Calif. Coast District Qualifier

for the 2018 National Tournament

Dear California Coast National Speech and Debate District Chapters and Affiliates: 

You are cordially invited to attend this year’s qualifying tournaments for the National Speech and Debate Association’s National Tournament. The qualifying tournament for all NSDA speech and debate events will be held March 16th, 17th and 18th  at Bellarmine College Preparatory, 960 W. Hedding St., San Jose. 

You can also register on this website for the Student Congress Qualifier at Presentation High School, which will be held March 25th. 

Please remember, that ALL DEBATES BEGIN FRIDAY, 3/16. Please note that your judges (one per student) and students will report by 4:00 pm.

Remember, the procedures for this tournament are very different from those at league tournaments. If you are unfamiliar with those procedures, we encourage you to check out the tournament handbook, online - Click here for the -->Tournament Operations Manual.   

 ***Any new students who wish to attend the qualifier must a.) be members of the Association and b.) sign up on the National Website. All student members are required to. If they do not sign up, they may not compete nor will their memberships and degrees count toward the schools allowed entry number. (Folks, let’s just get them registered.) 

 Please re-familiarize yourself and your team with the event rules as written in  the District Tournament Manual 17 - 18, as listed in the manual above. Please make sure that your students fully understand and comply with the rules; it is hoped we can avoid much frustration, time delays and hurt feelings if everyone understands and complies with these rules.  
 
All participants must park on the street adjacent to Bellarmine property or in parking lots on campus. If you park in the neighborhoods, or even across the street from Bellarmine, you will be ticketed. There is also parking around the soccer field and on the south side of campus near the baseball field.

In order to enter the tournament, please keep the following in mind:

1.     Only students who are members of the NSDA AT LEAST SEVEN DAYS PRIOR to the tournament are eligible to enter. It is critical, then, that all points must be on record at the National Office by Friday, March 9th.  

2.     You need to enter your students on Tabroom for the national qualifier . As we are a pilot district for NSDA, please let me know if there are any problems if you encounter them ( and as SOON as you encounter them. ) 

3.     Each student double-entering also needs to complete a “Single Entry Letter of Intent.”  Click here for the --> Single Entry Letter of Intent.  This form requires your signature, that of your principal, and that of both the student and a parent, so, again, be sure to get started on these forms early. Students may double enter in any two events, EXCEPT they may NOT enter both extemps nor both team debate events. If a student is entered in both an individual event and a team event, they MUST attend Nationals in the team event. These are due at the beginning of the tournament, printed out and properly signed. 

4.    Again, all students must have registered themselves on the NSDA website. Students who have not done this will not be allowed at national quals.

5.    If you have two entries in each and every event, and would like to take advantage of your resulting bonus entries tabroom should automatically recognize this.

6.     All fees owed to the NSDA MUST be paid before you are allowed to compete in the tournament. They will not let you compete if the check is in transit to Ripon. Therefore, please bring any fees owed to the national office directly to me after March 9th or include with your registration materials. 

7. One more critical item. The Diocese of San Jose and the administration of Bellarmine now require that the names of all adults on campus for ANY activity must be run through the Megan’s List website. The documentation specifically mentioned speech and debate judges (but will also include coaches), even though there is limited to no contact with students. This could lead to some very uncomfortable conversations, so be very upfront with your parents and judges (well ahead of time,) and let them know that this will occur (so that the judge they select has no problem.) We will require First and Last legal names and zip codes to run them through the program. This is a legal thing at this point.

FIRST, LAST NAMES OF JUDGE AND HIS/HER ZIP CODE OF RESIDENCE IS DUE WITH ENTRY, BY FRIDAY MARCH 9th. YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO COMPLETE ENTRY WITHOUT THIS INFORMATION. THIS WILL TAKE PRE-PLANNING ON ALL OF OUR PARTS. LAST MINUTE SUBSTITUTIONS WILL REQUIRE THE SAME SCAN AND YOU CAN SEE HOW THIS WILL DESTROY THE TIMING OF THE TOURNAMENT. WE ABSOLUTELY NEED TO HAVE ALL NAMES AND ZIP CODES THE FRIDAY PRIOR TO THE TOURNAMENT.  THIS IS THE ONLY INFORMATION THAT SHOULD BE TURNED IN DIRECTLY TO AARON LANGERMAN AT BELLLARMINE AND NOT TO ME.

 
The NSDA requires ALL forms be turned in no later than seven days before the tournament. Accordingly, the entry deadline for this tournament is Friday, March 9^th at 10:00pm.  All printed out forms/letters of intent/fees owed to the national office need to be at Presentation by that date or handed to me at the debate qualifier at Westmont that evening.   You will not need to pay your tournament fees until registration at Bellarmine on the day of the tournament. 

Please note that these checks are payable to California Coast District NSDA; We cannot cash a check payable to Coast Forensic League.   

These are requirements imposed by the National Office. We cannot make exceptions. If you do not have all the required forms, and have not paid all the required fees, you will not be allowed to compete. 

Speaking of fees, we are excited to announce that we have managed to keep our entry fees the same as last year. That means entry fees are again $25/student. That means Duo, Public Forum, and Policy teams cost $50. Due to a small surplus, we are not charging district dues this year only. Please make purchase orders and checks payable to California Coast NSDA District, not to Coast Forensic League. Entry fees, but it must be paid prior to the beginning of the qualifier. If a check has not been cut, I will take a cashier's check or personal coach's check, but students won't be allowed to compete if all fees are not paid.  
 
Judges: Because of exceptionally large judging requirements for this tournament, you are required to provide one judge PER STUDENT. That means you will need to provide two judges for one debate team or one duo.  Please note that, under NSDA rules, first year "outs" (out of high school,) may not judge at the tournament. 

Also,interpers must have an original copy of the text (book, published manuscript etc) not the cut version at the tournament.

Finally, remember that you may enter NO MORE THAN 4 entries in any event. And remember that your total number of entries is constrained by the total number of NFL members/degrees you have on record seven days prior to the tournament. (This is called your chapter strength.) You can check your strength online at http://points.speechanddebate.org/points_application/index.php?navid=523&pnavid=1. 

Debate teams and duos count as one entry. If you have two entries in every event, you may claim an additional two bonus entries, though you still may not enter more than four in any single event. The link to the form to claim the additional two entries is above.

Please do not hesitate to contact Brandon Garrett with any questions or concerns you may have. 

The number of students we send to the National Tournament is based on the number of entries at this tournament. So please do whatever you can to help both yourselves, and your district, by taking advantage of as much of your entry limit as possible.  Thank you! 

Sincerely,

Your District Committee 

Brandon Garrett, Chair

 Gay Brasher, Karen Joshi, and Charles Schletzbaum