The 2016 California Middle School State Championship

The Bay Area Urban Debate League in collaboration with Harker is excited to invite all middle school debate clubs and organizations to the California Middle School State Championship.

The tournament will be hosted on May 14 & 15 at Skyline High School (12250 Skyline Blvd, Oakland, CA 94619). We will offer all events in the NSDA and follow their rules for events.

Accommodations:

There are many places to stay in Oakland. If you are not interested in staying directly in Oakland, then try the surrounding cities of San Leandro, Emeryville, or Berkeley. The Skyline campus is relatively isolated. It is not advisable to drive to restaurants or your competitors will be late. To account for the campus, BAUDL will provide meals for all students, coaches, & judges. If you have additional people eating at the tournament, we ask that you pay the additional person fee.

Entries/Drop Deadlines:

Entries are due on 4/27 (Wednesday) at 9pm. We will remove teams from the wait-list on 4/28 based on space limitations. Schools without actual competitor names will not receive additional entries on 4/27. A school cap of 4 entries per event will be in place until 4/27. Schools may drop competitors online without penalty until 5/6. After 5/6 a nuisance fee of $25 per dropped entry will apply.

Events:

Pattern A:

(May enter only no more than two from the following):

Prose

Humorous Interpretation

Original Oratory

Duo Interpretation

Impromptu

(May enter only one of the following and NOT in combination with any of the above. Translation: You may NOT double enter in debate and IE’s in pattern A):

Congressional Debate

Lincoln-Douglas (We will use the March/April topic.  Resolved: The United States ought to promote democracy in the Middle East.)

Policy Debate (Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially curtail its domestic surveillance.)

Public Forum Debate (Resolved: To alleviate income inequality in the United States, increased spending on public infrastructure should be prioritized over increased spending on means-tested welfare programs.)

Pattern B:

(May enter only no more than two from the following):

Commentary

Dramatic Interpretation

Declamation

Poetry

Expository Speaking

Storytelling (theme: justice)

Extemporaneous Speaking

Schedule

Saturday, May 14, 2016

7:00 am On Site Registration; Online Registration and Payment of Fees is preferred

8:00 am           Round 1 Pattern A

10:00 am         Round 1 Pattern B

11:30 am         Round 2 Pattern A

1:30 pm           Lunch

2:00 pm           Round 2 Pattern B

3:30 pm           Round 3 Pattern B

5:00 pm           Round 3 Pattern A

7:00 pm           Finals Pattern B

7:30 p.m./ASAP Postings for Finals Individual Events Pattern A. Actual round will be the following day at 3:15 p.m.

Sunday, May 15, 2016

8:00 am           Round 4 Pattern A (debate only: LD, PD, PF)

10:30 am         Round 5 Pattern A (debate only: LD, PD, PF)

1:00 pm           *Out-rounds for debate events begin

3:15 pm           Finals for Individual Events Pattern A

6:30 pm           Awards (Earlier if possible)

*Schedule may be adjusted depending on number of entries and time accommodations. Please check the campus for updated schedule changes.

Adult requirement

The Tournament expects the coach or supervising adult of each debater to be available at the tournament site and have proper school and parental authorization to arrange for medical transportation, care, and payment in the event of an emergency.  Since all debaters are minors, the coach should have proper medical releases and parental authorizations for each debater should they be required by a physician, hospital, law enforcement agency, and/or assistance provider. 

Coaches should be on-site and available for consultation with the Tournament Director and/or Tab Room Officials who will seek out the coach for decisions regarding their debaters.  If a reasonable attempt has been made to locate the coach without success, Tournament officials reserve the right to make decisions on behalf of the coach.

Education and Openness Policy

All debates at this tournament are considered open to the public, and any person including coaches, debaters, parents, school officials, and members of the general public are allowed to observe and take notes in rounds.  Any sources read as evidence in round should be available to other competitors should they make a request for the citation after the evidence has been read.

Any challenges of evidence should be made in-round and addressed with the judge. It is the responsibility of the judge to decide if the protest is valid and the implications in the round. The tournament staff or tab room will not intervene or overturn a decision made by the judge regarding evidence protests.

Use of Technology

The use of computers during debates is permitted for both flowing and research purposes including retrieval of evidence stored on hard drives and accessing resources via the internet during debates.

Students should not attempt to use electronic devices to initiate contact with outside parties during a debate. The penalty for violation of this rule is loss of the debate in question and zero speaker points assigned to the offending debater. This rule recommends, but does not require, that all text messaging devices and cell phones be turned off during debates. It is meant to restrict the debaters from initiating that contact. Example: A student’s cell phone ringing during a debate would not violate the rule. A student calling or text messaging their coach during a debate would violate this rule.

Debate Formats: 

Lincoln-Douglas Debate format is 6-3-7-3-4-6-3 with four minutes of preparation time for each debater.

Public Forum and Congressional Debate will use the National Speech & Debate Association format for speech and preparation times.  Public Forum will use the National Speech & Debate Association rules for the coin toss.

Policy Debate uses the cross-examination format 8-3-5 which consists of eight-minute constructives, three-minute cross-examination periods, five-minute rebuttals, and eight minutes of preparation for each team.

Congress The tournament will prepare a pack of legislation and assign a single piece for debate in each round. 

Fees & Judge Requirement

$100 school fee

$25 per IE/Congress slot ($35 per Duo team)

$50 per Lincoln Douglas entry

$80 Public Forum/Policy entry

$25 Person Fee – All people not competing, but planning on eating at the tournament

$15 judging fee per uncovered IE/Congress entries (One judge covers 5 IE entries)

$60 per uncovered PF & LD entry (One judge covers 2 entries)

$100 per uncovered Policy entry (One judge covers 2 entries)

$40 fee for a missed ballot during the tournament

Contact:

Toni Nielson – tnielson@baudl.org

Jenna Dookun – jdookun@baudl.org

Mya Whitaker – mwhitaker@baudl.org

The following students will participate in the Final Round at 3:15

Prose

HI

DUO

Oratory