LAKELAND WESTCHESTER CLASSIC 2022

    4-6 March 2022

    DEADLINE
    26 Feb 2022
    ELIGIBILITY
    Open to middle and high school students
    PLATFORM
    Online through NSDA Campus

    Information

    The Spring Break Special
    March 19th - March 20th, OnlineHosted by



     
    On behalf of Equality in Forensics, we invite you to attend the Spring Break Special, scheduled to occur March 19th to March 20th, 2022. The objective of Equality in Forensics is to provide free, online debate opportunities to make speech and debate more accessible to high school students across America. Read more about our mission here.
     
    The Spring Break Special will offer Lincoln-Douglas Debate and Congressional Debate and will operate on National Speech & Debate Association (NSDA) standard procedure and rules. Rounds will be held in Zoom rooms. Registration and tabulation is on Tabroom, which you can find here: equalityinforensics.tabroom.com.
     
    Lincoln-Douglas Debate will consist of
    • Three prelim rounds on Saturday, March 19th
    • Semifinals and finals on Sunday, March 20th
     
    Congressional Debate will consist of
    You can contact Equality in Forensics through our email equalityinforensics@gmail.com. Additionally, you can join our community and contact us directly on our Discord server.
     
    We are excited to host this tournament to demonstrate the impact of online speech & debate, exercise our values of accessibility and equality, and display the power of student initiative. See you there!
     
    -    Equality in Forensics Board of Directors

    Virtual Protocol 
    The Spring Break Special will be hosted on Zoom. All rounds will be hosted on Zoom, and no rounds may be conducted outside of Zoom unless otherwise specified by tournament staff.
     
    Participating in this tournament as either a judge or a competitor is a certification that you and your guardians (if you are under the age of 18) have given respective consent for you to judge or compete.
     
    This is a list of best practices to follow while competing. Please do your best to follow these standards.
     
    1. Update Zoom to the latest version before the day of competition
    2. Check your Tabroom email for round info or other updates regularly.
    3. Mute your microphone if not speaking.
    4. Keep cameras on whenever possible.
    5. If you are an observer, keep your camera off and remain named 'Observer' in the Zoom room.
     
    If you encounter any technical issues, please let tournament staff know as soon as possible. This can be done by emailing us (equalityinforensics@gmail.com) or contacting us on our Discord server.
     
    Tournament updates will be pushed out through email, as well as Discord. If you are judging or competing it is highly recommended that you join our Discord server, not only to stay on top of updates, but also to join our lovely community!
     
    We ask that judges please take note of technical issues and the challenges faced in the digital world. Please do not let technical issues sway your decision, and if you encounter any problems yourself, please reach out to tournament staff ASAP.

     
    Accountability 
    Equality in Forensics highly values accountability, diversity, and tolerance.
     
    Our tournament staff is subject to an honor code, as well as an accountability policy. If you observe any violation of this policy, or have other concerns about a tournament staff member's integrity, please reach out to us by email: equalityinforensics@gmail.com. All reports will be handled in a discrete manner in accordance with our accountability policy.
     
    Our staff, competitors, and judges are held to a standard of tolerance. If you are reading potentially objectionable arguments, please run it by your judge and opponent first. Our priority is inclusion. If you have concerns about intolerance, harassment, discrimination, or other problems in- or out-of-round, please contact a tournament staff member or reach out to us by email: equalityinforensics@gmail.com.
     
    To prevent such incidents from occurring, we highly encourage all judges to read through the "Cultural Competence Training Handout" and watch the "Cultural Competence Training Video" on NSDA's official website.
     
     
     
    Read more about our accountability policy.

     
    Timeline 
    Timeline subject to change. Please reach out on Discord or by email with any questions. equalityinforensics@gmail.com
     
    January 16th
     
    Online registration for competitors and judges begins on equalityinforensics.tabroom.com.

     
    March 5th
     
    Congress legislation submissions are due.

     
    March 6th
     
    Congress legislation packet is released on equalityinforensics.tabroom.com.

     
    March 17th
     
    Registration for competitors closes for all events. All drops, changes, and obligations are due.

     
    March 19th
     
    Tournament begins, with pairings released at 2:00 PM Eastern Time.

     
    Events 
    All events will follow NSDA rules unless otherwise specified.
     
     
    Lincoln-Douglas Debate
     
    There will be one (1) open division of Lincoln-Douglas Debate. After three (3) preliminary rounds, there will be single-flighted semifinals and finals.
     
    Debaters will have four (4) minutes of prep time each. The topic for LD will be the 2022 January-February National Speech and Debate Association topic: Resolved: The appropriation of outer space by private entities is unjust.
     
     
    Congressional Debate
     
    There will be one (1) open division of Congressional Debate. After two (2) preliminary rounds, there will be a final round.
     
    Chambers will have no more than fifteen (15) people. Preliminary rounds will last no longer than two (2) hours, and finals will last no longer than two and a half (2.5) hours.
     
    Please submit legislation by email to equalityinforensics@gmail.com, or to a tournament staff member on Discord, no later than March 5. Each student may submit no more than one (1) piece of legislation.

    Eligibility 
    All students currently enrolled in grades 9-12 are eligible to compete. All students currently enrolled in grades 9-12, as well as qualified adults, coaches, or former competitors, are eligible to judge.
     
    Independents are allowed, and common! Equality in Forensics thinks that independent entry into competitions allows students to grow externally from their debate program, giving them more opportunities to improve, network, and compete.
     
    Teams from non-educational institutions or informal groups are also allowed!
     
    Judge selection is subject to the discretion of tournament staff. We will select the most qualified judges, and do our best to avoid having students and FYOs judging.

     
     
    Judging 
    As a student-run, fully online tournament, we deeply appreciate our judges. By making this tournament possible, you enable our mission of making speech & debate more accessible across the country.
     
    Judge registration opens January 16th. Judge registration and pairings remain subject to change throughout the competition.
     
    Students and FYOs may judge, but we will prioritize coaches, former debaters, and other qualified adults. If we do not have enough judges by time of competition, competitors may be asked to judge.
     
    We can certify judging as service hours. Time spent judging at the Spring Break Special is also qualified to be entered as NSDA service points.
     
    If you are entering in the Spring Break Special, please bring a judge. We do not require it, but without judges, our tournament cannot function. Thank you!
    ​

    ​Entry Price

    LD event and parent is judging $80
    LD and parent is OPTING OUT OF JUDGING $200

    PF and parent is judging $65
    PF and parent is OPTING OUT OF JUDGING $185

    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 - EST

    Please note that all times are in EASTERN STANDARD TIME (EST).

    Full schedule click below, pay attention to the specific events:
    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BqNzEvw6YoJYiJHaqz1Jxzusmi3dOSA3PT_bfrR9j3E/edit?usp=sharing

    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
    ​JUDGE PROVISION

    ​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

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 

Loving Tree Academy: 36601 Newark Blvd, #83, Newark, CA 94560