beyond] that competed in an event at more than five total tournaments in middle school cannot register for that event as a novice. A high school freshman [or beyond] that competed in an event at less than six total tournaments in middle school may register as a novice for that event.
2. General Definition For Novice: A “novice” constitutes a student that has competed in less than one complete competition season. “One complete competition season” would include either five [or more] tournaments in one semester AND/OR at least one tournament in two semesters. E.G. A high school sophomore that competed in LD at five tournaments in the fall of the previous year would not be a novice, nor would a high school sophomore that competed in one tournament in the fall and the spring of the previous year.
3. First-Time Entries In New Debate Events: A student who has no more than one complete competition season [or less] of Congress, LD, or PF but has not competed in other debate events may enter as a novice in policy debate. A student who has one complete competition season of policy debate [or more], however, may not enter Congress, LD, Parli, or PF as a novice.
4. First-Time Entries In New Speech Events: A student who has competed in no more than one complete competition season [or less] of debate events, but has not competed in any speech events, may enter as a novice in speech events. A student who has competed in no more than one complete competition season [or less] of speech events, but has not competed in any debate events, may enter as a novice in debate events.

Spectatorship in Competition:
WARNING: Spectators are welcome to watch competition rounds, but they are prohibited from communicating with competitors in any form during competition as per the Chaperone Form. This includes, but is not limited to: oral communication, electronic communication, and telecommunication. Spectators who violate this policy will be removed from the tournament, and competitors who receive coaching/assistance/help of any kind from spectators will be subject to disqualification from competition.

MAVERICK POLICY:
Mavericks in any team event with a TOC bid cannot enter. No mavericks can be registered in ANY team event. However, if a partner drops or is unable to debate post registration, the team can maverick in up to two prelim rounds but will be unable to advance to elimination rounds if their partner is unable to continue. If a partner falls ill, the other partner can debate up to two prelim rounds ONLY these rounds will be an automatic loss. If the ill partner is not better by elims or the third prelim, the team will be dropped.

OTHER POLICIES:

NO TEAM is to set up shop on or around ANY memorial or statue on campus or take over competition rooms to use as “squad rooms”: there will be penalties for doing so. People will be asked to immediately leave that area and clean it up if witnessed. If you decide to set up shop in any area on campus, ESPECIALLY the union and outdoor spaces, we should not have to walk around and see mounds of trash on your tables or spaces. PLEASE constantly clear your trash when finished. It doesn’t look proper to other visitors to the campus on that day or general staff that are around. We have had problems with people disposing of their trash in the past. We would like to not have to be the enforcers, but WE WILL. If we see that people have mounds of trash on the property, we will ask you to dispose of it immediately. If you need extra bags to dispose of your trash, please let us know and we will take it to the nearest dump.
DO NOT MOVE TOURNAMENT TABLES: Teams will be penalized for moving the tables on the grassy knoll. Last year large speech programs were seen moving tables meant for debate rounds to do their warm ups. Do them somewhere else or break your squad into groups. Our team spends hours setting up those tables and laying them out. They are ONLY meant for competition and should not be moved or claimed as a “squad area”.
ALL TROPHIES must be picked up by a representative before the end of the day Monday, because we will NOT ship trophies unless a documented departure time or flight was necessary for folks.
JUDGE/ COMPETITOR NO SHOW: If a judge or competitor has not shown up within 5 minutes of start time, please alert the tournament via the helpline number so that we can route that information to the tab room. PLEASE make sure that all of your debaters and teams know this number to report issues.

SPEECH RULES AND EXPECTATIONS
Tabbed by: Xavier Liu
Schedule

Speech will take place on TWO days with three prelim rounds on Saturday, one prelim and up to three Elimination Rounds on Sunday. Please take a look at the "Global Schedule" on Tabroom to see when our rounds are being scheduled.
There will be ONLY OPEN divisions for Speech in these events: Duo Interpretation, Programmatic Oral Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, Extemporaneous in speech due to low numbers every year.

Important Reminders

Please pay special attention to the Novice Eligibility Requirements found in the Invite. Novices should be entered properly in their respective speech events. Failure to adhere to these rules will result in disqualification and being dropped from the Tournament.
Our Double Entry policy can be found in the Invite. This double entry policy will be enforced on waitlists. Failure to abide by these double entry policies will result in violating entries being dropped in their excess events. Should these drops occur after fees are due, refunds will not be given. If excessive, each excess drop shall incur a fine as well.
Please also be sure to check out rules on AI in the Invite.

Rules and Violations

The following events shall follow NSDA Rules: DI, DUO, EXT, HI, INFO, OO, OSWP (Original Spoken Word Poetry), and POI.
The following events shall follow CHSSA Rules: IMP*** and OI (Dec).
***Impromptu: Speakers shall be limited to 2 minutes of preparation time and 5 minutes of speaking time. They will be given three topics and will choose one to speak on.
In ALL events, we will be defaulting to NSDA Overtime Rules. All events (including Impromptu and Extemp) shall have a 30 second grace period. If a student goes overtime, the judge may not rank them 1st, but need not rank them last. In other words, judges have the discretion to give a speaker who went overtime any rank other than "1st".

Extemporaneous Speaking

Extemp Draw will take place via Live Google Doc. A Live Doc will be posted on the Tabroom site during the week of the Tournament and shall be emailed out to all coaches to distribute to students.
Prep will start promptly 30 minutes prior to the start of each scheduled round. Topics will be posted on the Live Doc. Students may prep anywhere on campus and may use the Internet. They may not Prep with a partner or with a coach.
Double entered students in Extemp should prioritize their Prep. They shall not be given extra prep if they are unable to draw on time. Rounds will not be rerun.

Elimination Rounds, Breaks, and Bids

The breakpoint shall be determined based on entry size in each event. Should a Novice division not garner sufficient entry, it will be collapsed into the Open Division. We will recognize Top Novices at the Awards Ceremony for those events.
Estimate that approximately 1/3 of the total entry size, with no more than 1/2 the field (unless cleared by the Tournament Director), shall break to Elimination Rounds. Keep in mind that these may change as we get closer to the Tournament and even after registration has closed. The breakpoints will likely be the following, and are subject to change depending on room considerations:
Events with 7 or fewer entries: No Final Round
Events with 8 - 25 entries: Final
Events with 26 - 59 entries: Semifinal (Depending on the size of the field, we will either break to two sections of 6 or 7 or three sections of 6 or 7.)
Events with 60 or more entries: Quarterfinal
All breaks and placement for this Tournament shall be cumulative across all rounds.
Competitors have the opportunity to earn Bids to both the National Individual Tournament of Champions (NIETOC) and the Tournament of Champions, hosted by the University of Kentucky (UKTOC). The formula to calculate Bids per event can be found at their respective websites here (NIETOC) and here (UKTOC).

PUBLIC FORUM
Tabbed by: Sarah Sherwood and Mariel Cruz

Resolved: September/October NSDA Topic
Judge Philosophy: Judges entered in the TOC division should have a philosophy that outlines your judges experience. We ask you consider including information about how you vote, your feelings on speed, if you intend to flow or take notes, and any other specific opinions you have that could help the students determine their in round strategy.

LINCOLN DOUGLAS

Resolved: September/October NSDA Topic
We have different iterations of Lincoln Douglas (LD) at our tournament that I want to make clear. We have done this to have respect to different styles, competitive aspirations, and argumentative directions/choices that students would like to engage in. There are 4 potential LD divisions. This was done to juggle the regional and national circuit debate differences so that all parties can be satisfied.
The CA LD OPEN/ NOVICE divisions (e.g., CA-LD and Novice LD) are governed by CHSSA Rules ONLY. CA LD is more traditional and non-circuit debate or in some cases lay debating. There ARE argument limitations that are sanctioned by The California High School Speech Association. Please review the rules posted above. In a nut shell this means that plans and counterplans are discouraged.
The TOC LD (e.g., TOC LD) is governed by NSDA/TOC rules and procedures. These events are more aligned with circuit norms and procedures. there are NO limitations on argument styles and plan usage. The TOC bid for the Quarterfinal would be the result of competition in the TOC LD division.
Please consider the differences in these divisions when registering your students in Lincoln Douglas events. The judge pools will only be connected by the groupings listed above.

HARASSMENT AND DISCRIMINATION POLICY
The Jack Howe Memorial Speech and Debate Tournament is committed to providing its participants, judges, coaches, and members the opportunity to pursue excellence in their endeavors. This opportunity can exist only when each member of our community is assured an atmosphere of mutual respect. The Jack Howe staff are committed to maintaining an environment that is free from all forms of harassment and discrimination. Accordingly, all forms of harassment and discrimination are prohibited, whether committed by participants, judges, coaches, or observers. Our staff is committed to the enforcement of this policy. Individuals who are found to have violated this policy will be subject to the full range of sanctions, up to and including removal from the tournament premises and prosecution by authorities. Any individual or group of individuals who believes they have been a victim of harassment and/or discrimination should report it to the Help Desk or appropriate authority immediately.
The addition and specificity that we add to what all forms of harassment and discrimination includes but not limited to online bullying and harassment on social media of ALL kinds or within a round, zoom bombing, use of racial, ethnic, ableist, religious, gendered, and sexual slurs, and other inappropriate comments or “advancements” from or to ANY participant. If any violations to these additions occur, the violator will be asked to no longer judge or be disqualified. I take this very seriously DO NOT take your chances.

SWEEPS AND SCHOLARSHIPS
We will be bringing back the following features of the Jack Howe:
Sweepstakes calculation: We will use a percentile system to calculate the top debate program and the top IE program; we will use an "equalization" system to determine the top overall school. This new sweepstakes calculation system is a result of persistent errors in calculation that have resulted from the system we have used to calculate sweepstakes in the past.
Scholarship Opportunities: Over $10,000 in scholarships to students who win first place speaker/team in a Open division event. Each top-place finisher will receive a renewable $500 scholarship to attend CSULB (upon acceptance) and compete on our nationally ranked forensics team, where they will be required to compete for a year. This scholarship is only renewable based on grades, competition, work ethic, and need.

JACK HOWE MEMORIAL INVITATIONAL

3-5 October 2026

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Check our home page for the schedule!

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