All-
On Saturday, March 2 and Sunday, March 3, 2019, the Golden Gate Speech Association will be hosting its Debate/Congress State Quals tournament at James Logan High School, 1800 H Street, Union City, CA 94587. All preliminary rounds and, time permitting, some elimination rounds will occur on Saturday, but it is likely that some elimination rounds will occur on Sunday, March 3. Student Congress will take place only on Saturday.
This tournament is open only to GGSA schools that have paid their 2018-19 GGSA and CHSSA dues.  And please note that CHSSA dues must have been paid by Saturday, February 16th in order to compete at this tournament.
• The tournament will offer Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate, Team Debate, Public Forum Debate, Parliamentary Debate and Student Congress.  

• We will be using the MARCH topics/resolutions for all debate events.
• There are 9 slots available for GGSA teams to go to the state tournament in Team Debate, 9 slots in Lincoln Douglas Debate, 10 slots in Parliamentary Debate and 10 slots in Public Forum Debate.  In Student Congress, we have 13 slots plus 2 Presiding Officer slots.

• Entry Limits: For Team Debate, Lincoln Douglas, Parliamentary Debate and Public Forum debate, schools are limited to a maximum entry in each event equal to the number of state tournament slots available (see preceding paragraph). We strongly encourage you to limit your entries to students who have a realistic chance of qualifying to States. The size of the entry in each event will determine whether we can finish competition in one day. Students who cannot attend the state championships on May 3-5 should not enter state quals.
• Entry Prerequisites for Student Congress: In order to compete in Student Congress at state quals, a student must have either previously competed in the Senate division at a GGSA tournament or have finished in the top 3 positions in the House division at a GGSA tournament.  However, each school is also allowed three "wild card" entries in Student Congress (students who do not meet the prerequisites).
• Entry procedure for Student Congress: schools may "seed" their Student Congress entries.  You will see that you have the option of entering Student Congress competitors in one of six different chambers, which allows you to prevent your top competitors from clashing in the same preliminary chamber.  PLEASE NOTE THAT IT MAY BE NECESSARY TO ADD OR COLLAPSE CHAMBERS, DEPENDING ON TOTAL ENTRIES, SO THE FINAL CHAMBER ASSIGNMENTS MAY DIFFER FROM HOW YOU ENTER THEM.
• We will be attempting to get the first round of debate started as close to schedule as possible. Fifteen minutes after the round is posted, all late teams will forfeit their round.
• Entry fees are $26.50 per Lincoln-Douglas entry, $20 per Student Congress entry, or $50 per debate team.
• Food will be provided for the students for a fee. Coaches and judges will have food provided at no cost.
• Students will be expected to dress appropriately, ties and dress shoes for boys and modest skirts or pants-suits for girls. Students must show respect for the facility and each other.
• REMINDER: JUDGING COMMITMENTS ARE HIGHER FOR THE STATE QUALS TOURNAMENT AND WILL BE RUTHLESSLY ENFORCED!  Every team/entry must fulfill their judging requirement described under the tab "Judge Requirements." The judging requirements to run a quals tournament are VERY steep and if you do not bring your allotment, your entry will culled to reflect your judges. Your judges are required to stay one round past your last debater's elimination.  ALL JUDGES MUST BE AVAILABLE TO JUDGE ALL ELIMINATION ROUNDS IN THEIR REGISTERED EVENT CATEGORY. WE HOPE TO RELEASE SOME JUDGES AFTER THE FIRST ELIMINATION ROUND HAS BEGUN, BUT NO JUDGE WILL BE RELEASED WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION FROM THE TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR.
• At the tournament, when you check in you will also check in your judges.  If a team is missing any judges, you will be required to drop a corresponding number of entries at that time.
• In addition to the judging requirement, every team must bring one adult -- usually the coach -- to assist with the running of the tournament. This requirement will also be strictly enforced, in order to ensure adequate staffing to finish the tournament in a timely fashion.
• ENTRY DEADLINES: All entries are due by 5pm on Friday, February 22, at which time fees will be assessed and the tournament schedule will be finalized.  Drops made by Wednesday, February 27 at 5pm will receive a 50% entry fee credit. No credit will be issued for drops after that time. Late adds will only be allowed on a space available basis.
See you there.

-Joel Jacobs (parli)

-Dan Leahy (LD)

-Laila McClay (policy)

-Aleisha Reidye (PuFo)

-Jesse Garrett
GGSA Congress Director

SCHEDULE

The schedule will appear in the sidebar on the right after sign-ups close on February 22.

JUDGE FLEXIBILITY

 In order to avoid having judges assigned to judge students from the same school, we will be swapping some judges between debate events and student congress. We anticipate keeping a given judge in the same event for the entire tournament, and discussing event swaps with coaches prior to the tournament. Nonetheless, please advise your judges that they will have to be totally flexible in accepting assignments to any of the events at the tournament, and that circumstances could necessitate that they will receive ballots for events other than what they are expecting. 

JUDGE QUALIFICATIONS

In order to make it easier to come up with the required number of judges, you may bring former competitors who are college students, but they will not be allowed to judge any event involving students against whom they previously competed.  College freshmen are NOT allowed to judge.

RUTHLESS ENFORCEMENT OF JUDGING QUOTAS

BEFORE round 1 begins, we will audit the judges present for each school, and any school that fails to meet its judging requirement will be forced to drop teams until their judging numbers support their remaining entries.  There will be absolutely no exceptions made for any reason.

Repeated judge failure to be present at the start of assigned rounds or submit ballots in a timely fashion may also result in entries from that school being dropped. GGSA by-laws also provide for a $50 fine when a judge is not available the entire day, and fines may be imposed at the discretion of the debate directors.

PROCEDURE FOR RELEASING JUDGES

Judges will be released from the judging pool only with the approval of a director of debate, who will first check to ensure that all events are adequately covered.  In general, we anticipate being able to release judges following the conclusion of the first round after all entries from the corresponding school have been eliminated from competition.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL ANY JUDGES BE RELEASED BEFORE THE FIRST ELIMINATION ROUND BEGINS ON SATURDAY NIGHT.

DOUBLE ENTRY RULES

Generally speaking, students may compete at the CHSSA state tournament in both a debate event and an individual event, subject to the following exceptions:
1.  PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE AND NATIONAL EXTEMP/INTERNATIONAL EXTEMP
Due to conflicts in the state tournament schedule with regard to prep time, students MAY NOT compete at the state tournament in both an extemp event (National Extemp or International Extemp) and Parliamentary Debate.  Any students who have qualified to the state tournament in Parliamentary Debate and then choose to compete at State Quals in NX/IX will, if they qualify in NX/IX, be required to drop their entry in Parliamentary Debate.
2.  CONGRESS
Due to conflicts in the state tournament schedule, students MAY NOT compete at the state tournament in both Student Congress and an individual event.  Any students who have qualified to the state tournament in Student Congress but choose to compete at State Quals in an individual event will, if they qualify in an individual event be required to drop their entry in Student Congress.

COMPUTER USE RULES

Parliamentary Debate
Computers may be used in prep (but without internet access) but MAY NOT be used during the round for any purpose

Public Forum Debate
Computers MAY be used during the round (but without internet access)

Policy Debate
Computers MAY be used during the round (but without internet access)

Update for 2019: Email chains are allowed in policy debate to transfer evidence.

Lincoln Douglas Debate
Computers MAY be used during the round (but without internet access)