STEPHEN STEWART

Dearest High School Forensics Enthusiasts!

You are cordially invited to take part in the Stephen Stewart Memorial Middle and High School Invitational at Milpitas High School. This event will take place Friday, September 30th, through Sunday, October 2nd, 2022. We welcome all competitors in grades six and up. This speech and debate competition will be held in person at Milpitas High School in Milpitas, California. We are committed to providing you with a professional atmosphere and a spirited competitive experience.

We are pleased to announce that the Semi-Finalists in Varsity Public Forum will earn a Gold Bid to the Tournament of Champions in Kentucky. Quarter-Finalists in Varsity Public Forum will earn a silver bid. UKTOC speech bids will be awarded in DI, Duo, Extemp (both DX and IX), HI, Info, POI, and OO. NPDL bids to Parli TOC are allocated based on size of entry. In addition, bids to NIETOC will be available in DI, HI, Extemp (both DX and IX), DUO, POI, Informative, and OO.

Due to limited space, we urge teams to register ASAP. All entries will be initially waitlisted to ensure equal access to the tournament. Every judge must have a Tabroom.com account linked to their email. We encourage early registration, so that you may take advantage of this opportunity and ensure your attendance to the tournament. Unfortunately, Varsity entries are limited; therefore, we will have to turn away entries once our room capacity is met. Varsity debates and JVPF are initially capped at 100 to ensure deserving teams break to Double-Octofinals.

For safety, masks WILL be required indoors at all times, no exception. We will try to have some outdoor alternatives, especially for interp events. Food will be consumed outdoors under covered areas. Based on my experience at NSDA Nationals where covid spread rampant in crowded cafeterias, this is non-negotiable.

Decorum
Please remember to conduct proper communication between competitors and judges. Students will not ask questions about decisions until the judge has submitted their ballot. Judges will not ask questions about arguments or speeches, with the exception of asking to see evidence, until decisions are submitted and confirmed.

Events / Divisions
In debate, we offer Open, Novice and Middle School divisions of Congressional Debate, and both Novice and Open divisions in Parliamentary, Novice and Open LD, and Novice, JV and Varsity Public Forum. We will use the Sept./Oct. LD topic and the Sept./Oct PF topic. Open debate events will make every attempt to break all winning records up to a full double-octofinal round.
In speech we offer Open divisions in all CHSSA events including: Dramatic Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, Oratorical Interpretation (10 minute Declamation), Programmed Oral Interpretation (POI), Duo Interpretation, Original Oratory, Original Advocacy, Informative, Original Prose & Poetry (not to be confused with prose/poetry), Impromptu, Domestic Extemporaneous, and International Extemporaneous.
Speech will break to two Festival finals chambers if there are twenty-eight or more entries; in some events we may have more Festival final sections. Fewer than twenty-eight entries will break directly to Finals. Events with 51+ will break to 3 finals sections. Trophies will go to the top 7 cumulative ranked entries after the Festival Finals round.

Eligibility / Novices

PUBLIC FORUM:

Open/TOC event: Open to all HIGH SCHOOL competitors (Restricted to HS competitors only).
Junior Varsity: Open to ALL competitors
Novice: Open to all competitors who are debating their first year in the type of event (Speech/ Debate) they are entered in. In Teamed events, BOTH team members must meet this qualification. Any competitor in 7th and 6th grade can compete as a novice. 8th graders in their second year or less can debate novice. Any student 8th grade or higher in their third academic year of forensics or higher must go Junior Varsity or higher. Entries younger than 6th grade will not be allowed.

ALL OTHER DEBATE EVENTS:

Open: Open to all competitors.
Novice: Open to all competitors who are debating their first year in the type of event (Speech/ Debate) they are entered in. In Teamed events, BOTH team members must meet this qualification. Any competitor in 7th and 6th grade can compete as a novice. 8th graders in their second year or less can debate novice. Any student in their third academic year of forensics or higher must go varsity. Entries younger than 6th grade will not be allowed.
Middle School Congress: Open to all competitors grades 6-8.

Drops: The deadline to drop without penalty will be on September 15th. Drops after this point will not be refunded due to our commitments to ordering food and room allocations from the school district.

Judges / Judging Obligations

School Judges: Please register judges accurately. Because we will be using entirely electronic ballots in debate it is important that judge registration be accurate. Any attempts to circumvent judge registration processes will result in your team being waitlisted and those spots being given to other teams.
All judges must be qualified to judge the division which they are covering. Novice LD, Open and Novice Public Forum may be used in other events. Speech judges will be used in all speech events.
Elim Commitment: All speech judges are committed for all speech rounds.
In regards to Varsity Debate elimination rounds, all judges are obligated to judge the first elimination round AND one round beyond GSA's best competitive finish. Whichever requirement is later will apply. For example, if GSA has a competitor in the octafinals, then you as a judge are obligated through the quarterfinals. This rule is necessary to ensure the best panels for elimination debates. Please make appropriate logistical arrangements that honor these requirements.

Judge Prefs and Strikes

Judge Philosophy Guidelines. All Varsity judges should have a judge philosophy posted on their Tabroom.com account.
All varsity judges must be entered and have judge philosophies posted at this point for a school to have the privilege of judge preferences/strikes for ALL of their varsity competitors. Failure to have a tabroom paradigms for all your judges results in preferences / strikes being ignored.
Varsity Teams will be allowed up to a maximum of 5 strikes in each division.
Preferences/ strikes will be available at Milpitas.tabroom.com on Tuesday, September 27th, 2022 at 8AM. Prefs and strikes will close on Thursday, September 29th at 5:00 PM.

ATTENTION JUDGES: Penalty for Missing Rounds
Please note there is a $50 per round penalty for any judges that miss their rounds. Judges will be charged if they do not attend their rounds. We prefer not to charge any teams for missing debate rounds and this nuisance fee is only assessed to discourage judges from missing debates to ensure a high quality experience for all competitors. Please ensure your judges who do not currently have a ballot report to the Judges Lounge/Library 15 minutes before the posted round start. They will be dismissed when we start all rounds. If your judge is called for in the Judges’ Lounge/Library while pushing ballots, you may be fined if they do not answer.

Student Conduct
All students are expected to abide by Milpitas High School’s code of conduct, to respect MHS officials and tournament staff, and generally to behave responsibly.

Double Entry

Novice Students may enter up to three events; consisting of one debate event and two speech events. Please note that double entry IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. Exceptions:
>>> A student entering Extemp, may only single enter in the speech events; but may still enter one debate event.
Varsity Students may enter one debate event and up to 2 speech events. Please note that double entry IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. Exceptions:
>>> A student entering Extemp, may only single enter in the speech events; but may still enter one debate event.
>>> Please keep in mind that Round 1 of Speech is concurrent with Elimination rounds of Varsity competition. Double-entered varsity competitors will be placed in Flight B of their last preliminary debate, and placed early in their speech round for round 1 IF rounds are double flighted. Double entered students should compete in their speech event, and then proceed to their debate round.
>>> The coach of a competitor who qualifies to advance in a varsity Debate may be required to choose the event in which the competitor will continue if they are double-entered in speech as well. We will do our best to accommodate these students so long as we can remain on schedule.
>>> Students who double enter are responsible for getting to their rounds on time.

Speech Rules
NSDA rules will be followed as closely as possible for all NSDA events; CHSSA guidelines will be used for the remaining speech events, subject to review by the tournament committee. One notable exception – final placement in speech and congress will be determined by total cumulative score for the whole tournament.

Speech: In the Speech events we will break the top 7 to finals in events that have up to 28 entries. Divisions with more than 28 entries will have the top 12-14 advance to Festival Finals, divisions with more than 51 entries will have three sections of festival finals with 18-21 competitors advancing. We will award trophies up to the top seven in all speech events. Placement will be determined by cumulative ranking.

Debate Rules
Starting with Round 3, all prelim rounds will be power-matched. The 16 individuals/teams with the best win-loss record in the Open Division will advance to the Octofinal elimination round. Brackets will not be broken in eliminations. If entries warrant, a double octofinal will be held to break the maximum number of winning records. In the event the entry/waitist approaches 180 we will announce a double flighted round of 64, but ONLY for winning records.

Tournament Committee: The tournament committee will consist of the tournament director and two directors from other events. The committee will adjudicate any disputes and interpret all rules. Decisions made by the tournament committee are final.

Technology: All teams may use technology, but MUST NOT communicate with coaches or team members outside the round. Parli may not use anything other than timers/airplane mode cellphone timers in round, and cases must be written on paper, not be read off of laptops or other digital devices. Parli teams may use the internet or consult with teammates during prep time, but no judges, parents, or other non-student adults should help students. Appointed staff may clarify basic rules.

LINCOLN DOUGLAS

The Lincoln Douglas debate topic will be the Sep/Oct NSDA topic for BOTH Varsity and Novice divisions. We DO NOT use the NSDA novice topic.
Lincoln-Douglas will include varsity and novice divisions, with NSDA rules and time limits.
There will be five preliminary rounds in varsity LD with an appropriate number of break rounds determined by the entry size. Novice LD will have five rounds, and will award winning records.
Varsity Judging: We encourage you to bring experienced LD judges to judge in the varsity division. "Experienced" is defined as at least a high school graduate who has competitive or coaching experience with LD debate or has significant LD judging experience. Inability to provide experienced judges may limit a team's entry and/or require a team to hire judges to fulfill their obligation. All varsity judges are required to post their judge philosophies on tabroom.com by the preferences deadline. We would like every school that wants to participate to do so; however, we require the best possible judging to ensure students have a positive competitive experience.
Novice Judging: Adults as well as HS Seniors who are 3rd or 4th year varsity debaters are eligible to judge in the novice divisions. Coaches/Directors are responsible for ensuring that any varsity debaters are knowledgeable and responsible enough to fairly assess a novice debate round.

PUBLIC FORUM

Will use the Sep/Oct topic. We do NOT use the NSDA novice topic.
All PF will flip for side and speaker order in both Prelims and Elims.
NSDA pilot rules and time limits will be utilized. 3 minute summaries, 4 minutes of prep.
Only HS debaters in their first year of competition, eighth graders in their 1st or 2nd year, and any 6th or 7th grader, may enter the novice division.

Awards

Individual Awards: Individual awards will be presented to all debaters advancing to the Octofinals in debate events. All finalists in speech events and Congress will be presented awards. Novice will receive Trophies for 5-0, and medals for 4-1 records.
Speaker Awards: We will also award speaker awards for debaters. Top 5 speakers in each debate event will receive awards from the tab room.
Debate Results: Results for each varsity debate round will be posted each round starting after Round 3. Please do not request to see results at the tab room unless you question the posted results. Novice debate results will be published after awards.

STEPHEN STEWART MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL INVITATIONAL

30 September - 2 October 2022

Information

Entry Price

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!

School year Hours

Telephone

Email (preferred)

Locations