Congress Information and Schedule

Legislation Docket Packet

2016 Congress Legislation Docket

Congress Packet 2 (Additional Prelim Items + Finals)

***** Congress Prelim Sectioning

Congressional Debate Results Packet 2016

Congressional Debate Schedule

Congressional Debate will be hosted at Falcon Ridge Middle School for all preliminary and elimination sessions.

Registration for each division will take place at Apple Valley High School. Shuttle buses will be available to take competitors to Falcon Ridge Middle School (see schedule). Judges can report directly to each site but will not be allowed in the Middle School until 3:30pm.  

FRIDAY 

Please note: School is over at 3:05 pm but no parking is available until 3:20 pm. The building opens at 3:15 pm for debaters and judges.

2:30                 Announcements - Apple Valley High School

3:00                 Shuttles Depart for Falcon Ridge Middle School

3:45 - 5:45       Session 1

5:45 - 6:30       Dinner

6:30 - 8:30       Session 2

SATURDAY

The building will be open at 7:00 am.

8:00-10:00      Session 3

10:45-12:30    Semifinal Session

12:30-1:00      Lunch

1:00-2:40        Final Session

3:15                Awards Ceremony at Falcon Ridge Middle School

REMEMBER, ALL JUDGES ARE OBLIGATED FOR THE FINAL SESSION OF CONGRESS, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THEIR STUDENT ADVANCES.

Tournament Procedures

The Minneapple uses NSDA rules for Congressional Debate. Chambers will be kept small (12-18 students) to ensure all students have equal opportunity to debate.  Students set agendas upon a majority vote in each preliminary chamber based on the items in the docket released on the tournament website. We seek legislation submissions using templates at: http://congressionaldebate.org/resources/legislation-templates and emailed to minneapplecongress2016@gmail.com. There is no limit to the number of submissions a participating school may make.  However, only one piece of legislation may be submitted per Congressional debater.

Advancement:  Students advance to each elimination round based on cumulative rank totals from judges, using NSDA tournament procedures for tabulating ranks:  ties broken on judges' preference, reciprocals, drop-high low adjusted rank total, adjusted judges' preference, adjusted reciprocals, and parliamentarian's ballot.  Preliminary chambers break to a final chamber of 8-12 students (depending on entries).  

Elimination Rounds: Legislation will be provided on October 21^st, 2016.  Direct questioning will be used for the final round.

Awards/TOC Bid Level: The top six students receive a marble apple award. All finalists will receive an award. The top PO from each preliminary and each semifinal chamber -- as well as the final session PO -- receive a gavel.  The top six students earn one bid to the University of Kentucky Tournament of Champions.

Student Leadership Award: While student vote will not determine outcome of the tournament, a special award modeled after the NSDA National Tournament "Leadership Bowl" will be conferred upon one final round debater who earns preferential ranking by his/her peers, in addition to final round  observers.  All observer ballots will be tallied at one-quarter strength of contestant ballots.

Judges: One judge for every five Congressional debaters; this judging obligation may not be shared with other divisions.  Since the Minneapple offers small chambers to allow students more meaningful opportunities to debate, more judges will be needed.  Please note experience as a parliamentarian in the notes area when registering judges. 

<!-- [if gte mso 9]>