Chesapeake District Qualifier

for the 2021 National Tournament

Chesapeake District Newsletter #3 (1/18)

NATIONAL SPEECH & DEBATE ASSOCIATION / CHESAPEAKE DISTRICT NEWSLETTER #3

1/18/2021

Dear colleagues,

The countdown is on!  We are now officially one month away from the Chesapeake District Tournament, which will take place virtually on NSDA Campus on Saturday February 20^th and Sunday February 21^st.  The District is the qualifying tournament for the National Speech and Debate Association National Tournament in June (to be held virtually this year), the largest academic competition in the country.  We hope that you and your students are able to join us.  You are still welcome to participate even if you are not able to attend the NSDA National Tournament (if an entry qualifies and declines their spot, it will pass to the next entry in line.) 

The tournament web site, http://chesapeake.tabroom.com, contains important information about the schedule and procedures for the weekend.   PLEASE READ THE INVITATION CAREFULLY, along with the information below!!

WELCOME TO OUR NEW SCHOOLS!   We are so happy that Sussex Academy of Arts and Sciences, Gerstell Academy, and Appoquinimink High School have joined the District.  A big welcome to you and your programs!

DISTRICT EVENT DATES:  Extemp, public forum debate, policy debate, and LD debate will take place live on Saturday February 20^th.  Congress and Big Questions will take place live on Sunday February 21^st.  Informative, OO, duo, DI, HI, and POI will be judged asynchronously (videos) from Wednesday 2/17-Saturday 2/20. 

HOW TO REGISTER:  To register for the tournament, visit the Tabroom web site at http://chesapeake.tabroom.com.  Once there, you can click “log in” on the top right of the screen.  Once you are logged in, you can click on the “Register” tab to register your students and judges.  [If you do not have a Tabroom account, you will first need to create one by clicking on “Sign Up” on the main page, www.tabroom.com.  Once you have logged in to Tabroom, you can link your account to your school’s NSDA records by following the on-screen instructions.  Once your accounts are linked, you will be able to start entering students into the tournament.]  The computer will ONLY allow you to enter students that meet the eligibility requirements below, so look those over carefully.  The NSDA has created a handy step-by-step guide for Tabroom registration here:  https://www.speechanddebate.org/tabroom-districts-registration/

ELIGIBILITY:  Note that in order to be eligible to participate in the District Tournament, schools must be paid and registered members of the NSDA for 2020-21.  If your school is not registered yet with NSDA, there is still time!  Visit http://www.speechanddebate.org and click on “Join” under the membership tab.    Individual students must also be members of the NSDA in order to be eligible to participate.  This means that a student must have at least 25 NSDA points (thus holding the Degree of Merit) and the $20 membership fee must be paid.  Students must also have an account on the NSDA web page, http://www.speechanddebate.org.   If a student hasn’t created an account with the NSDA yet, they can go to that page and click on the “Register” link.  When a student registers with the NSDA, you will receive a notification in the points application that they would like to be added to your squad.  If you click on “approval requests” in the points application, you can officially add that student to your squad.  Only a school’s chapter advisor is able to add students to a roster or enter points.

ENTERING POINTS:  Your students earn points for every round of competition they participate in.  Now is the time to dust off those old ballots and enter in your students’ results from this season (or, more easily these days, click “autopost” on the point entry screen)!  By getting your point totals up to date, you ensure that you can bring the most students possible to the District Tournament. The number of entries that your school can bring depends directly on the number of points and degrees that your students hold as of Saturday February 13^th.   If your school has ZERO degrees then you will not be able to enter ANY students at the District Tournament!

Also, the more degrees that students from the District earn this season, the more qualifiers the District can send to nationals next season, so by keeping your points up to date, you are helping the District as well as your team.

 If you don’t have your students’ ballots from prior tournaments, most tournament software publishes tournament results online, so you can search www.speechwire.com, or www.tabroom.com for the results of the tournaments you attended.  Failing that, contact the tournament director of that particular tournament for help.  Many of these sites send results automatically to NSDA, so all you have to do when you go to enter points is hit “autopost”. 

 For new coaches that need additional guidance with the points entry system, a tutorial is here:  https://www.speechanddebate.org/wp-content/uploads/Add-Points-by-Row.gif

DISTRICT AWARD NOMINATIONS:   Several awards will be presented at the District Tournament, including Student of the Year, Administrator of the Year, Communicator of the Year, Alumni of the Year, Volunteer of the Year, Coach of the Year, and New Coach of the Year.  To nominate individuals for these awards, click on the “District Awards” form on the tournament web site.  Nominations are due Saturday February 13^th. 

DEBATE TOPICS:  We will be debating FEBRUARY topics!

CONGRESS BILLS:  The bill packet will be sent out on or close to Wednesday February 10^th.  If not enough legislation is received, the District Committee will borrow legislation from other sources.  Send bills and resolutions to cdonovan@loyolablakefield.org by Saturday February 6^th.

REGISTRATION FEES DUE AT THE TOURNAMENT:  All registration fees MUST be paid in advance of registration the morning of February 20th.  Any outstanding balance that your school has with NSDA also needs to be paid at this time.  Since we will be virtual, we are working on setting up a pay-by-credit-card option.  Further details will be provided shortly.  We can not include any unpaid schools on schematics or the NSDA will disqualify our results!

BONUS NSDA QUALIFIERS!!!   For 2020-21 only, the NSDA has granted all districts an extra qualifier in each speech and debate event (except for Congress and Big Questions).  This means that if we reach 10 entries in an event at Districts, Chesapeake will send 4 entries to the national tournament instead of 3.  If we have between 4-9 entries in an event, Chesapeake will send 2 entries to nationals.  For congress, House and Senate will qualify the top two legislators.  Additionally, EACH school that competes at Districts will be permitted to send up to two non-qualifying students to the national tournament, in a supplemental event.  To be eligible, a student must have competed in the District Tournament, and not qualified to NSDA Nationals in any event.

ADDITIONAL COMPETITION OPPORTUNITY:  The Regan Great Communicator Debate Series Mid-Atlantic Qualifier will take place on Saturday 3/27, with the top two finishers earning college scholarships and a trip to California for Reagan Debate Nationals in the summer.  The invitation can be found here, and a flyer is attached:  http://reaganloyola.tabroom.com.

We look forward to some great competition and hope to see you and your team there! 

Sincerely,

Charles Donovan, on behalf of the district committee

Tom Durkin

Teresa Needer

Steve Sprouse

Peter Susko