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The Golden State Academy
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    KAREN KEEFER JV NOVICE SWING ​

    5 December 2020

    DEADLINE
    29 Nov 2020
    ELIGIBILITY
    middle and high school students
    PLATFORM
    Online through NSDA Campus

    Information

    The Mountain View and Los Altos Speech and Debate team cordially invites you to the 2nd annual Karen Keefer Invitational Swing, which will take place on December 5–6 on the virtual NSDA Campus platform. Mrs. Keefer is a former speech-parent-turned-Diamond-coach who volunteered with MVLA and the Coast Forensics League for over twenty years.
     
    The speech portion of the swing will run 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM on Saturday. There will be 3 preliminary rounds of novice and JV speech, with divisions breaking to a final round if size warrants. Divisions may be broadly collapsed into a collective Interpretation division and a collective Original/Platform division for divisions with low entry. Students in speech may double enter. Awards for those making the final round, or the top three in divisions not breaking to a final will be announced at the end of the tournament.
     
    The debate portion of the swing will run from 8:30 AM to 6:30 PM on Sunday. There will be 5 rounds of novice and JV Lincoln-Douglas, Parliamentary, and Public Forum debate, with hidden finals in round 5 for the top two teams in each division. Awards for those with winning records or better will be announced and presented at the end of the tournament, and the champions of the final will be recognized.
     
    The tournament will utilize tabroom.com and NSDA Campus for entry, pairings, virtual rooms, and results of all events.
     
    Middle and high school students are welcome. We encourage all debaters to be respectful of their peers and judges, in order to maintain a safe and welcoming debate environment.
     
    In order to facilitate the social aspect of tournaments, we will hold collective games run by senior students during downtime between rounds. More announcements on this to come!
     
     
    Events, Divisions, Entries & Judging

    Coronavirus Considerations
    Partners are prohibited from being in the same room as each other. This measure is imposed as a health consideration to discourage the spreading of the virus. Furthermore, it provides an unfair advantage over other competitors who do not have the ease of in-person communication. Contact us if you have extenuating circumstances. Teams who do not comply should be reported to the Ethics Officer.
     
    There will be a $10 nuisance fee for entry changes after registration is closed.
     
    Who is a Novice?
    A novice is any high school or middle school student who has competed in any event for less than one year who has not broken at any tournaments.
     
    Who is JV?
    A junior varsity entry is any high school or middle school student who has competed in any event for two or fewer years. Someone cannot be considered JV if they have broken at any varsity tournament.
      
    Lincoln Douglas
    Lincoln Douglas will use the November topic as presented on the NSDA official website, and will follow the 6 - 3 - 7 - 3 - 4 - 6 - 3 format. Maximum prep time will be 4 minutes. Notice that the tournament will follow NSDA rules, not CFL rules. Evidence will be held to the highest standard and complete citations are highly encouraged.
     
    Public Forum
    Public Forum will use the November topic, and will follow the 4 - 4 - 3 - 4 - 4 - 3 - 3- 3 - 3 - 2 - 2 format (in accordance with the NSDA pilot rules). Each team will have access to 3 minutes of prep time during the round. Sides and order will be locked to postings.
     
    Speech
    Speech divisions will follow CHSSA rules, but we will not offer DUO, as we do not believe it is possible for students to effectively compete in this event and maintain physical distance. We will not offer Original Advocacy or Original Prose and Poetry due to lack of interest at prior events. We will offer a combined extemp division with NX and IX topics available in each draw. We reserve the right to collapse interpretation events into a single division, to collapse platforms, or to collapse JV and novice divisions as entries warrant.
     
    Judging
    Judges who are called for ballots but fail to appear will be fined $150 per round missed. We encourage parents to volunteer even if this is their first time judging. We will provide a brief judge training in the morning. Half-day commitments are not permitted. Tabroom.com accounts are mandatory for all judges in order to access online ballots for rounds.


    Platform Use & Communication

    Using NSDA Campus
    All participants must have a Tabroom account prior to the tournament start date.
     
    Slack
    Primary communication will be on Slack. Everyone must join the workspace and information will be sent out prior to the event. We will also hold games between rounds and those Zoom links can be accessed on Slack. The join link is https://tinyurl.com/keefer20slack.
     
    Tournament Logistics
    All competitors and judges should be in their NSDA Campus call at the time noted on the schedule or report technical issues to the help line. The forfeit time for teams or individuals who have not reported technical issues is 10 minutes after round start time.
     
    Each round will have one NSDA campus call and will be listed on personal Tabroom accounts.
     
    When all competitors for the round and the judge are there, start round, regardless of whether it is before the allotted time. For example, if everyone is there by 9:05 and rounds start at 9:20, you may start at 9:05.
     
    Behavioral Norms
    Use the helpline to contact tournament officials if necessary. Use of the chat function on NSDA Campus should be limited and should not contain any text that could be construed as argumentative in nature. In all Campus Rooms, if not speaking, debaters/judges should stay on mute. Competitors and judges should keep their video on for the duration of the round.
     
    Calls should be made on laptop or desktop computers, as opposed to cell phones. Debaters and judges should all use headphones or headsets. Students with financial need who cannot access these resources should contact us as soon as possible.
     
    We will have a “warm room” available for inter-student interaction and questions. Norms on there will be the same as in a normal tournament. Anyone who engages in unprofessional behavior will be banned from the “warm room” or face similar consequences.

    There is no recording of rounds allowed. If someone is caught recording rounds, they will be removed from the tournament and the infraction will be reported to their institution. Recording children without their parents’ permission is illegal, and the tournament is not collecting permission forms for recording.


    TOPICS:
    NSDA LD Nov/Dec
    Resolved: The United States ought to provide a federal jobs guarantee.

    JV PF
    NSDA PF Nov/Dec
    Resolved: The United States should adopt a declaratory nuclear policy of no first use.

    ​Entry Price

    One Speech Event $75
    Two Speech Events $100

    If you don't provide a judge, you will pay an additional $70 if competing in speech only.
    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.

    Tentative Schedule

    Please note that all times are in PACIFIC STANDARD TIME (PST).

    FRIDAY
    5:00 pm Registration (until 7 pm)
    7:00 pm Long Form Judge Training

    SATURDAY
    8:30 am Enter Campus Room/ Extemp Prep Round 1
    9:00 am Round 1 Extemp
    10:30 am Enter Campus Room/ Extemp Prep Round 2
    10:30 am Round 2 Extemp
    12:30 pm Enter Campus Room/ Extemp Prep Round 3
    1:00 pm Round 3 Extemp
    2:30 pm Enter Campus Room/ Extemp Prep - Finals
    2:45 pm Extemp Finals Start
    4:30 pm Speech Award Ceremony

    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
    You can sign up for as many as 1 debate and 2 speech events if you'd like.
    BOTH partners must fill out form and pay in order to be registered!

    ​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 two minutes.

    First time judging? Click here to learn how to do it! Or watch our Youtube playlist 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
​510-890-6665

Email (preferred)

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

Locations

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

Radiant Kidz(Cupertino): 991 Saratoga Ave #140, San Jose, CA 95129 

Morning Light Education: 6690 Amador Plaza Rd, Suite 230, Dublin, CA

Aborn Institute: 2804 Riedel Road, San Jose, CA 95135 

Loving Tree Academy: 36601 Newark Blvd, #83, Newark, CA 94560
  • Home
  • About
    • Meet Our Coaches
    • Why Speech and Debate
    • What is Speech and Debate? >
      • Speech Events
      • Debate Events
    • Why Golden State Academy
    • Tournament Results and Photos
    • 2016 Nationals Results
    • FAQ
  • Forms
  • Registration
    • Private Coaching >
      • Speech Private Coaching
      • Debate Private Coaching
    • Elementary Summer 2021
    • MS/HS Summer 2021
    • GSA Tournaments
    • BASIS Tournaments
  • Store
  • Career Opportunities
  • Newsletter