Marian Novice Tournament

Saturday, November 2nd

GENERAL INFORMATION:

The Marian Novice Debate Tournament will take place on Saturday, November 2, 2019.  We will offer competition in Policy, Lincoln Douglas, Congressional Debate and Public Forum. 

This tournament is for novice only.  Varsity students who are experienced in debate, responsible, and kind are welcome to judge at the tournament.

This tournament will follow NSAA bylaws.  This is a high school only tournament. Students must be eligible according to NSAA and may only compete for the school in which they are currently enrolled.  The NSAA bylaws can be viewed at nsaahome.org. 

TOURNAMENT LOCATION:

The tournament will be held at Marian High School, located at 7400 Military Avenue;  Omaha, NE 68106.

Please enter the front entrance; it is the only entrance that will be unlocked.  When you enter, go down the stairs and congregate in the quad.

ONLINE ENTRY:

Entries will only be accepted online via Tabroom.com.  Deadline for entries is Tuesday, October 29th. Fees and judge requirements will be accessed at that time.  Changes or drops after that date can be emailed to me at htripe@omahamarian.org.

SCHEDULE:

DEBATE FORMAT & TOPICS:

CONGRESS:

• At this tournament we will be utilizing the November-December docket selected by the Nebraska Congressional Debate Committee. 

• Novice students should be prepared to debate the following pieces of legislation on the docket:

• 1.  A Bill to Ban Plastic Bags

• 2.  A Bill to Subsidize Renewable Energy

• 3.  A Bill to Decriminalize Drugs

• 4.  A Resolution to Encourage the United Kingdom to Abandon Brexit Plans

• 5.  A Bill to Expand  the Draft

• 6.  A Bill for Military Veterans "Reverse Boot Camp"

• 7. A Bill to establish the policy of the United States regarding the no-first-use of nuclear weapons

• 8.  A Bill to Amend the War Powers Act

• These pieces of legislation will be debated in order.  This docket is set and cannot be rearranged by the debaters or the presiding officer.

• The Presiding Officer in the Congress round will be an experienced varsity congressional debater, not a competitor in the round.  There will be an adult parliamentarian in the round. Varsity congressional debaters will also serve as point recorders and fill out ballots.

• Student judges will only point record.  If there are two chambers, point recorders will switch after lunch.  The point recorders will rank each student in the session. The parliamentarian’s vote will be used as a tiebreaker. 

LINCOLN DOUGLAS:

• Each debater will be allotted 5 minutes of “stop and ask time” during the first three rounds where they are allowed to ask the judge questions about what to do.  This time can be used at any point during the round. This time does not count against the debater’s prep time. For the last two rounds of the day, debaters will NOT have “stop and ask time.”

• Will follow the 6-3-7-3-4-6-3 format with 4 minutes prep time.  

• LD will debate the November/December LD debate topic set by the NSDA:

PUBLIC FORUM:

• Each team will be allotted 5 minutes of “stop and ask time” during the first three rounds where they are allowed to ask the judge questions about what to do.  This time can be used at any point during the round. This time does not count against the debater’s prep time. For the last two rounds of the day, debaters will NOT have “stop and ask time.”

• We will be using the NDSA pilot of the new speech times.  This means both summary and prep time will be three minutes instead of two.

• PF will debate the November/December PF debate topic set by the NSDA.

POLICY DEBATE:

• Each team will be allotted 5 minutes of “stop and ask time” during the first two rounds where they are allowed to ask the judge questions about what to do.  This time can be used at any point during the round. This time does not count against the debater’s prep time. For the last two rounds of the day, debaters will NOT have “stop and ask time.”

• Policy debate will debate the 2019-202 debate topic:  

• Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially reduce Direct Commercial Sales and/or Foreign Military Sales of arms from the United States.

AWARDS:

The top six debaters in each division will be given an award.

FEES:

Policy -- $25                                                  

Lincoln-Douglas Debate -- $20

Public Forum -- $25                          

Congress -- $17 

JUDGE COVERAGE:

• Policy -- One judge per two teams.  May be hired for $150.  

• Lincoln-Douglas – One judge per two debaters.  May be hired for $100

• Public Forum – One judge per two teams.  May be hired for $100

• Congressional Debate – One judge per six debaters or part thereof.  May be hired for $10 per debater.

We will use run online ballots in ALL events. Please make sure all of your judges have a tabroom.com account and that they bring a device on which they can fill out a ballot.  I will have a few laptops available to loan judges who do not have one. 

OTHER:

MAVERICKS:  Under no circumstances will a maverick competitor be allowed to enter the tournament.  Exemptions will be allowed the day of the tournament if one member of a team (policy or PF) is unable to attend or unable to continue due to sickness.  

GRIEVANCE POLICY:  Any grievance must be brought, in person, to the tab room.  The decisions will be made by the tournament director. All decisions are final.

CONCESSIONS:

We are planning a concession stand for students in the cafeteria.   Our parent boosters will be serving lunch and snack items during the day in the cafeteria.

CONTACT INFO: