If you are receiving this email, it is because you have been listed as the primary email contact by the Pennsylvania High School Speech League for District 2 schools.

 

I apologize that this is going out much later than I usually send this, but I think it perhaps is better because it has saved me a number of follow-up emails as we prepare for our first (and hopefully last) virtual state qualifying tournament.

 

First, all of you are eligible to register two students/teams to compete in each event at the state qualifying tournament on Saturday, Feb. 27. You can register online through Tabroom as usual. It is listed as state quals for Districts 1, 2, 3, and 16.

 

Remember, students in Informative and Persuasive speaking must have a copy of the speech, a bibliography, and a cover sheet signed by the student and coach declaring the speech to be original. Please have these sent to me (a scanned document attached to an email would be fine) before the tournament begins.

 

Also, if you intend to have anyone compete in the Senate competition, I need to have your bill/resolution sent to me by Thursday, Feb. 18, by 6 p.m. That way I will have the packet prepared to send to everyone competing on Friday, Feb. 19, giving competitors the weekend and week to prepare.

 

As for specifics on the tournament, your help and patience would be appreciated. 

 

First, we normally have purchased and awarded plaques to the first two places in addition to the state pins for those finishing first. If we want to do the same, the cost would be much higher than normal for each school since we are much smaller. I have heard suggestions that we only award the pins this year or we come up with something less expensive, perhaps only certificates that we get from the state for those qualifying. I would be happy to hear all of your thoughts.

 

Regardless of what we do for awards, we do need to contribute to pay for the cost of the rooms we are using on the NSDA platform. That cost will be divided once we know the exact number of rooms that we'll be using. At this point in time, given the unknowns, I don't want to give you a specific cost per student until we have some idea of awards and for the rooms. I am guessing a fee of at least $3 per student right now.

 

Also, the schedule has shown some adjustments over time, so I will not put one in here right now. Know that it will more than likely follow the same schedule as our normal Saturday tournaments. I will keep you informed.

 

Finally, the potential six areas for Extemp and Comm are listed on PHSSL's website. I will let you know what four areas will be used for quals once we have that decided.

 

Thank you for your patience. I look forward to hearing back from you. If you don't plan on attending, please let me know that, too.

 

Take care,

Jeff Byko