Invitation

Dear Colleague:

We are excited to extend to you and your students an invitation to the Alpharetta High School Speech and Debate Treasure Hunt to be held January 15^th, 2022.  We will offer the following events:  Two-person Novice, JV, and Varsity policy debate, Novice and Varsity Lincoln-Douglas debate, Novice and Varsity public forum, extemporaneous speaking, impromptu, dramatic interpretation, humorous interpretation, duo interpretation, POI, informative speaking, and original oratory.  We request that you follow the Georgia Forensic Coaches Association resolution stating that, "a novice debater should be a student who is debating his/her first national high school resolution in high school tournaments."

There will be four preliminary rounds of debate and individual events.  All debate events will use the appropriate National Varsity topics for the month of January.

All events will use NSDA Campus.  In lieu of our normal treasure box trophies, we are lowering our fees, posting certificates online, and running the tournament as a non-profit tournament.  We will donate all profits to the following charities:

-Educational Theatre Association

-Urban Debate League (Atlanta and National)

-Natural Resources Defense Council

Sincerely,

Lauren Ivey, Sarah Stoffle and Adam Smiley

Forensics Coaches, Alpharetta High School                           

Tentative Schedule 

Saturday, January 15^th– POLICY, LD, PF SCHEDULE

7:00-8:30          Coaches check that students are ready and logged into tabroom

9:00                  Round I Pairings

9:15                Round I tech check

9:30                Round 1 start time

11:00               Round II start time

2:00                 Round III start time

5:00                 Round IV start time

IE Schedule – Saturday, January 15^th

7:00 - 8:30      Coaches check in students and ensure they are logged into tabroom

8:30                 Round I Extemp Prep

9:00                 Round I

10:00               Round II Extemp Prep

10:30               Round II

11:45-12:30     Lunch

12:00                Round III Extemp Prep

12:30                Round III

1:30                  Round IV Extemp Prep

2:00                  Round IV

3:00                  FINALS Extemp Prep

3:30                  FINALS

Emergency telephone numbers in effect during tournament hours are 404-200-6075.

Events/Fees

*

Eligibility:  All entries must participate on behalf of the high school they currently attend .  Hybrid entries must receive approval from the tab room and the coaches from both schools.  Hybrid entries and entries that are maverick for any rounds will be eligible to compete but may not compete in elimination rounds or earn any team awards.  All students competing must be accompanied by a school approved adult chaperone.  

POLICY DEBATE:  Currently, there is no limit on the amount of teams you may enter in each policy division; however, we reserve the right to limit entries in each division as necessary.   Double entries are not permitted. 

All Divisions: two-person switch-side debate using the 8-3-5 format with 8 minutes of prep time.  We will begin power matching after round 2. 

We fully endorse the GFCA rules for the novice division, and expect that anyone competing in novice will follow these rules.  The only affirmatives that may be run are the Affs posted on the GFCA novice debate website.  The affirmatives must advocate the exact plan text included with each of these affirmatives.  On the negative, teams may run the disadvantages from the GFCA novice website.  Teams may run any topicality violation.  However, teams may not run any arguments that are not in the GFCA novice packet.

In the JV division, only students on their first or second year of high school forensics are eligible to compete.

LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE:  We will have a novice division and a Varsity Division.  They will both use the Varsity Topic.  There is no limit on the amount of entries allowed.  Double entries are not permitted.  We will use the NFL January/February topic. 

PUBLIC FORUM: We will have a novice division and a Varsity Division.  There is no limit on the number of entries. We will follow NFL rules and the January Public Forum topic.  Double entries are not permitted.

INDIVIDUAL EVENTS:  There is no limit on the amount of entries allowed.  Students may double enter but triple entries are not permitted.  NFL rules will be followed in all events. One note card may be used in extemporaneous and the preparation time will be 30 minutes. 

ENTRY FEES & DEADLINES:  Entry deadline is 4:00pm, Tuesday, January 12th.  Fees will be assessed at that time.  We encourage you to sign up early, as we have limited classroom space.

All checks should be made payable to ARTSA.  If you are mailing in your check (this is not required, we are happy to take it in person at registration), please mail it to:

Alpharetta High School

c/o Adam Smiley

3595 Webb Bridge Rd.

Alpharetta, GA 30005

Please include an e-mail address where you can receive confirmation of your registration.  Please email smiley@fultonschools.org  or call in all name corrections at (404) 200-6075 as soon as you know your changes.  Do not wait until registration if you can avoid it.

JUDGING OBLIGATIONS: While current students with more than one year of debate experience can judge in novice divisions (and we encourage schools to do so), all judges covering a varsity obligation must be out of high school.  No judge should be in any division that they would be eligible to compete in.  ANY SCHOOL FOUND TO BE USING HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS TO COVER A VARSITY OBLIGATION WILL HAVE TO DROP THE APPROPRIATE NUMBER OF ENTRIES TO ALLOW THE TOURNAMENT TO RUN AND WILL NOT BE WELCOME AT OUR TOURNAMENT NEXT YEAR.

Judge obligations extend one round past the round in which that school's team(s) were eliminated.  This means all judges in all divisions are obligated for our one elim round. As a courtesy to those participating in elimination rounds, anyone (guest and hired judges included) who must leave early should notify the tournament director ASAP. 

We encourage you to provide your own quality judges. Please notify us as soon as possible of your judging needs.  Please ensure that any judges provided for the novice divisions are made aware of what can and cannot be run in the novice division.  As we have separate pools for Varsity, JV and novice, novice or JV judges cannot cover the varsity division.

Safe Space:

The tournament reserves to right to disqualify any participants that are deemed to engage in behavior that undermines the ability of all competitors to feel safe at the tournament.