Jack Howe Memorial Tournament
2019 — Long Beach, CA/US
Presiding Officer
Event Description:
Jack Howe Student Presiding Officer Competition Rules and Guidelines
Updated 6/22/2019
1. Eligibility:
a. Any student eligible to compete at the Jack Howe Invitational Tournament (as decided by the Tournament Staff) may register as a presiding officer in the Presiding Officer Competition.
b. This competition is completely separate from the OPEN Division of Student Congress. If students wish to be a PO in the OPEN Division of Congressional Debate, they should enter the OPEN Division of Congressional Debate and attempt to be elected the PO of their chamber.
c. Students may not double-enter in Open Congress or any event in the debate pattern (refer to the invite for any updates to this policy).
d. Entries will be capped at two times the number of novice chambers two weeks before the tournament date:
i. If there are 2 chambers, the maximum number of PO entries will be 4.
ii. If there are 3 chambers, the maximum number of PO entries will be 6.
iii. If there are 4 chambers, the maximum number of PO entries will be 8 (and so on).
iv. Any entries above the capacity will be placed on a wait list and allowed to compete if space permits.
e. Anyone who competes as a presiding officer will receive an acknowledgement at the Novice Congress Awards Ceremony.
f. All presiding officers who advance to the elimination rounds will receive an award.
2. Preliminary rounds:
a. Students should check the novice congress postings and schedule to find out where the general meeting for presiding officers will be held. At that meeting, presiding officers will be briefed about the schedule and norms for the day and receive their round schematics.
b. Students will move between novice preliminary rounds and preside for the full session when possible.
c. If the number of competitors exceeds the number of chambers, two students will split time presiding over a session. Each student will be allotted half-time during each session to serve as the presiding officer.
d. Students will be guaranteed at least 3 hours of presiding time during preliminary sessions.
3. Preliminary round tabulation
a. Students will vote at the end of the end of the session for their favorite and second favorite presiding officer for the day by secret ballot.
b. Students will advance to elimination rounds based on number of first-place votes received. If there is a tie for first-place votes, the presiding officer with the most second-place votes will advance.
c. If there is a tie for the last elimination position for both first and second place votes, then all tied students will advance to the next elimination round.
4. Elimination rounds and tabulation:
a. If novice congress advances directly to a final round, the top 2 students will advance.
b. If novice congress advances to a semifinal round, the top 4 students will compete head-to-head in that found. The first-place person will compete against the fourth-place competitor, and the second-place and third-place competitor will compete against each other.
c. Students will vote for their favorite presiding officer by secret ballot.
i. The competitor who receives the most votes will advance to the next round.
ii. In the event of a tie in a semi-final round, the higher-ranked presiding officer based on seeding will advance to the next round.
iii. If there is a tie in the final round, both presiding officers will be declared co-winners.