WISCONSIN FORENSIC COACHES’ ASSOCIATION
2017 STATE CONGRESS INVITATION

2017 Finalists:

State Congress Director:  Tim Scheffler   
908 Arden Lane                                                     608-628-3114
Madison, WI 53711                                                state-congress@wfcaforensics.org

Important Dates:
3/22: Legislation due by 5:00 pm to timscheff@aol.com or state-congress@wfcaforensics.org
3/27: Entries due
3/29: Chamber groupings due
3/31: Competition

The WFCA State Congress is scheduled for Friday, March 31, 2017, at UW-Whitewater.  Sessions will be held all afternoon, with the final/super session in the evening.The specific location on campus will be emailed to participating teams before the event once our space needs have been determined and matched with the campus' available spaces.

Entries:  Each WFCA school may enter up to 16 legislators by Monday, March 27, 2017.  The per entry fee is $7 (no meal provided); drop penalties that apply to the Saturday tournament apply to Congress. Students will be distributed to create balanced chambers of 13-25 delegates apiece.  Upon arrival, students will be furnished with name cards.

Registration:  Registration is via tabroom.com.
Once all registrations are received, and the number of preliminary chambers determined, coaches will be given the opportunity to group their students by Wednesday March 30.  Schools not submitting groupings will have students randomly grouped. If a student wishes to serve as a presiding officer, please indicate this so presiding students may be balanced across sections. Adjustments to groupings due to drops the day of the event will not be permitted so as not to delay the start of the event.

Legislation:  Up to 3 items of legislation may be submitted per school, following these guidelines:
Legislation must be original to your school this season
Schools submitting more than one piece of legislation must indicate which item will be given priority to be debated at the top of the agenda, provided a member of that school is in the chamber. (Article V(C)(5)(c)(i) of the WFCA rules gives each school an opportunity to have at least one item at the top of the agenda).  Finals legislation will be selected from the “non-priority” submissions.
Please review the WFCA formatting guidelines (templates available at www.congressionaldebate.org); topics should be debatable (two sides to the issue).

Submit via e-mail to: state-congress@wfcaforensics.org by 5 p.m., Wednesday March 22; no legislation may be introduced from the floor.  Please include the authoring school’s name.
Legislation will be posted on the WFCA Web site, www.wfcaforensics.org, by Friday, March 24; notification of posting and confirmation will be e-mailed to all schools registered for the congress at the time the packet is posted.  The packet will also be posted on tabroom.com.
Should you have any questions or electronic/Internet issues, please contact the congress director, who will be happy to help!

Judges:  Each school must provide one judge (out of high school for at least 18 months), who will be assigned to serve either as a parliamentarian or scorer. Scorers will be assigned to avoid school conflicts to the greatest extent possible; parliamentarians will be assigned based on experience.  Schools with a large quantity of entries resulting in a student in each chamber are asked to bring an unaffiliated judge if at all possible. All judges are on stand-by to judge the final round. You may designate a different judge who is available for finals than your prelim judge. A missed assignment for final round incurs a $150 missing judge fine per WFCA rules, so please schedule accordingly. Special accommodations may be possible if requested before the registration deadline.
          


Schedule:  The preliminary session features four hours of debate, divided in two segments (for rotating judges).  Additional time has been allocated for presiding officer elections in each segment.   
   
    Before 10 a.m.    Call in Drops to Tim Scheffler @ 608-628-3114
               11:00-11:30 a.m.    Registration
    11:35 a.m.    Opening meeting
    11:45-12:00 p.m.    Set agenda and elect 1-A PO
    12:00-1:00 p.m.    Segment 1-A
    1:00-2:10 p.m.    Segment 1-B (between 1-B and 2-A, judges may change rooms)
    2:20-3:30 p.m.    Segment 2-A
    3:30-4:30 p.m.    Segment 2-B
    4:30-4:40 p.m.    Voting for chamber Best PO
    5:00 p.m.    Super Session Finalists Announced
    5:40-5:45 p.m.    Set Super Session Agenda,
    5:45-8:00 p.m.    Super Session

Additional Information:
To allow students to prepare for the event the following guidelines will be provided regarding procedure:
The first (of 4) presiding officers will get a randomized speaker list to use as a guide for determining initial precedence/recency. 
Precedence/recency will NOT reset during the prelims.  Thus, students should plan their participation accordingly.
In the supersession no speaker will be recognized to speak for a third time prior to the introduction of the final item on the agenda. The supersession will conclude once all speakers have spoken twice OR some speakers have spoken twice and those who have not have declined to speak on either side of the final item on the agenda.

Here are the details from our host: