Judge Information and Hired Judge Considerations

Judge Information and Hired Judge Considerations

Please note that all judges your school brings to the tournament must have completed a successful background check conducted by your school/district/institution. This process is the responsibility of the school hiring them. All judges hired by the Glenbrooks will be background checked. 

Because The Glenbrooks prides itself on the quality of the competitors and adjudicators, judges provided by the individual schools must be qualified to judge a national circuit forensics competition. Only persons who have graduated high school may judge, with the exception that high school varsity debaters may be used in novice policy. Judges must be designated for each division since the tournament will be held in multiple buildings.

Phone Numbers - We ask that you enter the correct phone numbers for all of your judges. You will not be able to enter a judge into the tournament without providing their phone number.

All policy and LD debate judges are required to submit a philosophy to tabroom.com by 5 pm Central Time November 9th. Schools that have judges who have not submitted their philosophies will not be allowed to submit a strike sheet. This is a self-reporting system – it is your responsibility to make sure the philosophy is published.

ALLOCATIONS

We do ask that schools provide as much qualified judging as possible. We can't guarantee that we can accommodate all hired judge requests. Hired judging is first come first served.  Once you put in a request to hire a judge and that hired judge request has been approved, your judge has been hired.  There are no refunds for hired judging requests that have been approved. We strongly encourage you to provide your own judging. We urge you to look at our hired judging as a back-up, but please try to hire first. Hired judging requests close 10/11.

If you feel that you have judges that are suited better for other pools than what you are obligated to fill, please contact Alyssa Corrigan (acorrigan@glenbrook225.org) for possible arrangements to have judges in one pool covering your obligations in another.

A school is responsible for paying the hired judge fee or may not be asked to return if any of its judges miss a round for any reason.

All debate judges are required to judge the first elimination round OR judge one round past the last elimination round in which their school participated (whichever comes last).

Please note that the number of rounds of commitment ONLY applies to preliminary rounds. As with other national bid tournaments, debate judges are beholden to the rule above regardless of preliminary commitment. 

Placing judges in elimination rounds becomes more difficult each year because judges leave once their school’s competitors are eliminated from the tournament without fulfilling their commitment to adjudicate one round beyond their school’s last outround. Directors are responsible to make sure that their school’s judges are available to fulfill their ENTIRE judging commitment.  We try our best to release individuals as quickly as possible, but the tournament requires the highest quality judging pool possible even after any particular school is finished competing. Schools that have judges that do not meet their elimination round obligation will be fined. 

Given the need for LD and policy judges over the last several years, we are instituting an entourage rule for ALL categories of debate - LD, policy, and PF. Any adult at the tournament that is capable of judging must be in the pool for at least 2 rounds and available to judge elimination debates. If there is a reason someone needs an exception, this must be approved by the tournament. Please note that we will only know that you are present and need us to place a food order for you if you are in the judging pool. 

You may not split one judge between two different pools unless you have coverage for elimination round commitments in both pools.

Splitting judges between two schools shorts us an elim judge. This will only be approved under certain circumstances and you must make arrangements at least three weeks before the tournament. 

HIRED JUDGE POLICY

A limited number of judges are available for hire through the tournament. We are not able to guarantee all requests. The earlier you can make your request the better. 

There are no refunds for hired judges - once we have accepted your hired judge request, you will be invoiced for the hire.   This is true even if you find a judge on your own after requesting one. 

1 Congress or Speech judge = $450

Each round of VLD = $100

Each round of judging for any other debate division= $75

No hired judges will be available after October 11th. This deadline is earlier this year because of our background check policy.   

If you are interested in hiring out rounds beyond your commitment in VCX or VLD ($30 a round), please contact Alyssa at acorrigan@glenbrook225.org. 

Missing Judges: You will be charged $100 per round for every prelim round and $200 for every elim round one of your judges does not judge a round that person is supposed to.

Judge Name Fee: You will be charged $100 for needing to change the name of a judge, adding a judge, or dropping a judge in VCX, VLD, or VPF once pref and strikes sheets have become active. This policy is solely intended to make the sheets more accurate for students and easier to fill out.

Judge Constraint Fee: If you do not provide the correct information of which teams and/or specific contestants your judges cannot judge and we need to replace your judge as a result, we will charge you $100 per change in prelims and $200 per change in elims. 

Judging Commitments: Judges are obligated for the prelims and then EITHER through the first full elimination round OR one round past where their school’s team is eliminated. We are unable to make exceptions to this policy. 

Please note that the number of rounds of commitment ONLY applies to preliminary rounds. As with other national bid tournaments, debate judges are beholden to the rule above regardless of preliminary commitment.