I was an APDA (college parliamentary) debater from 2014-18. Between 2016 and 2022, I coached PF, LD, Congress, Extemp, and some other speech events.

Be kind to one another.

I did PF and a little policy in high school.

I flow on a spreadsheet, so if I'm not typing during your summary/final focus I'm likely just copying and pasting your extensions.

You can go fast (I'll call clear if I can't understand you).

Cross isn't for making arguments. Please don't cut each other off.

Ask me any questions you have!

Background: I was a PF debater in high school on the local and national circuits. I am a former president of the Johns Hopkins debate team, and I'm a member of the Board of Trustees. I compete on the American Parliamentary and British Parliamentary debate leagues.

Speed: I’m comfortable with all speeds.

Style: I'm comfortable with any style.

Weighing: Weigh as much as possible.

Cards: Analysis/logic will usually beat a card.

Max F. Neuman (he or they pronouns). If both teams want to use an email chain, please add maxfneuman [at] gmail.com

Competitive and Coaching Experience:

4 years of PF, almost entirely on the New York City Urban Debate League, at Bard High School Early College Manhattan.

1 year of APDA at CUNY, 3 years at Columbia.

Former PF coach at High School for Dual Language and Asian Studies, Midwood High School, and Bard High School Early College Manhattan. Current APDA coach at Temple.

Listened to that NPR podcast about college policy and thought it was cool.

Paradigm:

When I'm judging a round, I really want to avoid intervening ie; involving my own thoughts or doing your work in achieving the ballot. It leads to unpredictable decisions that are unfair to everybody. To prevent judge intervention, speak high, and win, here are a few tips:

• Enjoy yourself! Debate should be fun.

• Be inclusive! Respect your competitors. If speaking about an event or group, especially one that you are not part of, only make arguments you would make if the room were full of members of that group.

• If you need to make a potentially triggering argument, please give a content warning.

• I will not deviate from tab policy, speech times, or the speaker scale. Everything else is up for debate.

Everything below this point is stuff I am flexible on, but will default to absent other argumentation.

• I am a lazy judge. I do not want to intervene or do the work to prove why arguments are true or why they matter. Please be explicit about what the voting issues should be.

• Before anyone says a word, I assume that my job as the judge is to determine if the resolution is a true or false statement, and I assume that neg has won on presumption. As soon as a debater says anything, these starting positions go out the window and the role/destination of the ballot is up for debate.

• I've been consistently involved in debate since 2013, but you definitely know the current topic and the format's evolving norms better than I do. Author names don't mean much to me, so explain what cards say. If you want to make an abuse or theory call, or even do something non-traditional like a K, I'm amenable to it if it's adequately warranted and weighed in a way that's accessible to a broad audience that isn't steeped in debate pedagogy. If something is warranted well and not responded to at all, I'll consider it true, no matter how outlandish.

• Weigh and condense. Going for the whole flow at any point after second crossfire reduces the round to a whirlwind of blips, often with very little analysis about what should sway the ballot. Impact calculus is hard to master, but entirely worth it.

• I don't care about or even know how to consciously evaluate presentation things like what you wear, the sound of your voice, rhetoric, whether you sit or stand, or that sort of thing.

• Speed is fine when coupled with clarity. If you're especially fast (like 300 words per minute or more), start slow so I can get up to speed. If I can't flow you at all, I'll say "clear" up to three times

• Explaining how something works or happens is so much better than citing a source or quantifying a conclusion. Maybe it's because I've seen so many bad debaters win rounds on evidence challenges or because I'm a parliamentary debater, but I value explanation on par with evidence.

• If some offense is in first constructive or rebuttal and then never gets brought up during the round, I'm fine with a final focus/PMR/LOR/2AR/2NR weighing it to win, although the weighing needs to be stronger than "they dropped it so it's true." I will pick up a team that says "they dropped it so it's true, and we weigh it so it matters" if the weighing actually happens.

• You don't have to extend all defense in a summary/rebuttal if you've already touched an argument; you do have to respond if the other side is going for it and engaging with your refutation. If something was in the round before, regardless of whether it was in summary or second constructive, it can be in final focus and on the ballot if you mention it explicitly. I will enforce the prohibition on totally new argumentation (in all cases except the first-speaking team answering totally new content in the second team's summary) in final focus.

• I probably won't flow crossfire because I don't think I can do so with nearly as much accuracy as the speeches. If something important happened in crossfire, mention it in a speech to be sure it's in the round.

• I am begrudgingly okay with calling cards. It would be better if everyone could avoid this by not lying about evidence (your own or your opponents'). If there has been a question of validity or a direct and unresolved clash of cards during the round, I'll probably want to see the original source after the round. If you have a citation and a card, it's okay with me if you have to pull an original source off the internet when asked. Any other internet use is super duper prohibited. If the entire round comes down to a fact claim that nobody can resolve like "Russia has 15 nuclear submarines" when the brightline for impact access is 15, I'm amenable to arguments that I should google the number, and I'll default to just resolving the next most important issue in the round if it's deadlocked around an unresolvable fact claim.

If you want my flow, it's all yours! Send me an email at maxfneuman [at] gmail.com to ask for the flow or if you have any questions, preferably on the same weekend as your round in front of me. I'll probably delete flows/forget details about rounds after that. Please add me to the email chain at the same email address.

-I did PF back in the day, and I've judged a lot of it (New to other formats though).

-I love to see strong warranting in debate, and more generally a logical progression of ideas.

Weigh your impacts please

Take a look at my ex partners paradigm, he sums up my preferences pretty well

https://www.tabroom.com/index/paradigm.mhtml?search_first=Uzair&search_last=Qadir

Pronouns: she/her

Experience: I debated two years of Policy and two years of PF at Dowling Catholic High School in West Des Moines, Iowa. I won the state title in PF in 2015 and competed at Nationals in Dallas in Worlds Debate that same year. I also interned for the NSDA in the summer of 2018. I’m now president of the Fordham University Debate Society which competes on the American/British Parliamentary circuits.

Speed is fine as long as I can understand you. Don’t sacrifice clarity to try to get more on the flow.

Please give off-time road maps and signpost.

Try to avoid theory arguments, as I think they bog down the debate given your time constraints. I will only vote on theory if I have no doubts that in-round abuse has occured. I would much rather adjudicate based on the substance on the flow.

Clash and weighing are essential. This means not just extending your arguments, but telling me why they specifically defeat that of your opponents. The Final Focus should write my ballot for me, and I will only vote on offense in the Final Focus if it was in Summary. That said, do not feel obligated to bring every piece of evidence from your constructive all the way into FF. If you don't think an argument/impact isn't getting you anywhere, kick it and spend more time on the argument that is.

Lastly, be nice. If you're rude in crossfire/the debate as a whole it will be reflected in your speaks. People do this activity because it's fun, and even if the goal is to defeat your opponent you don't need to set out to ruin their day in the process.