Florida Manatee District Qualifier

for the 2020 National Tournament

Schools who are chartered and affiliated with the Florida Manatee of the NSDA are cordially invited to enter and participate in the Florida Manatee District Tournament at the above locations and dates. Qualifiers to the National Tournament will be based on actual entries competing in each event. However, our District may earn bonus entries based on our total number of Member Degrees (currently, our District has three qualifiers per event (4 in some), provided we meet the minimum number of entries). Please enter all your school’s NSDA points in a timely fashion to avoid a mad scramble as we prepare to send our students to the 2020 National Tournament held June 14-19 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Procedures and Deadlines for Entry:

Schools must complete all entries online on Tabroom.com

Student Entry: Tabroom.com (floridamanatee.tabroom.com), which will be active December 6, 2019. If you have not previously used this entry site, click on the “Create a New Account” link and register your school. Next, click on the link to “Tournaments” and then find the Florida Manatee District Tournament. You are responsible for meeting all entry limitations and requirements. Students must be members of the NSDA with an active online account and must have at least 25 points to compete at the district tournaments. All fees must be paid to the NSDA for membership prior to competition.

 A school may enter no more than the maximum number listed on the Chapter Entries Formula from the Tournament Manual. If qualified, a school may enter up to two bonus entries.

Each school may, within their maximum number, enter no more than four debate teams, four Public Forum teams, four Lincoln Douglas competitors, four Big Question debaters, four Duo teams and four competitors in each Individual Event.

School Consent Form must be downloaded and printed from Tabroom.com and brought to registration. All forms are due Friday at registration. 

Single Entry Letters of Intent must be completed for each student at the tournament. Forms must be downloaded, printed and signed. All letters will be collected at registration. Letters can be downloaded from Tabroom.com

Help with Tabroom? Please visit: http://docs.tabroom.com/FAQ.

Tournament Dates: 

February 22-23, 2020 Speech, Debate Events                   Dillard High School

Events: Policy Debate, Lincoln Douglas Debate, Public Forum Debate, Original Oratory, International Extemporaneous Speaking, United States Extemporaneous Speaking, Dramatic Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Program Oral Interpretation, and Informative Speaking. Double Entry is only allowed in Speech Events. All students may enter in Congress.

Final Registration: Friday February 21, 2020 (4-6 p.m.)   NSU University School

March 5-6, 2020           House, Senate (Congress Events), Big Questions             Pompano Beach 

April 5, 2020                  Worlds Debate                       Cypress Bay High School

Deadlines: Online Entry deadline is Wednesday, February 5, 2020 at 11:59 pm for the IE/Debate tournament, Wednesday February 26, 2020 at 11:59 pm for the Congress/Big Questions tournament and Wednesday April 1, 2020 at 11:59 pm for Worlds Debate.

Student Entry Fees: $30 per student, per tournament (except Worlds Debate, which is free of charge, but students must have competed at any other of the two district tournaments). Tournament fees include lunch on both days for all entries, with options to purchase dinner (for a separate fee) in the afternoon.

Make Checks Payable To: Florida Manatee Speech and Debate League, NSDA

Broward Public Schools funding is all done through Broward Debate Initiative and the team at Civic Engagement. Megan West and/or Justin Weaver will contact all Broward public schools about funding students for the district tournament. The NSDA Florida Manatee District is separate from the Broward Public Schools and cannot handle these requests.

Tournament Structure: This is new to the district. Please read carefully. In all debate events, we will run a 6 round regular tournament (first two rounds randomly paired, remaining rounds paired high/low within brackets). Then we will break to single elimination with winning records. This operates as a standard debate tournament until we reach semifinals. The preliminary rounds will feature one judge per round and the elimination rounds will offer a panel of 3 judges per round. In all speech events, we will run 4 preliminary rounds with 2 judges per round. The top 12 entries (more if needed for ties) will advance to the semifinal round, then the top 6 will advance to the final round (both semis and finals will feature 3 judges). The speech functions as a non-cumulative tournament. LD and PFD will be in separate patterns and the speech events will be patterned as well. In Congress events, we will feature 2 preliminary sessions in both the House and Senate. The House will break to semifinals and finals. The Senate will break directly to finals. In the House, we will be taking SIX from each preliminary chamber into Semis and SEVEN from each Semis chamber into Finals. EIGHT will qualify. In the Senate, we will be taking SEVEN from each preliminary chamber into Finals. TWO will qualify. 

Judge Requirements: Every effort will be made to recruit qualified judges from area college programs and other similar pools. Each school must provide one qualified adult judge for every five (5) IE entries and one qualified adult judge for every two (2) debate entries. On the Congress weekend, each school must provide one qualified adult judge for every five (5) Congress entries. Your judges MUST be available to judge THROUGHOUT the tournament. You must meet your judging commitment on Saturday as well as all day Sunday. Please make every effort to bring qualified judges. If your team does not have the required number of judges, your entry will be reduced. Schools entering in debate must bring qualified debate judges. Judges should be trained in events that they can possibly judges. Keep in mind, that all Public Forum Debate judges will also judge Lincoln Douglas Debate and vice versa. 

Volunteer Judges: We are going to ask community members (educators, etc.) to volunteer and judge at the tournament. If you know anyone willing to help in this capacity, please email committee member Renea Moss (renea.moss@browardschools.com). Renea will send out a form to anyone interested.

Schedule and Registration: Final tournament registration (where the committee will collect all forms, handle issues and payment) will take place on Friday February 21, 2020 at NSU University School from 4:00-6:00 p.m.

On Saturday morning, judge training will begin at 7:30 a.m. All rounds will begin at 8:30 a.m.  In Debate we will run 5 preliminary rounds on Saturday and the final preliminary round on Sunday followed by the elimination rounds. In Speech, we will run 3 preliminary rounds on Saturday and on Sunday we will run the final preliminary round followed by semifinals and finals. 

At the Congress tournament, coach check-in at Pompano Beach High School will be from 3:30-4:00 p.m. Preliminary sessions will begin at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday and 8:30 a.m. on Friday. REMINDER: All Congressional paperwork is due at the initial registration. 

Online Ballots & Judge Training: Judges should have an active Tabroom.com account as we are using online ballots for the tournament. Additionally, judges should review judge training materials provided through the NSDA: https://www.speechanddebate.org/judge-training/

Internet Rules: Per the coaches’ request, we will pilot the internet rules for Extemporaneous Speaking, Debate, and Student Congress. However, the pilot internet rules will NOT be used at the 2020 National Tournament. The pilot internet rules will go into effect at the 2021 National Tournament. Here are the rules: https://www.speechanddebate.org/wp-content/uploads/Pilot-Internet-Rules.pdf

Tournament Rules:

Tournament manuals for the IE/Debate tournament and the Student Congress tournament are available to all NSDA members on the speechanddebate.org website in the “District” section find the link to “Tournament Manual.”

• 2020-2021 NSDA High School Unified Manual (See pages 70-72 for Online Requirements)

• Pilot Rules for Qualifying Tournaments (will be official 2021-2022 rules)

• Debate = Method 3; Speech & Congress = Pilot

Interpretation Events: Current NSDA manuscript rules will be followed. Therefore, with all speech entries you must submit and maintain a copy of the original script materials and cuttings at the tournament.  Coaches are responsible for ensuring all scripts follow NSDA rules. Any Interpretation material that is sourced online must be from the NSDA Approved Websites List for Interpretation Events. All Interpretation competitors must have available at the tournament the original published source of their cutting or the web address for the original published source. All interpretation piece information must be noted on Tabroom.com for all entries. 

Big Questions: We will feature Big Questions Debate at this year’s qualifying tournament. However, all entries must be single student only and each school is limited to only four (4) entries. The topic is: Resolved: .

Congress Legislation: Congress legislation will be available no later than February 18, 2021 on Tabroom.com. Please email all Congress legislation to committee member, Aly Fiebrantz (afiebran@nova.edu). Legislation is due February 12, 2021. Semi and final legislation will be written and compiled by a third party. 

Debate Topics: In Lincoln Douglas Debate: Resolved: States ought to eliminate their nuclear arsenals. In Public Forum Debate, the February topic will be used, and the topic area is the Economy: The final two resolutions will be announced and voted on starting December 23, 2019. The final February topic will be released January 1, 2020. In Policy Debate: Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially reduce Direct Commercial Sales and/or Foreign Military Sales of arms from the United States.

Extemporaneous Speaking: Topic areas will be released online on Tabroom.com prior to the tournament. No notes may be used in Extemporaneous Speaking, a student may not leave the prep room without permission of the Extemporaneous Speaking Proctor, a student may not consult any other individual during preparation time, students may only consult approved published materials. Violation of the above rules may result in disqualification. Final round of Extemporaneous Speaking WILL include cross-examination.

Student of the Year, Alumni of the Year and Administrator of the Year nominations should be completed and email to committee member Ryan Levesque (ryan.levesque@ahschool.com), Ryan will send out links to the applications to everyone prior to the tournament.

Help Sessions: A member of the district committee will be available at the following tournaments to help with any issues regarding NSDA, tournament registration and other logistical issues. SFCFL 3 Miami Beach, The Sunvitational (NSU University School), January and February Broward Debate AST, FFL Regionals (West Broward). These sessions will be organized by committee member, Stephen Jones (stephen.p.jones@browardschools.com)

 After all information is read carefully, if you have any questions please let us know.

The NSDA Florida Manatee Committee

Ryan Levesque, Alyssa Fiebrantz, Renea Moss, Stephen Jones, and Jacob Abraham