Welcome to the 29th Annual [VIRTUAL] Jack Howe Memorial Invitational Tournament!

Friends and Colleagues,

We hope that everyone has been keeping safe and healthy during the COVID-19 era. The faculty, staff, students, and alumni of the California State University, Long Beach would like to cordially invite you to attend the 29th Annual Jack Howe Memorial, hosted by the CSULB “Beach Forensics” Program on Saturday, September 18 through Monday September 20, 2021. Please note that the 20^th is for Open Policy, Open Public Forum, and TOC LD only. As in past years, we will offer Parliamentary, Policy, Public Forum, Congressional, World School debate, and LD in addition to the TOC/ NIETOC Individual Events. We are also pleased to announce that we are offering qualifying bids to the Tournament of Champions in Policy, LD, Speech, Congress, and Public Forum debate! We also have NIETOC bids for Speech events that apply. Thank you for all of the returning schools and welcome to all of the newcomers! GO BEACH!

All our best,

Directors of Forensics, CSU Long Beach

All detailed tournament information can be accessed using the links on the right. Judges/Staff who are looking to get hired for the tournament see the tabs to the right. All other forms needed for ALL participants are listed as well. 

We have been awarded the following bids from the Tournament of Champions Bid Committee

Public Forum: Quarterfinal Round Bid (Gold) and Octofinal  Round Bid (Silver)

Policy Debate: Quarterfinal Round

Student Congress: Top 16 (New for 2021)

Lincoln-Douglas Debate: Semifinal

Speech: TOC and NIETOC bids based on the number of entries

Changes for 2021

REFER to the side tabs for other specific information!!  ---->

1. We have lowered prices from the 2020 Jack Howe and once again eliminated the institution fees/private institution fees for 2021 until we are in person again.

2. Entry cap: in each division, schools will immediately be able to add 3 entries and the rest will be wait-listed until judges are entered and all TBA entries are cleared, but this will not happen immediately.

3. Judges should be entered in only one pool for preliminary rounds. A judge in one pool cannot judge in another pool on Saturday or Sunday.

4. JV Policy will only be offered as long as we are online.

5. If you are registering with a UDL, please notify the tournament with school names and participants in one document.

6. LD will have four divisions: TOC LD and JV LD (which will follow NSDA and TOC norms) and California (CA) and Novice LD (which will follow CHSSA norms). To participate in novice LD, a student must be in their first year of competition and/or have less than 6 prior tournaments in a competitive debate style. Please see our general novice policy and general differences between California and TOC LD.  

7. We will offer a middle school division for congress and public forum.

8. All speech and debate rounds will be synchronous on the NSDA Campus Platform except for Duo Interpretation. After long deliberation and seeking other options, the Directors of Forensics at CSULB have decided to resume holding Duo Interpretation as an event this year at the Jack Howe Memorial. Given the inherent safety concerns of holding the event, we are making the choice to promote safety and wellness of our students and our community by hosting the event asynchronously. While every other event we offer can be held in a synchronous form, Duo may not be feasible in certain cases. Please note, there will not be separate divisions for students who choose to compete together in one location and students who compete in “split screen” mode.

8. We WILL NOT accept requests for judging. You can look to the Hired Judge exchange which is located right under you judging obligation screen. There should be a number of judges listed that can be hired   " 11 judges can be hired" . Reach out to them personally. If you have a problem with this reach out to the tournament. 

Double Entry and Novice Entry Policies

Refer to our Double-entry policy and Novice Entry policy for important information relating to this year's tournament.

General Policies

1. All Chaperone forms must be filled out at registration. Chaperone forms are for all folks that are above the age of 18 that come along with your group. Liability forms are not a thing this year. You can find more details about this in the 'Judging Information' page. A link to the form can be found on the Right side of this page. Please turn these forms in before the tournament by scanning them into one document or on the night of registration. Send them to Devenc325@gmail.com. This will make the registration process go faster.

2. No personal checks will be accepted! Given the COVID-19 Era, we strongly prefer electronic payments, However, if it is impossible to pay online we can provide an address to send the money order, cashier’s check, or institution check. Do not send cash by mail. Do not send checks to the school due to the lack of staff to pick them up during COVID-19. E-payments by credit card will have a $2.75 service charge. The link to pay will be available soon. All payments (including fines accrued during the tournament) must be paid in full before the elimination rounds on Sunday. Please make sure to do this to prevent any disqualifications.

Online Payments are the best option to pay for the Jack Howe Tournament. For more information you can vist the Payment Page. Please use this portal to pay here!

3. Early Registration/Registration will be held on Friday on Zoom: More details will be provided the week of the tournament.

4. All competitors and judges must have a Tabroom.com account. Furthermore, all competitors and judges must

5. DOFs: It is your responsibility to train judges for this and every tournament. Especially with the issues relating to Covid-19, we are trusting you to bring qualified adults who can judge and create a safe environment for our students. Please make sure they watch the judge training from NSDA and ask questions to the Zoom-based Question room. All judges that need to have training should watch the NSDA Judge training

We will also have a judge training at 715AM that folks can attend with questions and how to complete an online ballot with Amber Brooks 

6. If you have further questions, we will have a Zoom based question room assigned.

7. If a judge or competitor has not shown up within 5 minutes, please alert the tournament via text message to the helpline number/Campus mechanism so that we can route that information to the tab room. Please make sure that all your debaters and teams know this number to report issues. That number is: 562-277-1606. This is a text-only number and will not accept voice calls.

8. For the JUDGING OBLIGATIONS go HERE

9. See the NSDA online tournaments guide if you want tips for online debate competitions.

Harassment and Discrimination Policy

This year, the tournament will follow a modified harassment and discrimination policy inspired by CHSSA. Please make sure all participants of the Jack Howe tournament read the harassment and discrimination policy.

We will be bringing back the following features of the Jack Howe

We will have sweepstakes awards. We will use a percentile system to calculate the top debate program and the top IE program; we will use an "equalization" system to determine the top overall school. This new sweepstakes calculation system is a result of persistent errors in calculation that have resulted from the system we have used to calculate sweepstakes in the past.

Over $5,000 in scholarships to students who win first place in a senior division event. Each top-place finisher will receive a renewable $500 scholarship to attend CSULB (upon acceptance) and compete on our nationally ranked forensics team, where they will be required to compete for a year. This scholarship is only renewable based on grades, competition, work ethic, and need.  

For general tournament inquiries, please email Deven Cooper (DevenC325@gmail.com); for tournament registration, fees, and administration, please email longbeachforensics@gmail.com. However, you should include both emails on your inquiry to get a faster response.