First/Second Year State Championships

February 9-10, 2018

Carrollton High School

Dear Coaches,

The Executive Board of the Georgia Forensic Coaches Association is pleased to invite you and your team to the First/Second Year State Championship Tournament and Varsity Student Congress, February 9-10, 2018, at Carrollton High School.

The First/Second Year State Championship Tournament offers Policy Debate, Public Forum Debate, and Lincoln-Douglas Debate. Students wishing to compete in the First/Second Year State Championship Tournament must meet certain criteria, as outlined in the GFCA Constitution and Bylaws and noted below:

4.21     To attend the First & Second Year State Tournament, students must meet two criteria.

(a)        First Year students are defined as students competing in their first year of high school speech and debate activities. Second Year students are defined as students competing in their second year of high school speech and debate. 

(b)        Students receive qualification to the First & Second Year tournament by attending two in-state invitationals in that event for that school year prior to the State Tournament.

Varsity Student Congress

Eligible students are encouraged to attend the Varsity Congressional Debate Congress. Eligibility is determined by:

Congressional Debate Regular Season Qualifier

(1)        For a Congressional Session to be counted as a GFCA qualifying tournament, it must meet the following regulations

1)         At least three (3) schools (excluding the host school) must be represented

2)         A session is defined as at least two hours of floor debate.

3)         The session should follow the rules in outlined in by law 4.45

(2)        A bid to the Congressional State tournament awarded to students in a Congressional Session as follows:

(a)        Sixty (60) or more entries, the top eighteen (18) competitors.

(b)        Thirty (30) to sixty (60) entries, the top twelve (12) competitors.

(c)        Twenty-one (21) to twenty nine (29) entries, the top six (6) competitors.

(d)        Ten (10) to twenty (20) entries, the top three (3) competitor.

(e)        Nine (9) or less entries will have no qualifiers.

(f)        If an entry already has a bid to the state tournament and meets the qualifications a second time, the bid does not defer to the next entry not yet qualified.

(g)        Competitors receiving a qualifying bid through an invitational tournament must attend two in state invitationals in Congressional Debate.

(2)        Each member schools receive two (2) automatic entries for the Senate chamber.

(a)        Competitors receiving a bid through this method must have attended a minimum of two (2) in state invitationals.

(3)        For every two (2) fully qualified students to the Varsity State Championship, each member school may receive one (1) entry to the House of Representatives up to ten (10)

In order to assure all students meet this criteria, students will be “waitlisted” until confirmation they meet the above criteria. You will be notified via email once entries are off the waitlist.

In addition to this criteria, competitors must be eligible to compete in the tournament. An eligibility form can be found on this website. All schools MUST have a completed eligibility form for their school to be eligible to compete.

The eligibility form refers to a section of the Constitution/Bylaws. A complete, updated version is provided on this registration site.

NOTE: EVERY SCHOOL MUST BRING A SEPARATE CHECK/PAYMENT FOR A JUDGE BOND. THE BOND IS $100.00. THE JUDGE BOND WILL BE RETURNED UNLESS JUDGE OBLIGATIONS ARE NOT MET DURING THE TOURNAMENT.

Be sure to peruse this website as it has information relevant to the tournament. And, as always, if you have any questions, feel free to reach out.

Yours,

Robert Walker

GFCA Director of Operations

Mario Herrera

GFCA Executive Chair

 WE WILL BE USING THE FEBRUARY PF TOPIC