Lava Heights Academy

Invites you to

Lava Legislature 2025

Congressional Debate Tournament

Saturday, February 15, 2024

730 N. Springs Dr (100 E.)

Toquerville, UT 84774

(435)635-0300

INFORMATION

Tournament Director: Mary Thayer, mary.thayer@rop.com (435)319-4980

OVERVIEW

This tournament’s registration is through Tabroom but is a paper ballot tourney. Students who normally compete in Policy, LD, PF, and IE’s are encouraged to join their congressional colleagues in this tourney. Students who will not exceed their 10-tournament limit (8 for 1A schools) may enjoy this extra chance to sharpen debate skills while helping congressional teammates prepare for region and state. (Note that the 10-tournament limit does NOT apply to Nat Quals, Region, nor State.) This is a good chance to practice authorship speeches as the docket is specifically targeted to reward UDCA congress legislation contributors. This is also a great opportunity to improve Presiding Officer (PO) skills, as there is a trophy for Best Presiding Officer. PO competition is one of the events that judges will evaluate.

We ask all our visitors to sign a confidentiality agreement upon arrival.

We ask our visitors to remain in the building in which we hold debate events; please do not wander around the campus as it is the private living quarters of our students.

EVENTS AND AWARDS.

Congressional Debate:

Preliminary ½ hour to read Orders of the Day followed by a 2-hour preliminary session.

SPAR: The SPAR event will be after lunch. This is a debate event with a win/loss decision per skirmish. Topics are the same as the state congress docket. This event is designed to help congress students practice arguing the state docket legislation. Coin toss determines topic or side decision. The student choosing the topic will draw 3 state congress docket topics from an envelope. The other student will choose aff or neg. There will be one preliminary round with sudden death advancement to each break round. Expect an audience for break rounds.

Docket: We will use the UDCA legislation authored by participating students as well as the STATE docket.

http://www.utahdebatecoaches.org/Students/congress-legislation.

Congress participants shall bring their own copies of all legislation to the tournament.

Partial docket: (Additional legislation depends on participating schools gaining UDCA approval.)

Awards:

Congress: Trophies for 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd Place.

Best PO: Gavel to Best Presiding Officer.

SPAR: Trophy for 1^st Place.

Sweepstakes: 1^st Place Trophy. Points are as follows:

Congress: 5 points for the top quartile. 3 points for 2^nd quartile. 1 point for 3^rd quartile.

SPAR: 1 point per win.

Tie breaker will be PO rankings.

DEADLINES

Deadline to register students: 2/15 @ 9 AM
Deadline to register judges: 2/15 @ 9 AM
Deadline to Drop: 1 day before the tournament (2/14 @ 8AM). Any drops later than this, contact Mary.

Headcount deadline for lunch count: 1-31 @ 5PM COST IS FREE for participants, coaches, and judges. I need an estimated headcount.

Judge and fee requirements are based off a count on 2/15 @ 5PM.

FEES Make checks payable to

Care Schools

PO Box 189

Toquerville, UT 84774

School Fee $25

Student Fee $4.00 per student entry fee covers Congress, SPAR, PO, AND lunch! ONE $4 fee for everything!! ????

Lunch is free for ALL students, coaches, and judges.

We will not have concessions for sale. Please bring whatever snacks you need.

JUDGES

Each school is required to bring one congress judge. Coaches will be enlisted in the SPAR judging.

Judges training will be at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday.

We will use Paper ballots.

Tabroom

I will have a physical tabroom location on campus with which I ask all coaches to assist.

SCHEDULE

Saturday

8:30 to 9:10 Check in

Judge training

9:10 Opening Meeting

9:30 to 12:00 Session 1

12:00 to 12:30 Lunch EVERYONE (yes, including students) no charge

12:30 SPAR

2:00 ish Awards

Restrooms

We have a single use restroom beside our congress room.

ETHICS

Students should follow the NSDA Code of Honor and the new UDCA Code of Ethics. Encourage classiness and cleanliness from your kids and make sure they respect property by keeping areas clean, not touching classroom items, and staying out of rooms with no adults. Students in classrooms without an adult will forfeit events for the student and sweepstakes for team.

THANK YOU!

I ask that all student and adult participants fill out a feedback form including suggestions for improvement on future tournaments.