Dear GGSA Coaches and Competitors:

On Saturday, March 2, and Sunday, March 3, 2023, the Golden Gate Speech Association will be hosting its State Quals tournament in Speech and Debate at James Logan High School, 1800 H Street, Union City, CA 94587. All preliminary debate rounds and, time permitting, some elimination rounds will occur on Saturday, but it is likely that some debate elimination rounds may occur on Sunday, March 3. Student Congress will take place only on Saturday.

IE quals will be held on Sunday, March 3.

This tournament is open only to GGSA member schools in good standing that have paid their 2023-24 GGSA and CHSSA dues at least TWO WEEKS PRIOR to the tournament or by Saturday, February 17. Every school’s coach of record must be present on-site to chaperone their squad and handle disputes.

• The debate tournament will offer Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate, Policy Debate, Public Forum Debate, Parliamentary Debate, and Student Congress.

• We will be using the MARCH topics/resolutions for all debate events but for Parliamentary Debate.

• The individual events tournament will offer Original Oratory, Informative, Original Advocacy, Original Prose and Poetry, Humorous Interp, Dramatic Interp, Program Oral Interp, Duo Interp, Declamation, National Extemp, International Extemp, and Impromptu.

Qualifying Spots for the State Tournament in Debate & Congress:

Policy Debate: 8
Lincoln-Douglas Debate: 7
Parli Debate: 7
Public Forum Debate: 8
Congress: 11
Presiding Officer: 2

Qualifying Spots for the State Tournament in Individual Events:

Original Oratory: 7
Informative: 7 (1 autoqualifier + 6 qualifiers at SQuals)
Original Advocacy: 7 (1 autoqualifier + 6 qualifiers at SQuals)
Original Prose and Poetry: 7
Humorous Interp: 7
Dramatic Interp: 8
Program Oral Interp: 7
Duo Interp: 7
Declamation: 7
National Extemp: 8
International Extemp: 8 (1 autoqualifier + 7 qualifiers at SQuals)
Impromptu: 7 (1 autoqualifier + 6 qualifiers at SQuals)

• Entry Limits: For Policy Debate 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 for State. The size of the entry in each event will determine whether we can finish the competition in one day. For Individual Events, students must be varsity-level competitors. Students who cannot attend the state championships on April 12-14 may not enter state quals.

• Do not sign up students until you know they will attend. The tournament does not “fill up” before the entry deadline, so there is no advantage to holding slots for your school.

• Entry Prerequisites for Debate:

1. Entries should be limited to qualified “A” debaters. Qualified “A” debater means a debater who has, during the current school year in the same event, (1) finished a GGSA “A” tournament undefeated or with only one loss; and/or (2) finished an "A" invitational with at least an even record. Two "Qualified A" debaters may compete as a team at the state qualifier even if they achieved the relevant tournament finishes with other partners.

2. In addition, schools may enter one wild card entry. Wild card entry is defined as a team that has not met the requirements for a “Qualified” “A” debater above but the coach feels has a legitimate chance of qualifying to the State Tournament.

• Entry Prerequisites for Congress: In order to compete in 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 Congress (students who do not meet the prerequisites). Schools may "seed" their Student Congress entries.

REGISTRATIONS & FEES

• In addition to online, Tabroom registration, coaches and judges must also check in by 8:00 AM on the morning of the tournament.

• Entry fees are $26.50 per Lincoln-Douglas entry, $20 per Student Congress entry, $50 per debate team, $22 per IE entry, and $44 per Duo entry.

• Make checks payable to GGSA and mailed to:

GGSA
c/o Lowell Alumni Association

PO Box 320009
San Francisco, CA 94132

• 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.

SCHEDULE (will appear in the sidebar when finalized)

JUDGING & TOURNAMENT HELP

• 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. IE judges are not permitted to judge events that their children compete in. Coaches must indicate all restrictions in their judge registration notes.

• JUDGE FLEXIBILITY: In order to avoid having judges assigned to rounds with 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. All IE judges will be expected to judge all speech events. 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 receive ballots for events other than what they are expecting.

•RUTHLESS ENFORCEMENT OF JUDGING QUOTAS: 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. If you do not bring your allotment, your entry will be culled to reflect your judge numbers.

• 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, 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 the competition. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL ANY JUDGES BE RELEASED BEFORE THE FIRST ELIMINATION ROUND BEGINS ON SATURDAY NIGHT OR SUNDAY NIGHT.

• At the tournament, check-in not only your teams but also your judges. BEFORE round 1 begins each day, 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.

• In addition to the judging requirement, every team must bring a 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.

DOUBLE ENTRY RULES

Students may no longer compete at the CHSSA state tournament in both a debate event and an individual event.

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 extemp (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.

3. INDIVIDUAL EVENTS

While students may not compete in two IE events at State, they may double-enter in two IE events at State Quals. This is done at their own risk and students will receive a 5 in rounds that they miss. All double-entered students must submit the signed single-entry letter of intent (see the sidebar) before the tournament. Our bylaws require Duo Interp qualifiers to compete at State unless both competitors qualify in other events and indicate that preference on their letter of intent.

IE Double Entry Exceptions: Students may not double-enter in both IX and NX. Students may not double-enter in Impromptu unless they have competed in Varsity Impromptu at a GGSA league tournament at least once during the current season.

ENTRY DEADLINES
All entries are due by 5 pm on Friday, February 23, at which time fees will be assessed and the tournament schedule will be finalized. Drops made by Wednesday, March 1 at 5 pm 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 the sidebar for more details.

*AI POLICY for ALL SPEECH & DEBATE EVENTS: Generative artificial intelligence should not be cited as a source; while something like ChatGPT may be used to guide students to articles, ideas, and sources, the original source of any quoted or paraphrased evidence must be available if requested. Students are prohibited from quoting or paraphrasing text directly from generative AI sources like ChatGPT in events in which speeches must be the original created work of a competitor.

COMPUTER USE RULES

Policy/Public Forum/ Lincoln Douglas Debate
Computers MAY be used during the round (but without internet access).

Parliamentary Debate
Computers may be used in prep but MAY NOT be used during the round unless the debater has been cleared for a physical or learning disability.

Congress
Computers MAY be used during the round (but without internet access). Smartphones are only allowed for timing purposes and ONLY BY THE PRESIDING OFFICER.

If you have a question, please email the appropriate director:

Debate Director:
Lexy Green,lexy@college-prep.org

Individual Events Directors:
Kimberly Fradelis, kfradelis@bentleyschool.org & Justin Kurup, jkurup@nhusd.k12.ca.us

Parli Debate Co-Directors:
Joel Jacob, bhsdeb8@gmail.com & Vy Linh Nguyen, vnguyen@headroyce.org

Congress Director:
Courtney Fradelis, cfradelis@srvusd.net