TOM MILLER MIDDLE SCHOOL AND HIGH SCHOOL MEMORIAL INVITATIONAL​

    8-9 October 2022 for debate
    ​9 October 2022 for speech

    DEADLINE
    4 Oct 2022
    NO REFUNDS AFTER 3 OCT 2022
    ELIGIBILITY
    Open to elementary, middle, and high school students
    PLATFORM
    Online through NSDA Campus

    Information

    Dear Colleagues:

    We cordially invite you and your team to attend The Tom Miller Memorial Invitational, held on the weekend of October 8th-9th, 2022. This tournament will be held on the NSDA Campus platform.

    In Memory of Tom Miller
    Tom Miller, whose 40-plus-year UCLA career culminated as senior continuing lecturer in the communication department and award-winning director of the nationally recognized UCLA Speech and Debate team, left us in 2021 from complications related to COVID-19. 
    “The department of communication lost a tremendously valued faculty colleague of more than 40 years,” said Paul Von Blum, senior lecturer emeritus in the department. “Tom Miller was the soul of UCLA debating. He always pursued the principle that reasoned argument was the foundation of the democratic process. He worked tirelessly to pursue that fundamental principle of rational discourse. He succeeded magnificently with so many of his distinguished debaters. Tom was the quintessential mentor.”

    Events and Divisions
    High School
    • For high school debate students, we offer the following divisions: Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Public Forum Debate, and Parliamentary Debate.
    • For high school speech students, we offer synchronous competition in all NSDA Main Speech Events (DI, HI, POI, Info, OO, Duo, Extemp) with the following exceptions: Extemp will be one division that will combine International and Domestic topics. Duo will be Asynchronous. We also offer a division of Declamation (also known as OI), a division of Impromptu Speaking, and a division of Prose and Poetry (to include both Prose & Poetry Interp and Original Prose & Poetry).
    Middle School
    • For middle school debate students, we offer the following divisions: Policy Debate, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Public Forum Debate, and Congressional Debate.
    • For middle school students, we offer divisions of Middle School Spontaneous Argument (SPAR) and Middle School Impromptu.
    • Middle school students are also welcome to enter any of the high school speech divisions.
    Elementary School
    • For our youngest competitors, we have a division of Elementary Impromptu Speaking and a division of Elementary Spontaneous Argument (SPAR).
    • Elementary school students are also welcome to enter any of the middle school divisions.

    Logistics
    Location/Platform
    • This competition will take place online on the NSDA Campus platform. 
    • All competitors must be linked to a Tabroom.com account associated with their school in order to access their competition rooms.
    • All rounds will be single-flighted in order to reduce screen time for both competitors and judges.
    Time Zone
    • Due to our school’s location in California, all times for the tournament will be on Pacific time.

    Double Entry Limitations
    Student Double Entry
    • Congressional Debate will be treated as a Speech event for the purposes of Double Entry.
    • Students are able to enter in one Debate event and up to 2 Speech events with the following exceptions:
    • Students who enter in Congressional Debate cannot enter a speech event, but may still register for another Debate event.
    • Students who enter Extemp can only do Extemp during the Speech pattern, but may still register for a Debate event.
    • Middle school students who register for Debate and two Speech events can additionally register for Middle School SPAR provided they do not advance in Debate.
    • Elementary school students can double enter in Elementary SPAR and Elementary Impromptu.

    Judge Qualifications and Expectations
    • All judges are required to have a linked Tabroom account. This is to ensure they have access to both their ballots and the competition rooms on the NSDA Campus platform.
    • Judges covering high school competitors must be over the age of 18 and have graduated from high school.
    • Judges for Middle School events may be current high school juniors or seniors with significant forensics experience.
    • Judges should have significant experience with digital forensics competitions. Judges are responsible for preparing themselves in the use of Tabroom.com and for what to expect in a digital forensics competition. As a result, there will be no day-of-tournament judge training. Rather we encourage the use of the following resources ahead of the tournament to become prepared:
    • We encourage all judges to review the NSDA Cultural Competency resources (www.speechanddebate.org/judge-training/) and take the course.
    • If you have newer judges, we strongly recommend the Adjudicating Speech and Debate course available via the NSDA (www.speechanddebate.org/judge-training/).
    • Finally, we expect all judges to act in a manner that is inclusive, equitable, and offers constructive criticism to the competitors, regardless of their background or experience.
    • Judge information CANNOT be changed after 4 Oct 2022.
    • Judges who miss a ballot will be charged a $30 fine per ballot missed.
    • All Debate judges are committed to judge one round beyond when the last student from GSA is eliminated from competition in that division. This means that if you have 3 PF judges and one of your PF entries advances to the Quarterfinal round, ALL 3 judges are committed to judge the Semifinal round. 
    • All judges are obligated through the first complete elimination round. For example, if the tournament runs a partial octofinal debate all judges are obligated through the quarterfinal elimination round.
    • All Speech judges are committed to the Final round, and all Congress judges are committed through the Final round.

    Event Specific Information
    Public Forum:
    • Topics
      We offer the September/October NSDA topics in Public Forum debate for both Middle School and High School students.
      Please pay close attention to the name of the division you have selected when registering your entries.
    • Coinflip Process
      Teams will flip for sides and for speaking order in all rounds. Coinflips will be conducted online via Tabroom.com. Flips will become live one minute after pairing release, and the winning team will have five minutes to choose a side or speaking order. If the time elapses, either team may choose.
    • Evidence Expectations
      In Public Forum, evidence must be made available to view upon request from either an opponent or judge.
    Lincoln-Douglas:
    • Topics
      For middle school students and high school students, we offer September/October NSDA topics in Lincoln-Douglas debate.
      Please pay close attention to the name of the division you have selected when registering your entries.
    • Coinflip Process
      Teams will flip for sides in elimination rounds. Coinflips will be conducted online via Tabroom.com. Flips will become live one minute after pairing release, and the winning entry will have five minutes to choose a side. If the time elapses, either entry may choose.
    • Evidence Expectations
      In Lincoln-Douglas, evidence must be made available to view upon request from either an opponent or judge.
    • Argument Restrictions
      The tournament does not take a position on what types of arguments can be advanced by debaters on either side. 
    Congress:
    • Legislation
      Legislation can be submitted until three weeks prior to the tournament. The deadline for submitting legislation is 11:55 PM on September 14th, 2022. 
      On September 15th, 2022, we will post Congressional Legislation to the tournament website.
    • Format
      There will be three prelim rounds and one final round. Legislation will be used in the order of the docket with one bill to be used in the final round.
      Speeches will be three minutes in length, followed by a two minute cross examination from the floor. Speaking order and question precedence will be determined by the Presiding Officer.
      Cross Examination will proceed as follows: Each questioner will have 30 seconds to ask questions once recognized by the presiding officer. This is intended to allow for follow-up questions.
    • Presiding Officers / Parliamentarians
      Each school will be asked to provide one Presiding Officer/Parliamentarian to conduct Congressional Debate rounds. This is in addition to the judging requirement of one judge per 6 entries. 
      Presiding Officers can be current high school competitors with significant Congressional Debate experience.
      You can register your PO/Parliamentarian on Tabroom.com as a Congress judge, and check the “Qualified Parliamentarian” box when entering them.
      ​Schools who have difficulty locating a qualified Parliamentary/Presiding Officer can buy out of this obligation for the same rate as one hired judge for Congressional Debate. 
    Extemp:
    • Extemp prep will start 30 minutes before the extemp round begins.
    Impromptu:
    • Topic Distribution
      Impromptu topics will be emailed to judges 15 minutes before a round is scheduled to begin.
    Spontaneous Argument (SPAR):
    • Side Assignments
      Spar will be paneled similar to a Speech event with sections of 6 competitors per room.
      Odd numbered competitors will be Pro and Even numbered competitors will be Con.
    • Topic / Resolution Process
      ​Judges will receive topics via email 15 minutes before a round is scheduled to begin. Each competitor will debate one other competitor about one topic. Each pair will be given 3 topics/resolutions by the judge.
      The Pro will strike one resolution and then the Con will strike one of the two remaining topics, leaving the pair with one final topic for debate.
    • Vocabulary and Definitions
      Please keep in mind that our competitors are young. Judges may provide definitions of words in the topics.
    • Format and Procedure
      After topic selection, a pair of competitors will have two minutes to prepare their arguments before speaking will commence.
      The Pro speaker will give a two-minute constructive speech in favor of the resolution; immediately after that speech, the Con speaker will give a two-minute constructive speech.
      ​Following the constructives, there will be a four-minute open crossfire.
      The debaters should question each other, and should be prepared to take at least a few questions from the audience of other competitors. The competitors should ask these questions (i.e. not the judge). Any other SPAR competitors listed to speak in that round are permitted to ask crossfire questions (judges and other spectators are not permitted to ask questions).
      Two rebuttal speeches of the Pro followed by the Con complete the round.
      There is no preparation time during the debate.
    • Time Limits
      Prep Time       2 minutes
      Pro Constructive     2 minutes
      Con Constructive     2 minutes
      Open Crossfire     4 minutes
      Pro Rebuttal     2 minutes
      Con Rebuttal     2 minutes
    • Scoring / Ranking
      At the end of the debate, judges will rank the speakers from 1 to 6.
      SPAR competitors should be judged on the basis of overall wit, persuasion and quality argument construction.
    • Procedure for Imbalanced Sections
      If there are an odd number of competitors (5), Competitor 1 will debate again on the opposite side against Competitor 5. Please disregard the second performance from Competitor 1 in selecting your rankings, but please include comments and feedback for the second debate.
    • Example 6 person round:
      Competitor 1 will debate Competitor 2. Competitor 1 will be Pro
      Competitor 3 will debate Competitor 4. Competitor 3 will be Pro
      Competitor 5 will debate Competitor 6. Competitor 5 will be Pro-
    • Example 5 person round:
      Competitor 1 will debate Competitor 2. Competitor 1 will be Pro
      Competitor 3 will debate Competitor 4. Competitor 3 will be Pro
      Competitor 5 will debate Competitor 1. Competitor 5 will be Pro

    Observer Policy
    Coach Viewing
    • We will permit one coach from each school to be added to the backend of the tournament with limited access so they can enter and observe competition rounds. 
      We feel this will help you locate your students more efficiently and would help teams to troubleshoot potential tech issues.
    • This is a privilege. Under no circumstances is a coach to watch a round their competitor is not competing in. It can be revoked if we find out this has been violated.
    Equity and Disputes
    • If, at any time during the tournament, there is a concern regarding equity or a dispute regarding a tournament procedure, we are requiring the individuals to fill out a google form so they can be contacted by the Ombudsperson and Equity Officer. The equity form will be located on our tournament tabroom page. The decisions of the Equity Officer / Ombudsperson are final.

    ​Entry Price

    One speech event and parent is judging $70
    One speech event and parent is opting out of judging $140

    Two speech events and parent is judging $90
    Two speech events and parent is opting out of judging $160

    One congress event and parent is judging $70
    One congress event and parent is opting out of judging $140

    One PF event and parent is judging $70
    One PF event and parent is opting out of judging $190

    One PF plus one speech event and parent is judging on both days $90
    One PF plus one speech event and parent is opting out of judging $210

    One PF plus two speech events and parent is judging on both days $110
    One PF plus two speech events and parent is opting out of judging $230

    One PF plus one congress event and parent is judging on both days $90
    One PF plus one congress event and parent is opting out of judging $210

    One LD event and parent is judging $90
    One LD event and parent is opting out of judging $210

    One LD plus one speech event and parent is judging on both days $110
    One LD plus one speech event and parent is opting out of judging $230

    One LD plus two speech events and parent is judging on both days $130
    One LD plus two speech events and parent is opting out of judging $250
    ​
    One LD plus one congress event and parent is judging on both days $110
    One LD plus one congress event and parent is opting out of judging $230

    Each person in a PF/Duo team would be responsible of providing their own judge, so one PF/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

    SEE THE FULL TENTATIVE SCHEDULE HERE
    • MAKE SURE YOU ARE LOOKING AT THE CORRECT EVENT
    • Please note that all times are in PST.

    Drop Fee

    Drop fees will be the same amounts as the entry fee PLUS any fees the tournament charges us for late drops ($10 nuisance fee). 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
    Suggested attire for the tournament can be found here.
    More tournament resources can be found here.
    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
    Middle school students are welcome to compete in the high school division.
    ​    Elementary students are welcome to compete in the middle school division.
    ​JUDGE PROVISION

    ​Click here to complete the mandatory     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