MLK

Coaches & Competitors,

Welcome to the 2022 Martin Luther King Jr. Invitational. We have made the decision to hold this year's tournament virtually again to ensure the safety of all of our competitors, coaches, and judges. We take pride in being able to offer an activity that continues to honor Dr. King’s legacy of empowering young voices.

We are excited to once again host this wonderful opportunity for top caliber speech & debate competition! We host this tournament to further support the diversity of this activity in hopes that our youth will be inspired to engage in social change in their community and the world. Our hope is to provide a brave and inclusive space for competition where competitors can bring performances and researched cases to continue to fight for social justice.

The tournament will take place from Friday, January 14th - Sunday, January 16th, 2022 online in Pacific Standard Time (PST). In this section you will find important information regarding registration, logistics, and changes to our tournament.

We are pleased you have chosen to compete at our tournament and wish you and your team the best of luck!

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS

PLATFORM
We will be hosting the tournament virtually on NSDA Campus. Competitors and judges can familiarize themselves with the software on the NSDA Campus test website.
All events will be run synchronously. This means that all competitors will be performing and competing live.
All students must be linked to their school via Tabroom.com prior to the competition. Students will not be able to access their rounds without it.

EVENTS
Debate Congress
Lincoln Douglas (LD)
Public Forum (PF)

Speech
Dramatic Interp (DI)
Humorous Interp (HI)
Impromptu (IMP)
Informative (INFO)
International Extemp (IX)
National Extemp (NX)
Oratorical Interp (OI)
Original Advocacy (OA)
Original Oratory (OO)
Original Prose & Poetry (OPP)
Program Oral Interp (POI)

Congress
National Circuit
Legislation:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/tabroom-files/tourns/21849/bills/MLK2022LegislationPacket.pdf

CROSS ENTRY
The tournament allows cross-entry in one (1) Debate event and up to three (3) speech events. Cross-entry between Speech & Debate events are allowed, however, students entering in Congress may not cross-enter to compete in any other event.

Triathlete competitors, or students who have entered in 3 events, are eligible for the annual competition awarded to the top 3 performers in the entire tournament. A donation will be made on behalf of the 3 triathlete award winners who will get to elect a social justice nonprofit organization for a donation in their name.

DIVISION
The MLK tournament is a varsity competition in all events. Coaches must only enter students who are competing at the varsity level in their events. We cannot accept any independent entries at this time. All competing students must represent a registered high school. Any student competitors found in violation of this will be immediately disqualified from the competition.

*NEW* MIDDLE SCHOOL DIVISION
We are excited to include the Middle School division this year for all middle school and novice competitors. We are offering the following events:
Middle School Debate
Lincoln Douglas (MS LD)
Public Forum (MS PF)
Congress (MS CON)

Middle School Speech
Dramatic Interp (DI)
Humorous Interp (HI)
Impromptu (IMP)
Declamation (DEC)
Platform (OO/OA)

Middle School events are tentative based on entry numbers. We will notify schools by January 3, 2022 if a specific event will be cancelled due to low enrollment.

EVENT RULES
We will adhere to NSDA rules (section 2 of High School Manual) for all national circuit events: this includes Lincoln Douglas, Public Forum, Policy, DI, Duo, HI, Info, IX, NX, OO, and POI.

We will be following CHSSA rules & regulations for all California state events which include Parliamentary Debate, IMP, OI, OA, and OPP.

Congressional Debate rules and regulations are posted in the Congress packet available on Tabroom.

If there are questions or concerns that arise regarding the rules during rounds, please have a coach submit the form to the Equity Committee within ninety (90) minutes of the conclusion of the round, or prior to the conclusion of the next round - whichever comes first.

TOURNAMENT LOGISTICS

PERMISSION FORMS
Each school will be responsible for submitting a school permission form signed by their school administrator in order to complete registration. As we are going to be live streaming elimination rounds in all events, each individual competitor will need to have a liability & video release waiver in order to participate. Documents will be available soon.
1.   MLK School Participation Permission Form → Signed by school-approved chaperone and school administrator.

TOC BIDS
We are pleased that the MLK Invitational is a bid tournament for the 2021 National Individual Events Tournament of Champions (NIETOC) and the Tournament of Champions (TOC) at the University of Kentucky.



JUDGING REQUIREMENT
Uncovered round fines will be strictly enforced this year, so please make sure that your judging commitments are fulfilled throughout the entire tournament schedule. We will do our best to accommodate the Judging Pool preferences that you indicate for each judge, however judges are not guaranteed to receive ballots for the pools that are indicated. We reserve the right to use any and all judges for ANY event offered at the tournament, in order to ensure that we stay on schedule.

We are asking that all parent and community judges complete the free Cultural Competency Judge Training offered by the NSDA to better the experience for all competitors.

Some Judging reminders:

Please have judges create their own Tabroom account using their own email accounts. We will only accept the real names of each judge.
Please have judges enter their CELL PHONE number on their tabroom accounts as we will use this number to send text reminders throughout the tournament.
Please ensure that your judges can stay for their entire commitment. We do not allow judges to judge under any name but their own.
If a judge does not get an assignment for two rounds in a row, please have them check in with the judge lounge for support.

EQUITY STATEMENT
As a community of educators, we commit ourselves to the advancement of equity, social justice, and educational opportunity for our people. We understand that we have the privilege to stand on the shoulders of such great leaders of equally great movements, like the namesake of the tournament, and because of this, our commitment to solidarity perseveres.

Tournament officials are committed to the safety and well-being of all it’s participants -- students, coaches, and judges. Equity Officers will be available to address concerns that challenge safety and fairness of the competition. We have Zero Tolerance of harassment, bullying, and/or discrimination of any kind. We expect all competitors, coaches, judges, and staff to make a commitment to providing a safe environment for all students to compete.

The Equity Committee will be able to assist in adjudication of any protests that arise. This committee will serve students and coaches to ensure our diverse populations' concerns are heard and uphold the standards of inclusion that this activity promises to have.

Dr. Lindsey’s equity statement:
"As we move into unprecedented times it is important for our program to be at the forefront to initiate the ways in which the world should change. Speech and Debate students contribute a diverse, intellectual, and promising narrative for our future. Incorporating equity into our mission as an organization is putting action to the words that often just live on paper. We are committed to equity for all. This core value will allow opportunity to exist for all students.
James Logan Forensics prides itself as a team that champions one of the most culturally diverse communities in the nation. It is incumbent on our organization to represent students in a fair and just way. Having an equity committee at the MLK tournament ensures we are holding ourselves and the community accountable so that, regardless of existing issues of access or resources, all of your voices will be heard.”

AWARDS
The award ceremonies will be held immediately following the speech final rounds. Names will be recognized “on stage” during the Awards Ceremony for all Speech & Congress finalists and all Debate quarter-finalists and up. Competitors advancing to this round will be notified of what Zoom room to enter to be recognized. All other coaches, competitors, and community supporters will be encouraged to watch the Awards Ceremony via the livestream.

All trophies will be shipped the week of January 17, 2022. Awards will be grouped by and shipped to schools. We cannot ship to individuals. Coaches will be asked to confirm their trophy total at the conclusion of the tournament. Awards will be available for the following competitors starting at:

Octofinalists Debate Events
Quarterfinalists in Individual Events
Semifinalists in Congress

BE THE CHANGE WORKSHOPS
Included in the registration fees is an opportunity for students and coaches to participate in interactive workshops and discussions about issues within the Speech and Debate activity. This is to give folks a platform to come together to address ongoing injustices in our community, and discuss an advocacy plan for productive change.

Workshop themes will be announced as the event draws near. Pre-registration will be required.

JAMES LOGAN MARTIN LUTHER KING JR INVITATIONAL

14-16 January 2022

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