Dan Johnson Memorial Forensic Tournament

2024 — Billings, MT/US

Dan's not dead, just dead to us :P

Welcome to the 2023-2024 Montana High School Association Speech, Debate, and Drama season!

We are honored to have you join us this season for the Daniel Johnson Memorial tournament on January 5th and 6th at Billings Skyview High School. This tournament is a joint effort between all three Billings Public High Schools high and Huntley Project High School to bring you all events offered for Class AA, A, B, & C. Please carefully review all tournament procedures on this document.

The cost per entry is outlined in the following table:

Fee

Amount

Entry (Single Person Event)

$6

Entry (Partner Event)

$12

Tabroom Fee

$0

Drop Fee after deadline*

* Will just be charged as though student attended

The deadline for adds or drops is January 3rd at 5:00 PM. Please note that if you must drop a student after the January 3rd deadline, you will be charged for that student as though they attended the tournament. All drops should be sent to either Catherine Wetmore or Dan Porisch.

Tab staff will be selected from participating schools by the Tournament Staff. Tab staff will be notified of their assignment on January 3rd. All tabbing will take place through Tabroom.com.

Cordially,

Senior

Huntley Project

Skyview

West

Jacob Music

Becky Nay

Catherine Wetmore

Stephen Macartney

Sonia Davis

Daniel Porisch

Kathy Johnson

Lindsey Weber

Ben Norberg

Ashley Weigum

Andrew Johnson

Thomas Smithlin

Rose Cote

Mackenna Wagner



Tournament Format & Procedures

As indicated on the schedule below, we are opting to offer all students five rounds of competition for this tournament and then break to elimination rounds. We believe that offering students, certainly new ones, more opportunities to perform in front of judges is a valuable experience, particularly early on. Also, any event with fewer than 5 entries will not have any elimination rounds.

With that said, final placing in speech and drama will be made based on prelim scores and tie-breaks according to AA tie-breaking. Debate will be based on record and AA tiebreaks after five rounds. Sweeps points will be awarded following AA speech and debate scoring (drama will follow ABC rules). Awards for top 8 students in each event and top schools in each classification (AA,A,B,C for speech and debate, A,B,C for drama) will be given. Please refer to the MHSA Rule and Regulations for all relevant tiebreak and sweepstake information.

Debate Topics:

Students in Legi will debate the first topics of the season: foreign (South East Asia) and domestic (Artificial Intelligence).

We will be using the Jan/Feb topics for LD and the January Topic for PF.

L/D: Resolved: The United States ought to substantially reduce its military presence in the West Asia-North Africa region.

PF: Resolved: The United States federal government should repeal should repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

Policy will be debating the following resolution: Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase fiscal redistribution in the United States by adopting a federal jobs guarantee, expanding Social Security, and/or providing a basic income.



Extemporaneous Speaking

Extemporaneous speaking will allow the use of internet-enabled devices.

A. Preparation: As soon as a question is chosen, the contestant will prepare a speech without

consultation and without references to prepared notes. Students may consult published books,

magazines, newspapers and journals or articles, including internet enabled devices either used

in the draw or those materials published from internet sources, provided:

1. They are originals or copies of whole pages.

2. Provided those originals or copies are uncut.

3. There is no written material on that original or copy other than citation information.

4. Topical index without annotation may be present.

5. Files stored either on a computer or electronic device hard drive or cloud storage system.

All files in this format must meet the same guidelines as printed sources.

6. Active research from the internet during the round that meets the established criteria

found in the “Guidelines for Use of Internet Enabled Devices.”

B. No other material will be allowed in the Extemp prep room other than stated above. Extemp

speeches, handbooks, briefs and outlines, including those stored on cloud storage systems or

published on websites created for that purpose, are prohibited from the Extemp prep room.

Students may not use the internet to gain help from coaches, other students, or any person,

such that it would prevent the speech from being the original work of the competitor. Students

are prohibited from accessing outlines and speeches that have been written prior to their draw

time. Underlining or highlighting in Extemp will be allowed if done in only one color on each

article or copy. Electronic device use must comply with the “Guidelines for Electronic Device

Use in Debate Events.” Printed copies of information from online computer services may be

used. Electronically retrieved evidence used in any Association Extemp competition must

conform to the same citation standards as evidence used in debate events as described in the

the MHSA Speech, Drama and Debate handbook.

Tournament Staff Contacts

Stephen Macartney (Debate)

Email: macartneys@billingsschools.org

Phone: (406) 696-4745

Jacob Music (Speech)

Email: musicj@billingsschools.org

Phone: (307) 689-0688

Catherine Wetmore (Tabroom.com, Add/Drops, Fees)

Email: wetmorec@billingsschools.org

Phone: (406)690-1891 (cell)

Becky Nay (Drama/SPOI)

Email: rnay@huntley.k12.mt.us

Phone:(406) 690-1427 (cell)

Daniel Porish (Tabroom.com, Add/Dops)

Email:dporisch@huntley.k12.mt.us

Phone:406/697-9648 (cell)




Schedule

Friday, January 5th

Round 1: 4:00 PM/Draw 3:30 PM

Round 2: 6:00 PM/Draw 5:30 PM

Round 3: 8:00 PM/Draw 7:30 PM

Saturday, January 6th

Round 4: 8:00 AM/Draw 7:30 AM

Round 5: 10:00 AM/Draw 9:30 AM

Debate Quarter-Finals/Speech Semifinals: 12:00 PM

Debate Semifinals/Speech Finals: 2:00 PM

Debate Finals: 4:00 PM

Awards to follow final rounds in the gym.

Payment

Please make all checks payable to:
Skyview High School Speech and Debate

℅: Catherine Wetmore

1775 High Sierra Blvd.

Billings, MT 59105