Dear Coaches and Squads,

              The Mount Rainier Speech and Debate Team invites you to attend our Speech and Debate tournament on December 14^th and 15^th. The tournament will offer Cross Examination (CX), Lincoln Douglas (LD), and Public Forum (PF) Debate, as well as Individual Events (IE). , this is a State Qualifying Tournament in all events above for WCD III schools. We will follow current WSFA rules.  

****NO CONGRESS******

*****DEBATE BALLOTS WILL BE ON TABROOM, MAKE SURE YOUR JUDGES HAVE TABROOM ACCOUNTS******

SUPERVISION:

The WIAA requires the presence, at all times, of a certificated staff member from the school or district supervising your participants. You will not be allowed to compete if you do not comply with this rule.

DEBATE:

Please check www.speechanddebate.org for the accurate topic wording for all topics.

Lincoln-Douglas: We will offer 2 divisions of LD - Novice and Open. As this is a qualifying tournament in LD for many schools we will use the November-December topic for ALL DIVISIONS. Rounds will follow the 6-3-7-3-4-6-3 format and have 4 minutes of down time per competitor.

Cross Examination: We will offer two divisions of CX – Novice and Open. We will follow the Novice case area list as determined at the September WSFA meeting. Please inform you novice teams of their approved case areas. Rounds will follow the 8-3-5 format with 5 minutes of prep time per team.

Public Forum: At this time we will be offering two divisions of PF – Novice and Open. We will use the November-December topic as published on the NSDA website. Please note that PF runs with LD and CX. Rounds will follow standard PF time format with 2 minutes of prep per team and teams will coin flip for pro/con or 1st/2nd speaker.

INDIVIDUAL EVENTS;

We will offer two divisions in all 8 Washington State events. Novice division is open to first year competitors only. Anyone with one year of experience or more must register for Open Division. All IEs compete at the same time and all events conflict. A student may enter more than one IE at their own risk. ROUNDS WILL NOT BE HELD FOR MULTIPLE ENTRIES!

Event rules:

Extemporaneous: State Rules apply. Thirty minutes of prep time followed by 7 minutes of speaking time. Judges will provide time signals while competitor is speaking. Novice speakers may use a 4x6 note card. 30 second grace period.

Oratory: This is a memorized speech that has a ten (10) minute time limit with a 30 second grace period. A manuscript must be available on judge’s request. The speech must have no more than 150 quoted words.

Expository: May be memorized or not memorized with an 8 minute time limit, 30 second grace period. Visual aids are not required but are preferred by most judges. There may be no more than 150 quoted words.

Interpretation: All have a ten (10) minute time limit with 30 second grace period. Programs may be one or more selections of published prose, poetry, radio, or television scripts. The program must be memorized. Titles and authors must be identified during the program. Full body movement is allowed.

Humorous: This must be humorous in nature.

Dramatic: This must be dramatic in nature.

Duo: This may be serious or humorous in nature. Two people perform with no interaction except at introduction if they choose.

Programmed Oral Interpretation: At least one cutting of prose and one cutting of poetry and/or drama linked thematically. We will follow WSFA rules. Time: ten minutes maximum with thirty seconds grace.

Impromptu: The contestant will have 6 minutes in which to choose one of three topics, prepare, organize thoughts, and speak. The topic of choice must be stated as part of the introduction. Judges will give time signals during prep time and while the contestant is speaking. All speakers are to remain in the room until all have performed. The only exception is for double entries. 30 second grace period.

REGISTRATION AND FEES:

Registration this year will occur through the website tabroom.com. The deadline for registration is Wednesday, December 12^th , 2018. Fees will be set on that day. Drops after that time will not be deducted from the entry fee. Please register early. Changes in registration must be made at the website through Thursday afternoon. Please make all your changes before Thursday.

Concerning adds, drops, and changes: Please, make changes before Thursday evening, December 13. Tabroom will be open for changes until 5 pm on Thursday, December 13. Late changes have drastic impacts on the tournament schedule. Any late adds will be assessed a fee. Please make all changes by Thursday evening, December 13. The earlier you can get changes to your entries made, the better the chances are for an ON TIME or early tournament.

Every school is required to pay a $30.00 SCHOOL ENTRY FEE. The fee for each individual event is $10.00. One person doing two events= $20.00. The fee for Dual Interp is $18.00 per pair. Each CX or PF debate team is $20.00. An LD entry is $10.00. Make checks payable to Mount Rainier Debate.

Payment of fees may be made in advance or at ARHS during registration. Acceptable methods of payment are 1) School Check, or 2) Personal Check. Payment must be made before your team can compete.

Please keep track of your entries on the tabroom.com website. I will not be sending any sort of confirmation to you before the tournament. Coaches will be asked on Friday to check IE entries to ensure a smooth Saturday morning. Please take care of debate drops asap so that we can run on time on Friday.

JUDGING:

As there are conflicts in the schedule, please be sure to calculate your judging needs properly. We will not have a large number of judges for hire and need to be able to run the tournament efficiently. Please tell your judges when they need to be in the building to judge as we don’t have a lot of free time. IF YOUR JUDGES DO NOT SHOW WE WILL BE FORCED TO START DROPPING YOUR COMPETITORS – STARTING WITH YOUR MOST SENIOR PEOPLE IN THE EVENT YOUR JUDGES FAIL TO SHOW. THE NUMBER DROPPED WILL BE EQUAL TO THE RATIOS SHOWN BELOW. Ballots will be assigned by name and your judges must pick up their assigned ballots.

• One judge covers five (5) IE entries and 3 LD, CX, or PF debate entries.

• Your school is obligated to provide judges for the categories and divisions in which your students are entered.

• Senior division students with at least one full year of experience who are not competing at MRHS may judge novice division in the events in which they have experience.

Please remember: Lack of a judge at registration will result in an automatic reduction in your school’s number of entries. If your judges do not pick up ballots we will drop competitors starting with Open Division until judging requirements are met. We will reduce numbers starting with your most senior debaters.

ACCOMODATIONS:

Food will be provided for coaches and judges in the judges’ lounge located in the library on both Friday and Saturday. For students, concessions will be available for purchase in the commons area.

DIRECTIONS/PARKING:

Address 22450 – 19th Avenue South • Des Moines, WA 98198

There are two parking lots on campus. One is off of 224^th street and the other smaller one in front of the school off 19^th ave. All parking spots can be used even if they are numbered. Bus dropoff and parking is on the 19^th ave entrance, just south of the front of the building, but north of the baseball field.