West Los Angeles District Qualifier

for the 2020 National Tournament

SIMPLIFIED AND UPDATED FOR OUR 5/9 BIG QUESTIONS QUALIFIER:

As you’ve probably heard, the NSDA National Championship will be held online. Their FAQ can be found here: https://www.speechanddebate.org/nationals/ . This FAQ concerns the West Los Angeles NSDA National Qualifying Tournament in BIG QUESTIONS.

The results for the other competitive categories are already done.

[BIG PICTURE TIMELINE]

By May 1st, World Schools applications are due. Nominations for student/coach/etc of the year are due.

By May 6th at 11:59 PM, fees/judges/entries for BIG QUESTIONS are due.

On May 9th, our BIG QUESTIONS tournament takes place over Zoom.

SCHEDULE:

[May 9th, 2020]

9 AM - BQ Round 1 (Over Zoom)

11 AM - BQ Round 2 (Over Zoom)

1 PM - BQ Round 3 (Over Zoom)

3 PM - BQ Round 4 (Over Zoom)

5 PM - BQ Round 5 (Over Zoom)

ASAP - BQ Round 6/7 (Over Zoom) - Depending on entries.

Only students who are members of the National Speech and Debate Association AT LEAST SEVEN DAYS PRIOR to the tournament are eligible to enter. To be safe, all points must be on record at the National Office by May 2nd, 2020.  Students may only participate if their school is a current West LA District Chapter or Affiliate. As agreed upon by the Association of Secondary School Principals, a school must be a degree-granting institution as specified by the NSDA.

If you do not enter judges by May 6 at 11:59 PM, we will assume you are hiring judge(s).  The fees for hired judges CANNOT be waived or refunded after this date even if you bring enough judges to cover your entry the day of the tournament, as we have already made financial arrangements with the hired judges.

Remember, the procedures for this tournament are very different from those at other league tournaments. If you are unfamiliar with those procedures, we encourage you to check out the tournament handbook: https://www.speechanddebate.org/rules-forms-manuals/. 

We will use an up-down system in debate (once a team has two losses, they will be eliminated). We we go until

The tournament will use Zoom as the main platform for competition. All coaches will need to submit their own, their judges, and their participants' email addresses for the Zoom Platform to iaingabriel@gmail.com.

All participants in the tournament will receive a link to a Zoom Meeting Room that is password protected. Upon entry, everyone will be placed in the waiting room and will have to be accepted.

Students and judges will be assigned to breakout rooms (virtual competition rooms) in order to participate in their debates. All judges and students will be assigned to individual rooms. Upon the completion of the debate, students and coaches will return back to the main room.

All judges will need to be logged on to the Zoom main rooms at least 10 minutes prior to their assigned rounds. 

IMPORTANT FOR JUDGES

1) Please approach this with a good attitude and do your best to troubleshoot and resolve any issues.  The debate community is just figuring out how to debate online and we’ve found that once someone solves a technical problem it is resolved.

2) You will receive a pairing via text/email from tabroom.com, just as you would in any other tournament.

3) If you have any trouble with sound or MIC, select, “Join room in an alternate way” or “Join Via app.”

4) If you have any issues, text 8186058065 with your event, the room number, and the issue you are having.

5) When you enter the room, please enter as Judge-Your Name.

6) After you are in the room, please account for all debaters. Once the debaters are present, please click, “Start Round” on tabroom.com, just as you normally would.

7) Check the names of each person (including observers) Students: School-first name, Judge: first last and "judge". Observers: first, last and school affiliation (this could be tab, could be parent, could be school/coach). Make sure everyone has the proper naming.

8) Check Cameras -- ask everyone to have a camera on, including yourself.

9) Suggest Gallery view.

10) Test volume -- ask each debater to read something at their "debate pace" for say 15-20 seconds to test volume and clarity.

11) Explain that everyone muted except the speaker(s) and that they can see this when they are ready to speak by looking at the microphone settings for each person in the gallery.

12) Ask the debaters if they have a prep method (phone call, or separate chat).

13) Ask for any clarifications or questions.

14) Monitor what happens in the debate room.  Even if you don't want to be on the email chain, you should be able to monitor arrival times of email and format of exchange.  Feel free to pause before a crossfire or a speech if an observer has entered the room that is not correctly identified by their name.

ONLINE DECORUM/RULES

Dress and Video Policies:

Students and judges are expected to follow appropriate online behavior and decorum.

They should treat the online format as if they are in a classroom.

We will request that students and judges be at a workstation of some sort where personal items (bedrooms, etc) are hidden from view. Students or judges violating decorum may be removed from the tournament.

It may be impossible to conceal all personal items from sight. We would ask that a reasonable standard be applied; try to conceal anything inappropriate.

During the debate:

All participants should keep their video on at all times.

Additionally, on Zoom, please use your actual name. This is to ensure the correct people are placed in the correct debates.

Recording Debates:

Due to the nature of online debates, the tournament cannot control audio and/or video recording of the debate. However, what we have done proactively is disabled the ability of individuals to record the debate from the Zoom Platform. Please ensure consent among parties in order to record debates.

Coaching/Prep

We will use NSDA internet rules for the tournament.

Coaches should not be communicating with their competitors during the round.

In addition, competitors should not be communicating with outside individuals during the round. Anyone found to be violating this policy, is subject to being removed. Please help us provide a quality experience and maintain the integrity of the activity.

All concerns are reported to the tabroom staff and will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis by the tournament staff.

ZOOM RESOURCES

Tech Recommendations:

We recognize that there may be a wide range of connectivity issues that could happen. If these happen, we anticipate everyone to be flexible. If there is a significant cut off over 10 minutes, please contact tab.

However, we do have a few recommendations to make this a great experience:

Use headphones as it will allow you to hear information/speeches in a clearer manner.

When possible, use an ethernet cord to ensure stronger connectivity.

And, we would encourage you to consider using an external microphone when you are debating (to ensure quality debate).

These are just some of the practices encouraged by multiple institutions to produce better quality online debates. We would also encourage you to check out both the SDI’s posts on best practices, and check out the resources from the TOC.

How to debate with a partner remotely (UK Debate) - https://www.tabroom.com/index/tourn/index.mhtml?webpage_id=9071&tourn_id=13038 Remote Coaching Guide (UK Debate) - https://s3.amazonaws.com/tabroom-files/tourns/13038/postings/19652/SlackGuide2020.docx TOC Online Best Practices and Procedures (UK Debate)  We will follow these as applicable.

YouTube Webinar -- Lincoln Garret & Priten Shah (System Developer) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEWS3OkVFI

Congress Demo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc7MYoXmSPU&

WHAT ABOUT JUDGING?

Lack of judges seriously compromises the integrity of the tournament and its ability to run on schedule.  Please do your part in being a good community member and make sure you have all your judges show up or be willing to (by the deadline) let us know that you need to hire judges.

Judge requirement for Debate Events: 1 judge per 2 entries

Judges must stay 1 round beyond the last round their team is eliminated.  As long as a team is in any event, your judges will be obligated. Judges should check with the tabroom before leaving. This means if your team is eliminated in the last round of Saturday, your judge(s) are still obligated on Sunday.  If you had 3 judges worth of entries in that last round, ALL 3 judges are obligated on Sunday for the first round.

FEES

Please submit all fees via PayPal to PayPal.me/WestLANSDA prior to the competition (by April 24th, 2020). These fees will cover the cost of hired judging and plaque shipping. They will also go towards nat fee reductions/scholarships for in-need qualifiers. They are substantially reduced from normal entry fees.

WLA-NSDA Dues $50.00 per school (IF NOT ALREADY PAID ON THE WEEKEND OF 4/25-26)

BQ Entry $10.00 per entry

Hired Judge $125.00 per day for each uncovered entry or fraction thereof

WHAT ABOUT THE STUDENT/COACH/NEW COACH/ASSISTANT COACH/ADMINISTRATION OF THE YEAR AWARDS?

They’re still due by May 1st. You can do the Student of the Year form here: https://www.speechanddebate.org/student-of-the-year-nomination-form/.

If you want to nominate others, please just send a rationale for your selection to iaingabriel@gmail.com using the subject line “_____ OF THE YEAR NOMINATION - [Name of Nominee].”