Carolina Kickoff
2020 — NSDA Campus, SC/US
Public Forum
Event Description:
Public Forum Debate, Varsity and Novice
NFL Description: Public Forum Debate is audience friendly debate. You and a partner will debate controversial issues that are "stripped" from the newspaper headlines. A new topic will be announced the first day of each preceding month at www.speechanddebate.org. A Public Forum Debate round begins with a flip of a coin between the competing teams to determine your side and speaker position. Public Forum will test your skills in argumentation, cross-examination, and refutation.
This event is not sit-down Policy Debate or two-person LD. It should be far more accessible to the lay public than those events. Debaters should be rewarded for their ability to explain facts, policies, ideas, and issues in clear, imaginative, and thoughtful ways. Excellent communication should be rewarded, as should team members’ abilities to work together throughout the round. While clash and conflict are both expected and required, contestants must present their cases in a civil manner. Judges should award wins to the pair who demonstrates superior overall persuasiveness.
NOTE: Both team members must be novices to compete in the novice division.
Both Novice and Varsity competitors will debate the following resolution: Resolved: The United States federal government should enact the Medicare-for-All Act of 2019.