Hired Judges

We anticipate hiring a substantial number of judges for our tournament, based on our tournament entries.  Please note the following if you are interested in judging:

1. The Taylor tournament tends to have the most entries (and thus the greatest need for judges) in debate events.   We rarely hire judges who have no experience in the debate events.  If you cannot judge debate, you will be unable to fulfill the judging contract.

2.  We expect our contract judges to be available for the duration of the tournament (not on the basis of number of rounds).  We will release judges on Saturday in increments as elimination rounds progress.  Judges are released as we no longer need them, not on the basis of judges having other plans for the evening.  If you choose to end your service prior to being released by tournament staff, you risk forfeiting your contract.

3.  Contract judges are expected to judge any rounds assigned to them.  Please be aware that we assign judges as we need them.  This means that you may be judging an event that you do not particularly care for.  Debate judges should also expect to be assigned rounds in individual events as needed.

4. We expect our judges to act in a professional manner at all times.  We expect both our tournament staff and student competitors to be treated with respect.  

5. Ballots should be viewed as teaching tools and will be read by coaches and by teenagers (and often by their parents).  As such, we expect all judges to write constructive comments on all ballots.  An oral critique is not a substitute for a written ballot.  At a minimum, ballots must include an explanation of the reason(s) for the decision.

6. We also expect that judges will be attentive, take notes, flow debate rounds and avoid distractions like texting, calling or playing games on cell phones or computers.  

7.  This year’s tournament will be virtual on Tabroom.com.  You must have a valid Tabroom account to judge.  We expect that you will be assigned both synchronous and asynchronous rounds.  All rounds must be completed within the allotted time limits.

8. Failure to comply with these expectations will be considered a breach of contract and may result in a loss of payment.

If you are interested in being a contract judge this tournament:

1. You must be a registered Katy ISD vendor.  You can register (or update your information) at

            https://mss.katyisd.org/MSS/Vendors/default.aspx

2.  Please fill out our judge application at https://forms.gle/NEHRkuoxv52bmH2DA. This site also includes a link to the required district paperwork.

3.  Paperwork must be completed and returned to Gay Hollis at merryghollis@katyisd.org before you can be hired for the tournament.

4.  All judges must have a valid Tabroom.com account.

5.  We anticipate paying $200 this year for a full contract.  If you are unavailable for the duration of the tournament, partial contracts will be considered on a case by case basis.