Magnolia District Qualifier

for the 2021 National Tournament

Please read through the various rules and procedures pages linked in the right-hand menu.

Debate Details

We are splitting Big Questions off from the rest of the debate events. Policy, Public Forum, and Lincoln-Douglas will be held online March 26-27. Big Questions will be held online April 16-17. Any NSDA Member student from the Magnolia District may enter Big Questions, regardless of entry in the rest of the qualifier tournaments. Only individual students may enter Big Questions - no teams.

Entry Deadline for Policy, PF, and LD: Tuesday, March 23, 8:00pm

Judge Add Deadline, Fees set: Wednesday, March 24, 8:00pm

Entry Deadline for Big Questions: Tuesday, April 13, 8:00pm

Judge Add Deadline, Fees set: Wednesday, April 14, 8:00pm

Judges 

To sign up to judge, please fill out the form here. (You may also sign up through the coach of your school or alma mater.)

Judges must have graduated high school prior to July 2019. This is the same rule that is used for NSDA nationals. (In other words, 1st-year out students may not judge.)

We don't want your judge money. If you will not be able to recruit adequate judges, please reach out to Micah Everson to discuss.

Judges must have tabroom.com accounts.

Fees

Entry fees are $10 per student, per event. (A Duo team is $20.) There will be no separate school fee this year.

Checks should be made out and mailed to Magnolia Speech & Debate, 3750 Northview Dr, Jackson MS. 39206.

Credit card payment is not available, but contact Micah Everson if you would like to pay by Paypal, Venmo, or Cashapp.

Given the difficulties with mailing and school finances, we can accept payments late for district tournament fees. If it works better to combine fees for the whole district tournament series, that is perfectly acceptable.

However, all money owed to the NSDA (student or team membership fees) must be paid prior to the start of district competition. Students will not be allowed to compete if NSDA fees are not paid. Check your coaches account on speechanddebate.org to verify that you do not owe NSDA any money. (Log in and click on "School Finances" in the left-hand menu.)

Required Paperwork

On the registration page, you will see a Tab that says "NSDA." For the Consent Form, please either print/sign or electronically sign (download and type in your name/signature), and then email the form to Micah Everson.

The consent form must be completed for each of the 3 weekends of competition.

Double-entry forms are completed entirely online.

National Speech & Debate Association Harassment and Discrimination Policy

The National Speech & Debate Association and the Magnolia District are committed to providing its participants, judges, coaches, and staff the opportunity to pursue excellence in their endeavors. This opportunity can exist only when each member of our community is assured an atmosphere of mutual respect. The NSDA prohibits all forms of harassment and discrimination. Accordingly, all forms of harassment and discrimination, whether written or oral, based on race, color, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, citizenship, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by any applicable federal, state, or local law are prohibited, whether committed by participants, judges, coaches, or observers. Individuals who are found to have violated this policy will be subject to the full range of sanctions, up to and including removal from the tournament premises.

Speech Details

All events except Duo Interp will be held live on Friday & Saturday. See "Schedule" page to the right. Asynchronous judging for Duo Interp will take place on Friday & Saturday, more or less following the other events' live schedule.

We are using the Up/Down system (for the last time in history). Please see Procedures: Up/Down explanation to the right. Starting in 2021-2022, the Up/Down system will no longer be an option for District Qualifiers, so enjoy it this one last time!

Deadlines: Entry deadline for Speech events is Tuesday, February 23rd at 8:00pm. Please contact Micah Everson directly if you need additional time for any reason. We can be flexible with this.

Oratory and Informative entries must include speech topics/titles. Speech uploads are not required, but must be available during the tournament in case of challenges/questions.

All interp (POI/Duo/HI/DI) entries must include titles and authors. Script uploads are not required, but must be available during the tournament in case of challenges/questions.

Links to Duo recordings should be uploaded by Wednesday, February 24th at 8:00pm. If you have any trouble with this, please reach out to Micah Everson. He'll work with you to figure it out.

Duo Recordings must be simultaneous split screen. (Students should be in separate rooms on separate devices recording at the same time. Two separate recordings may not be edited together.) Recordings must be "single-take" and unedited.

Congress Details

Registration for Congress is now closed. Please contact Micah Everson ASAP with any drops or changes.

Entry Deadline: Tuesday, March 2, 8:00pm

Judge Add Deadline, Fees set: Wednesday, March 3, 8:00pm

Congressional Debate includes a House and Senate. Any NSDA member student may enter either House or Senate (there is no restriction on grade-level or any other distinction between entries for the two) but no student may enter both.

Both chambers will have two preliminary rounds. (See schedule to the right).

The Senate will consist of at least one Chamber of maximum 15 students. If there are more than 15 entries, there will be a final round for the Senate. If 15 or fewer, there will be two preliminary rounds and no final round.

The House will consist of at least two Chambers of maximum 15 students and will have a final round of 15 students.