Some Tips for Judging

STATE 2025

Info for Judges

Dear Judges,

Thank you so much for helping us at the WIAA State Speech & Debate Championships! We are only able to accomplish this event because of your willingness to be here for these awesome students.

You have been signed up by your coach to judge during this event. Please know that if you are entered to judge on a specific day, the expectation is that you are available for that entire day. We very likely will NOT be using you every round, but please stay near your phone or computer, that way you can get an alert if we do need to tag you in, also known as “pushing a ballot”. If we need to swap you in and aren’t able to get ahold of you, the school you are judging for may incur a fine.

Below you will find some helpful information to guide you through this process. If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your school coach or our Help Desk!

I am grateful for the time you will be spending this weekend with our students– I appreciate you!

Coach Kelley Kirkpatrick

WSFA President

The Judge Lounge is the Rotunda in the Wheelock Student Center. Please feel free to make yourself comfortable in this room that is just for you– no students allowed! During the day, there will be light snacks and beverages available. Meals can be purchased next door in the UPS Cafeteria.

Each day of the tournament, when you first arrive at the tournament, please check in at the Help Desk. This will help tabroom staff know who is ready for rounds– and that helps the entire tournament run on time!

Please remember that there is a $100 fine per missed round. Please don’t make us fine your school. If you know you are unable to make it to a round, please let us know as far in advance as possible– we will work with you! But, if rounds are being missed continuously, we will have to issue fines.

Here is the schedule: SCHEDULE

Please remember that debate tournaments often run late. Changes to the schedule will be reflected on this document as quickly as we can.

If you are assigned a ballot, please immediately hit the green “Accept Round” button in Tabroom, then head straight to the competition room. This is how we know you are taking the ballot. If you do not hit “Accept,” we will have to push the ballot and assign a fine.

If you are not assigned ballots, but entered to judge, please consider yourself on standby until about 30 minutes after the round begins. During this time, we will be pushing ballots if they are not picked up by the originally assigned judge. Please refresh your tabroom account often to see if you get a ballot. We will also attempt to contact you with the phone number you have on your tabroom.com account.

We ask that all judges complete the free NSDA/NFHS culturally competent judge training. It takes less than half an hour. Once complete, you’ll get a special badge on your Tabroom profile that shows us you have done it.

We also ask that you finish NSDA Judge Training. It’s free, takes less than an hour, and covers all of the basics. If you have further questions, our amazing Help Desk will be around all weekend and are more than capable of helping!

Our tournament this weekend is using Tabroom.com. Please make sure that your Tabroom account is updated with your best contact info. Here's a handy guide on updating your Tabroom profile.

We will be using electronic ballots all weekend and not paper ballots. That means that you will need either a computer, a tablet, or a smartphone to fill in your ballots. Please be sure that you bring your computer or tablet (or smartphone if you enjoy a challenge) all weekend.

• Make sure that your cell phone is listed correctly in your Tabroom account.

• Please click the "Accept Round" button in Tabroom.com as soon as you get your assignment. This lets us know that you have received your ballot and that we do not need to look for a replacement judge. Clicking "Accept Round" right away helps us stay on time and makes your day more pleasant.

• Go to the competition room early. Encourage the students in your rounds to get started right away

• Make sure the round does not start until all judges arrive.For speech, you will have TWO JUDGES in each preliminary round. In debate, you will have one judge per round until elimination rounds. In debate elimination rounds, you will have 3 judges.

• Do not consult with the other judge(s) in making your decision.

• Please submit your ballot RIGHT AWAY and add comments once that is done. We cannot pair the next round until EVERY decision is entered. You will still be able to add more lengthy comments by editing your ballot (this should be available for the duration of the tournament), but we need you to let us know who won immediately.

• Please write a clear "reason for decision" (RFD). The RFD must be at least 20 words long in order for you to submit your ballot. The RFD should focus on the arguments and evidence that persuaded you to vote for the winning team or debater. Simply, it needs to at least be “I voted for [CODE] because [REASON].”

• Please try to keep your comments supportive, helpful, and appropriate for high school students.

We are all committed to providing participants, judges, coaches, and members the opportunity to pursue excellence in their endeavors. This opportunity can exist only when each member of our community is assured an atmosphere of mutual respect. We are all influenced by implicit bias, or the stereotypes that unconsciously affect our decisions. When judging, our implicit biases negatively impact students who are traditionally marginalized and disenfranchised. Before writing comments or making a decision, please take a moment to reflect on any biases that may impact your decision making process. If you’re interested in learning more about implicit bias & bias in speech and debate, the National Federation of High School Associations has two free, totally online programs. NFHS & NSDA Cultural Competence Course and a general program about Implicit Bias.

Equity also means that we do not judge competitors on what they wear, the arguments we would have made, or whether we agree with their choice of topics, arguments or examples. We also acknowledge their lived experiences, even if they differ from our own.

If enabled on Tabroom, you'll get an email when assigned a round. However, some judges have disabled this feature. It’s best to refresh Tabroom.com manually to see if you've been assigned any ballots for each round. To do this, log in and go to your account dashboard by clicking your username/email at the top. If you have any current ballots, you'll see them listed. Click "Accept Round" to confirm you're ready to judge. For a step-by-step guide, click here.

Your comments are a wonderful way to help students and coaches get constructive, productive, educational feedback. Please provide robust comments for all competitors. Remember: you are more than just a judge this weekend: you’re an educator, too.

We LOVE when you offer ways a student can improve, but please remember to be gentle with your feedback-- for many of our Seniors, this may be their last competition ever. So, please be constructive but kind; make sure to really celebrate what a competitor is doing well (and how proud of them you are for doing that!). I promise: this will mean the world to those kids. If you need help with, please drop by the Help Desk and ask for Newport Coach Megan Troutman– she is really good at constructive feedback!

For debate, all judges are expected to have a current, updated paradigm available on tabroom.com. Please make sure that you have done this so the debaters can practice their adaptation skills.

Thank you for wanting to keep us in the loop. Your first stop should always be the head coach of the team you are here judging for– afterall, they are the ones who get grumpy fine notices from the tournament staff when ballots are missed or obligations are not covered. We also task our coaches with making sure the judges they are providing are trained on how to judge & use Tabroom and provide any items you need to fulfill your judging obligation.

During the tournament, you can also get help at the HELP DESK! Coaches Megan, Dave, Jessica, Brittany, and Sarah will be there throughout the weekend– they will get you the answers you need.