Dear Speech and Debate Coach,

You and your team are invited to the first annual Hilltalkers/Hawktalkers World Schools Scrimmage to be held at Los Alamos High School on Saturday, October 19, 2024.

This competition will be governed by the National Speech and Debate Association rules and norms for World Schools Debate. The NSDA World Schools Manual is located here. The World Schools Norms guidelines are located here.

Motions

Students should come prepared to debate prepared motions from the September NSDA WSD topic release. We will use the following prepared motions:

1. Excluding death as an impact, this House prefers a post-COVID society.

2. This House would protect the private lives of politicians.

The impromptu motion will be released at the tournament.

Awards

This tournament is both a workshop to learn more about World Schools Debate and then put into practice what is learned in the workshop. All rounds will be pre-set before we begin the tournament. At the end of the tournament, awards will be given to the top three teams. Los Alamos High School and Los Alamos Middle School students will compete and earn awards. All students will receive recognition for attending and learning a new form of debate.

Registration

Registration will take place on tabroom.com starting Friday, September 20 at 8:00 am.

Deadlines

Registration closes on Wednesday, October 16 at 3:00 pm. Drop fees of $25.00 will be assessed starting on Thursday, September 26 at 9:00 am.

Fees

Entry fees will be $30 per team. A World Schools team consists of 3-5 students. A pizza lunch is included in the fee. Checks should be made payable to the LAHS Hilltalkers. Invoices will be generated by tabroom.com.

Judge Requirements

Competing schools are required to bring judges to ensure that each round is adequately covered. Judges are not required to have World Schools experience. A coach may serve as a judge.

1-3 team entries-1 judge 4-6 team entries-2 judges 7-10 team entries-3 judges

Shortened Debate Times

For Round 1 only, all Speeches will be 4 minutes. Only 30 seconds of protected time on each end instead of a minute. That means Points of Information should only be asked from 0:30 to 3:30 on your timers.

USE OF ELECTRONICS

Please note that no computers or use of the internet is allowed in World Schools debate. Students will use cases printed on paper for the prepared motions. Students may use a dictionary and/or an almanac (hard copies only) to research impromptu motions.

Los Alamos High School will not provide access to printing facilities. Please ensure that your teams are prepared.

Food

We will provide a pizza lunch for all competitors.

We will have baked goods and snacks for sale.

We will not have drinks for sale. Please encourage your students to bring a refillable water bottle.

Please do not bring foods containing nuts. We have several students who are nut allergic who will be competing.

Expectations

We expect that all students will obey the National Speech and Debate Association Honor Code. Any infraction of the code will result in a student and their team being asked to leave the tournament. That student’s school will be notified of the infraction.

All students must be affiliated with a school and all competing schools must have a school approved adult present with them at all times. A school approved adult to student ratio of 1 adult for every 15 students is required by Los Alamos Public Schools.

We look forward to seeing you!

Margo Batha m.batha@laschools.net 505-670-2852

Donald Poston d.poston@laschools.net 505-709-8122

Coaches, Los Alamos High School Hilltalkers

Sherri Bublitzs.bublitz@laschools.net (505)231-7184

Coach, Los Alamos Middle School Hawktalkers