SEATTLE

We cordially invite you to the Seattle University high school speech and debate tournament held online at NSDA’s Campus. Seattle U is ready to go and is very pleased to have Sarah Sherry, Puyallup High School Speech and Debate Coach, as Tournament Director. I, Jim Hanson, Speech and Debate Coach at Seattle University, serve as Tournament Host. We are ready to provide a quality tournament for you and your students.

This year, we will be offering Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum (both with an Open and Junior Division) and Congressional Debate (in Open division). In addition, we will be offering all eight of the Washington State Individual Events, in addition to SPAR and EdComm, in Open division (with a celebration of the top novice in each category). TRIPLE ENTERING IN ASYNCHRONOUS INDIVIDUAL EVENTS ALLOWED!

While this tournament is near the end of the season in Washington state, we are committed to focusing our tournament on education. We are thrilled that the tournament is a TOC bid tournament for Public Forum Gold in Finals and a NIETOC bid in all NIETOC IE’s. NIETOC bids are based on the total number of students participating, so PLEASE be aware of that if you need to drop a student from an event. Also, all PF will be using the JANUARY PF TOPIC!

We will do our best to make sure that the tournament runs smoothly, professionally, and on time. The philosophical goals of our tournament are: Inclusivity, Encourage scholarship, Record excellence, and Balance the spirit of competition with the educational goals of forensics. We hope that you will join us to forge the spirit of competition and continue the tradition of excellence as Seattle U hosts what hopefully will be a great tournament.

Seattle U Debaters and Coaches will be assisting. We are very grateful and thankful for the assistance of the debaters and coaches from Puyallup High School for all of their help.

Registration
Drops after the deadline will not be refunded. Late changes have a drastic impact on the tournament schedule. The earlier you can make changes for your entries, the better the chances are for an ON-TIME tournament. This is equally as true for students as it is for judges. If you have drops or changes in either category, please let Nadia and Victor know STAT.

Online Specific Info:

We will be using NSDA Campus. Make sure that your students have active Tabroom accounts well ahead of the tournament. Otherwise, they won’t be able to compete.
Cameras should be on but are not required. This is a safeguard against outside assistance, and it is an important accessibility feature. Cameras also help maintain the social atmosphere of speech and debate.
MAKE SURE YOUR STUDENTS ARE READY TO GO. They need a decent webcam, working microphone and speakers, and MOST IMPORTANT, reliable internet connection.

An Inclusive Tournament
At all times, treat each other with courtesy and respect. Every person. Every room. We want a fun, positive, and educational environment.

Mistreatment happens?
If you are mistreated or you witness mistreatment—we encourage you to speak up against that if you feel safe doing so. Please report such events to Jim Hanson at hansonj@seattleu.edu
If you are a coach or judge, you are _required_ to speak against mistreatment and report it to Jim Hanson at hansonj@seattleu.edu

Inclusive Pronouns
We encourage students, judges, and coaches to refer to each other by name or by speaker
position; you can use “they” and “their” as well. Please DO NOT ASSUME someone else’s gender.

Students and Judges with Disabilities
Have a need? Please contact Jim Hanson at hansonj@seattleu.edu We want you to participate!

Judging Equitably
Judges primary responsibilities include:

Make a welcoming environment at the beginning of the round. Hellos. Supportive comments. Equal amount of talking with all participants. At all times, treat students and others in the round with equity, kindness and professionalism.
During the round, we encourage you to use supportive non-verbals. (if you don’t like an argument, that can be an exception so you help the students know that)
If you see mistreatment—stop it and report it to Jim Hanson at hansonj@seattleu.edu
As soon as possible at the end of the round, submit your ballot with winners/rankings/speaker points. You can return to include comments later. We need your ballot winner/rankings/speaker points ASAP or it slows the entire tournament.
In your feedback—be educational—you aren’t there to criticize the students—they’ve put effort into this activity. You are there to help them to improve. SKIP “You did this bad” and instead use the language of improvement “You should...”

ALL Judges should view this material: https://www.speechanddebate.org/judge-training/
On that website, you will find information on culturally competent judging and a link to the NFHS and their free training, entitled “Adjudicating Speech and Debate”

Students should not be judged on their clothing nor appearance unless their clothing undermines their speech’s specific message or encourages violence, hate or disruption during the tournament.
We are all influenced by implicit bias, or the stereotypes that unconsciously affect our decisions. When judging, our implicit biases negatively impact students who are traditionally marginalized and disenfranchised. Before writing comments or making a decision, please take a moment to reflect on any biases that may impact your decision making process.
Please remember that the video quality of a student’s performance or speech may be impacted by lighting, internet, access to equipment, and other family members’ presence in the home. To ensure a more equitable experience for our participants, please be sure your decision-making process and comments are related only to the content and quality of the presentation or speech itself.

Debate

LD, Public Forum, and Congressional Debate happen live—synchronously.
We will use the January PF and January-February LD debate topics. Congressional Debate will use the Spring packet of legislation.
Students cannot double enter in PF, LD, Congress debate.
Teams in LD and PF are allowed up to ten minutes of tech time. If the debate is paused for technology related reasons, that team’s Tech Time begins to count down. If a team uses all of their Tech Time before the round ends, they will be required to forfeit that round. The tech time is not to be used as prep.

It is our intent to offer a full-service tournament which allows students to compete in multiple preliminary rounds and then elimination rounds. While our schedule plans for extensive elimination rounds, this is entirely a “numbers permitting” proposition; due to total registration number, prelim round breaks, unforeseen scheduling conflicts or low judging numbers we reserve the right to alter the schedule as needed.

Lincoln-Douglas: We will offer 2 divisions of LD - Junior and Open. Rounds will follow the 6-3-7-3- 4-6-3 format and have 4 minutes of prep time per competitor. We will be using the January/February topic as published on the NSDA website. Resolved: The appropriation of outer space by private entities is unjust.

Public Forum: We will be offering two divisions of Public forum – Junior and Open. Rounds will follow standard PF time format with 3 minutes of prep per team and teams will coin flip for pro/con or 1st/2nd speaker. We will use the January topic as published on the NSDA website. Resolved: The United States federal government should legalize all illicit drugs.

Congressional Debate: We will be offering Open division for Congressional Debate. We will have no more than 25 students per chamber. Students will use the Spring WSFA congressional packet. This can be found on our tabroom.com site and the Forensics page of WIAA. Please be sure your Congressional debaters have their own copies of the legislation. Based on the preliminary rounds, we will then break a maximum of 20(ish) students to Super Session.

We will follow the docket setting method suggested by the WSFA committee. Each school represented in each house will draw numbers to determine the order for a legislation draft. They will then take turns picking bills to be debated. This will determine the docket for the session.
Separate Legislation for Super Congress is included in the WSFA packet and will ONLY be used for Super Congress. Any contestant may sponsor such an item in the event an author is not present in the chamber.

Individual Events: Synchronous Events
Each student may enter ONLY ONE Synchronous Event. READ THE RULES CAREFULLY.

Synchronous events (happening live) include IMPROMPTU, EXTEMP, and SPAR and happen as part of the “traditional schedule.” Students should have time to compete in both Debate and synchronous events, if they so choose. Students must show up live to compete in these events.

Synchronous judges must be able to judge preliminary and elimination rounds on Saturday January 29. These events should function much the same as they might at a brick- and-mortar tournament.

EXTEMPORANEOUS: Thirty minutes before speaking time, each speaker will select a topic from a choice of three--distributed on a Google Doc 30 minutes before speaking. Questions will be based on current events. Speaker will be expected to organize and analyze material relevant to the subject area and answer the chosen question. Time: seven minutes (7) maximum, with thirty seconds (30) grace.
IMPROMPTU: Student will be given a choice of three topics distributed in round. The student will choose a topic and have six minutes to prepare and speak on the chosen topic. Time may be used in any manner the speaker chooses (example-2 minutes prep and 4 speaking or 4 minutes prep and 2 minutes speaking). Time: six minutes (6) maximum, with thirty seconds (30) grace.
SPAR: Each spar panel consists of approximately eight competitors. The debaters will be assigned affirmative or negative until all debaters are assigned to a side by the judge prior to the start of the round. Each pair will consider a single issue/resolution which is presented to the debaters by the judge right before each pair debates. The affirmative will have one minute before speaking must commence. The first affirmative speaker will give a two-minute speech in favor of the resolution; immediately after that speech, the first negative speaker will refute the position in a two-minute constructive. Strict adherence to the exact wording of the resolution is not required, but the debaters should at least regard the topic as a common frame-of-reference. Please see posted information on our tabroom.com page for more information on this event.

Individual Events: Asynchronous Events
Each student may enter a MAX OF THREE Asynchronous Events. READ THE RULES CAREFULLY.

Recordings must be submitted/sent to Nadia by Monday January 24.

Speech judges will receive ballots Thursday night for the pre-recorded asynchronous individual events, and they must be returned Friday at 8:00 PM (Note—if you are also judging debate, you need to complete your ballots BEFORE the synchronous tournament starts on Friday afternoon). Asynchronous Speech judges must also be available to adjudicate finals on Saturday (see schedule for time).

INFORMATIVE: A speech that is designed to be informative in nature. Visual aids and note cards are permitted, but are not required. Time: ten minutes (10) maximum, with thirty seconds (30) grace.
DRAMATIC INTERP: A cutting from a published play, prose, poetry, TV, or radio script, which is serious in nature. The presentation is memorized but given without props or costumes. Time: ten
(10) minutes maximum with 30 second grace period.
DUAL INTERP: A cutting from a published play, prose, poetry, TV, or radio script, which may be either humorous or serious in nature. The selection must be memorized but given without props or costumes. Time: ten minutes (10) maximum with a 30 second grace period.
ORATORY: An original speech designed to persuade—that is, to change or reinforce an existing belief, to eulogize, to cause agreement with a speaker’s position, or to motivate to action. This is a memorized event. Time: ten minutes (10) maximum, with a 30 second grace period
HUMOROUS INTERP: A cutting from a published play, prose, poetry, TV, or radio script, which is humorous in nature. The presentation is memorized. Time: ten (10) minutes with thirty seconds
(30) grace.
PROGRAMMED ORAL INTERP (POI): At least one cutting of prose and one cutting of poetry linked thematically. Time: ten (10) minutes maximum with thirty seconds of grace.

ASYNCHRONOUS ONLINE SPECIFIC INFO

Your recordings must begin with the introduction "My name is (First Name Last Name) from (School Name). I am presenting the following (Event Name) for the 2022 Seattle U High School Tournament." This will serve as proof that your recording is intended for competition in this tournament only. If the introductory phrase is not present, it will not be scored by judges.
There are to be no in person audiences during the recording.

Recordings are to be made from a single camera in a fixed position.
Editing of recordings is not permitted and there should be no breaks in recording.
Unless otherwise noted, all rounds will be judged using a single video submission.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR VIDEO
After recording the performance with the program of your choice, complete these steps

CREATE A YOUTUBE ACCOUNT, if you do not already have one.
PUBLISH YOUR VIDEO: Log in to www.youtube.com, click “upload” at the top of the front page. Upload in standard and not high-definition.
EDIT VIDEO DETAILS: The title of your video should be the event followed by your name (ie PROSE-Your Name). In the description, add the TITLE of your selection, along with your NAME.

EDIT VIDEO VISIBILITY: When creating the Visibility, change the audience option from “Public” to “Unlisted” to ensure the privacy of your video; only those with a link to the video can watch. Do not make your video “Private” or “Public”
Confirm Viewability: After your video is fully uploaded, please ensure that your video has no technical issues with sound/video and that the performance is viewable from beginning to end. You might share the link with someone you trust in order to double-check that the link works.
List here or send this URL to Nadia immediately so she may upload it to Tabroom.

Judging:

Every round, every judge listed should be available. In addition to TWO rounds BEYOND the last round in which your team is competing.
ALL judges must have a tabroom.com account!!!! All ballots will be on-line. Please make sure your judges are familiar with this system. It is imperative that all judges are reminded to push “start round” to signify that they have accepted the ballot. At the conclusion of each round, judges will be prompted to double-enter all ballots. Additional comments can be entered later but getting ballots in on a timely basis is key to keeping the tournament on track.
When judges are late or miss rounds, it undermines the entire tournament—one late round means the entire tournament is late. As a result—we will charge fees if judges miss rounds. For judges who do not show up to rounds consistently, we will contact coaches and if arrangements/alternatives cannot be established, we reserve the right to assess nuisance/hired judge fees.

SEATTLE UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOL SPEECH AND DEBATE TOURNAMENT

28-29 January 2022 for live debate
29 January 2022 for live speech
27-29 January 2022 for asynchronous speech judging

Information

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Schedule

Drop Fee

Contact Info

Registration Form

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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