Useful Info

GENERALLY USEFUL INFO

* Every school with a Congress entry should submit a piece of legislation for us to consider for our docket. The link to do so is here. Legislation must be submitted by 5:00 pm on Wednesday, March 31st

* While you are absolutely welcome to send a physical check to pay your fees if that is what is required by your district, we highly suggest you pay digitally via our online payment portal. If you do need to mail a physical check, please send all physical payments with tracking. If you don't send your payment with tracking and it's lost in transit, you may face a financial penalty or be dropped from the tournament. 

* Asynchronous speech videos need to be uploaded by April 9, 2021 at 11:59 PM. 

* We understand that this has been a very tough year for many around our state, so we have created two programs to assist those students with a financial need. 

1: We are thrilled to have the opportunity to once again offer assistance through our Food Insecurity Program, available thanks to our generous sponsors, including the National Speech and Debate Association. You can find out more information about this program here. Food Insecurity Program requests must be received by April 2nd, 2021 at 11:59 PM PST.

2: While the overwhelming majority of schools around California have helped provide technology access for students to do virtual learning throughout this academic year, some students still lack the equipment necessary for basic video conferencing. CHSSA is providing a limited fund for need based assistance. Click here to learn more and apply. Technology assistance requests must be received by April 2nd, 2021 at 11:59 PM PST.

* Equity concerns exist throughout our activity, but online competition has brought forward new challenges for our coaches and students. While there is no one size fits all solution, here are some ideas to assist with safe, equity-guided access for your team during State 2021.

* We ask that teams make sure that their judges are trained on not only the events, but also how to be productive, positive, equitable influences in the tournament space. We highly suggest that coaches have their judges complete the NFHS/ NSDA online judge training, which is totally free and which you can find here. The whole course takes about an hour.  If your judges are experienced judges who are familiar with their events, it is still beneficial for those judges to take the quick, free refresher offered by the NFHS/NSDA on cultural competency when judging. 

* We will live stream as many final rounds as possible, though if that breaks for any reason, final rounds will be posted on our Youtube and social media at the conclusion of the tournament. 

* Awards will also be live streamed and recorded. 

* If you're looking for tips on how to submit asynchronous videos, click here. 

* If there are connection issues during a live round, judges may not provide students private video conferencing links, personal phone numbers, or other potentially unsafe solutions. Safety is our #1 priority. If there are connection issues, or if you are a student and a judge tries to get you to privately contact them somehow, please contact the Help Desk immediately. Any judge found to be trying to privately communicate with students will be removed from the tournament immediately and the school supplying the judge will face a fine if they cannot provide an alternate.