JOHN LEWIS

Dear Colleagues,
The Silicon Valley Urban Debate League (SVUDL) and the Santa Clara University (SCU) Debate Society present:
The John Lewis SVUDL Invitational, formerly known as the SCU Dempsey-Cronin (aka SCU 1).

This year, the Silicon Valley Urban Debate League has taken ownership of the SCU Dempsey Cronin, and will be running an online speech and debate invitational to be held the weekend before Thanksgiving, from Nov 20-22. Members of the SCU Debate Society will be working with SVUDL to put together this tournament, and we invite you and your squads to join us.
All proceeds from this tournament will go to the Silicon Valley Urban Debate League, a local non-profit organization whose mission is to empower Silicon Valley students, regardless of their race or socioeconomic status, to reach their full potential to become professional and community leaders by teaching critical thinking and communication skills through speech and debate programming.
SVUDL is pleased to honor the legacy of the late Congressman John Lewis by naming this speech and debate tournament after him. Born near Troy, Alabama in 1940, Congressman Lewis devoted his life to securing civil rights, fair and equal access to voting rights, and was a tireless soldier who literally and repeatedly risked his life in the movement against racial segregation and injustice.
Congressman Lewis became a civil rights activist in his youth, and through mentorship by leaders including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he learned and practiced the powers of persuasive speech and argument. By commemorating him in this way, SVUDL hopes that students participating in the tournament will be inspired to learn more about his life and achievements and also encouraged to trust and believe in the power of their voices as they engage in competitive speech and debate activities, and beyond. To honor the namesake of the tournament and in keeping with the national policy debate topic of criminal justice reform, a portion of the net proceeds from the tournament will be donated in memory of Congressman Lewis to The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration in Montgomery, Alabama, a project of the Equal Justice Initiative.

We are also pleased to announce that we are again a NIETOC designated bid tournament for those interested in the National Individual Events Tournament of Champions. We are also designated as a bid tournament for speech and semifinals bid in Public Forum for the Tournament of Champions, held by the University of Kentucky.

We will be using the platform Classrooms.cloud for our online tournament. All debate formats will start Friday, November 20 this year. Speech events and Congress start Saturday, November 21. Sunday elimination rounds are staggered between debate and speech events.

All speech events, except for DUO Interp, will be done live. DUO will be done asynchronously, but all judging will be done live, during the other scheduled speech rounds.
All debate events will also be done live.
Please note that the schedule listed is tentative. Depending on the size of entry, the schedule may be adjusted. A finalized schedule will be posted in the coming weeks. A full invitation, including event rules and online tournament procedures, will be posted on Tabroom in the next few weeks.

Tournament Caps and Waitlist
Due to the size of the tournament, we will be placing caps on the debate events. Each school will be allotted 4 entries per division per debate event. All entries over the caps will be waitlisted.
Entries may also be waitlisted if the tournament reaches capacity. Schools will be moved off the waitlist as space opens up. Schools that have not already taken up their allotted slots in each event will be moved first, and schools with completed judge entries will also be given preference. Remaining waitlisted entries will be moved on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Judging Requirements
Judges are committed one round past where their school drops from competition. Judges are assumed to be experienced and prepared to judge their assigned events or debate formats. Debate judges are free to determine style questions at the beginning of each round. Debate judges must have properly linked Tabroom accounts for online ballot entry. School judges who fail to check in to their rounds online when assigned may have their team fined the aforementioned penalties per round. Please contact us if you're unsure of your judging commitment, or have any other questions regarding judging.

Topics
L/D Debate Topic: NSDA Nov/Dec topic
Policy Debate Topic: National topic on Criminal Justice Reform
Public Forum: NSDA November Public Forum Topic.
Parliamentary Debate: one topic will be provided for each prelim; for elim rounds, teams will be given three topics and will do strikes to determine the topic

Divisions
All speech and debate events will offer a novice and open division. We reserve the right to collapse divisions if entry size is too small for two separate divisions.
Novice is defined as a student’s first year of competition, or not advancing to an elimination round in your first two years of competition, regardless of debate format.

Patterns
Debate Pattern: Policy, Parliamentary, Public Forum and Lincoln-Douglas Debate plus Congress in one pattern.
Events Pattern: Extemporaneous/Dramatic Interpretation /Expository/Original Prose Poetry / Oratorical Interpretation/ Impromptu /Original Oratory /Humorous Interpretation/Thematic Interpretation and Duo Interpretation.
Double entries in Speech Events are allowed. Competitors may also enter in one debate event and up to two speech events. However, competitors should be aware of the increased screen time that will come with entering multiple events.

General Tournament Rules
School registration in part or whole may be rejected due to space considerations - please register early! Every year several schools cannot attend or have their entries restricted.
The tournament will consist of six preliminary debate rounds for varsity, five prelims debate rounds for novice, and the three preliminary rounds of varsity and open events. We reserve the right to combine divisions if the entry warrants.
Generally we use CHSSA rules but there are exceptions that include: Persuasive will include both advocacy (Original Advocacy) and other "persuasive" speeches (Original Oratory). Extemp is combined national and international. Semifinals will be held in individual events with 50 or more entries or the discretion of the tournament director. Undersubscribed events may waive finals. Due to scheduling, we will only be breaking to Double octos for debate, events, entries permitting.

I will keep a copy of this form for reference. *

YES

We are signing up with the understanding that my child will work to be ready by the tournament date. If we choose to drop out because my child is not ready that will be considered when making assessments for future classes. *

YES

I understand that if I fail to drop the tournament before the deadline that I will still be responsible for the fees of both my son or daughter, along with that of his or her partner and the fines. *

YES

I understand that if payment is not received we won't be registered and our spot will be given up to someone else. *

YES

I confirm that I have completed all necessary paperwork for this tournament. *

YES

I understand that The Golden State Academy has no control over tournament entries other than the initial sign up. I understand that my child's priority will be based on either the last time I signed up OR the date paid, whichever is latest. *

YES

I understand that my child must check in and check out periodically at the tournament with the coach and that if I do not my child will be barred from participating in following tournaments. This is to ensure coaches can see where students are at competitively and to give any initial feedback for improvement. *

YES

I understand that I can check my entry status through tabroom.com. *

YES

I am a consenting adult. I understand that by submitting this form I agree to all that has been covered. *

YES

JOHN LEWIS SVUDL INVITATIONAL FORMERLY SCU DEMPSEY CRONIN

20-22 November 2020

Information

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

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JOHN LEWIS SVUDL INVITATIONAL FORMERLY SCU DEMPSEY CRONIN​