Glenbrooks Speech and Debate Tournament
2021 — NSDA Campus, IL/US
Rules, Policies, and Procedures
Glenbrooks Speech and Debate Tournament Rules, Policies, and Procedures
All Event Information
The Glenbrooks is an invitational tournament. We reserve the right to refuse entry of any school to compete in the tournament or judges to cover a commitment for any reason. By registering entries for the tournament you agree to adhere to all tournament rules, policies, and procedures found on our tabroom website, in the tabroom disclaimer, and in the school permission form. As a condition of participation at the tournament, participants and schools agree to accept and abide by the decision of and consequences(s) determined by the tournament directors on any issues that arise during the tournament regardless of if there is a written rule or policy regarding the decision or consequence(s).
Only coaches who are school employees should contact the tournament with questions. We will not respond to inquires from students, parents, or private coaches.
Online Platform
The Glenbrooks will be using NSDA Campus as its online hosting platform. Under no circumstances should judges switch their debate's platform if tech issues occur (or for any other reason.) If tech issues occur, please email the help lines. The only exception to the NSDA Campus platform is extemp draw which will occur over Zoom.
Room Check In
All participants will be required to virtually “check in” to their NSDA Campus rooms prior to the start of their event. These times are listed on schedules. Failure to check in may result in disqualification from the round at the discretion of the tournament. Check-in is where disclosure will also take place. Disclosure (in relevant events) must take place within five minutes of the designated check in time.
Observers
We will be using NSDA Campus rooms with observers. Anyone observing from your school must have completed a successful background check conducted by the school or district that is allowing the observer.
Harassment/Bullying
Harassment/bullying of any sort will not be tolerated during the Glenbrooks tournament. Tournament administration reserves the right to disqualify a team or school if they are found to be engaging in bullying and/or harassing behavior.
Equity Process
The Glenbrooks will have an equity process to hear and act on any concerns regarding equity and inclusion. If you have a concern, please see the instructions on the equity process form here.
Private Coaches
Only school employees may communicate with the tournament on behalf of their school. Private coaches hired by individual students may not represent the school in any capacity during the tournament. It is the affirmative obligation of all individuals who are coaching, and/or sharing materials with other schools/debaters in private prep sharing arrangements to conflict themselves from judging those students/schools. Individuals found to have violated this norm will cause all individuals coached by those persons to have their judge preferences removed for the duration of the event and all judges and students involved may be removed from the tournament and forfeit payments to the tournament.
Outside assistance
Competitors should in no way accept or attempt to procure outside assistance during the course of a debate event. Any team or student found to be receiving coaching or other outside assistance during the course of said event will be disqualified at the discretion of the tournament.
COVID-19 Safety
Schools, and not the tournament, are responsible for making sure that competing individuals follow state, local, and national guidelines regarding COVID-19 safety during the tournament.
Judge Background Checks
All judges provided by schools to judge at this tournament must have completed a successful background check conducted by the school or district that provides the judge.
Ballot Statement
We are all influenced by implicit bias, or the stereotypes that unconsciously affect our decisions. When judging, our implicit biases negatively impact students who are traditionally marginalized and disenfranchised. Before writing comments or making a decision, please take a moment to reflect on any biases that may impact your decision making process. Please remember that the video quality of a student’s performance or speech may be impacted by lighting, internet, access to equipment, and other family members’ presence in the home. To ensure a more equitable experience for our participants, please be sure your decision-making process and comments are related only to the content and quality of the presentation or speech itself.
DEBATE RULES
Judges
All judges in Policy and LD debate must have a paradigm on Tabroom.com. Judges without paradigms will not count towards a school’s judging obligation. Schools that have judges without paradigms may also lose judge preferences. It is an expectation that judges in Policy, LD, and PF will disclosure their decision to students.
Technology
We want to minimize the amount of technical glitches during the tournament. Therefore, we strongly encourage every debater to wear a headset with a mic. We also strongly encourage debaters to operate from ethernet connections instead of wifi.
Debaters are required to have their cameras on during the time that they are speaking. Judges are required to have their cameras on while students are speaking, while sharing who they voted for, and while explaining their decision.
It is the responsibility of each school attending the tournament to make sure the judges they hire for this tournament have working technology and adequate internet to judge with their camera on.
If you encounter technical difficulties within the NSDA Campus system, you should email the help desk. We will provide an email address for technological help closer to the tournament.
Coin flip procedures
The coin flip applies to all rounds in Public Forum and elimination rounds for Policy and LD. Tabroom.com will automatically flip a coin for the two teams where applicable. Prior to the round when teams are to report to their competition room for check-in, teams will be notified via text and email from Tabroom.com which team won the coin flip. In PF, the winner of the coin flip will choose either their side or speaker positions in Tabroom.com. For LD and Policy elimination rounds, the winner of the coin flip will choose their side. If the winner of the coin flip does not make a selection after a predetermined amount of time, the choice will revert to the other team. If no one makes a decision after a predetermined amount of time, Tabroom.com will randomly assign sides (all events) and speaking positions (for PF only). These choices will be locked on the judges’ ballots; judges will no longer need to tell Tabroom.com which debaters are on which sides in what order. The purpose of automating this coin flip is to avoid confusing procedures about who conducts the coin flip on video and guarantee that the judges’ ballots are always correct based on student decisions. In NPF the flight B coin flips will occur at the start of the check-in time listed on the schedule.
Strike Card procedures
Depending on judge availability, we will offer strike cards starting in the quarters of varsity policy and varsity LD. Please make sure you are ready to fill out your card when the schedule indicates they will come out. Failure to complete the strike card in a timely manner will result in the tabroom program randomly striking a judge or judges.
Evidence Sharing (all debate events)
All debate events should have an email speech doc chain set up BEFORE the competition begins (IE, it should be ready to go by the start time of the event.) The competitors and judges all must be included on the speech doc chain.
Decision Time (all debate events)
There will be a decision time in all debate events. Decision time simply means there will be a deadline by which the judge must make a decision in each debate. Each round’s decision time deadline is based on the Tabroom pairing start time. If the judge does not enter a decision in tabroom by the decision time, it is within the Tabroom’s power to flip a coin to determine the winner of that debate. We do intend to enforce this but hope we don't have to.
For example, in a policy prelim with 120 minutes for decision time, if the Tabroom pairing start time is 8am, the judge must enter the decision into Tabroom by 10am or the tabroom will flip a coin to determine the winner. Oral critiques can still take place after the decision deadline and written feedback on Tabroom can be edited until the end of the entire tournament. It is very important to note that the decision time does not change if the debate starts late. There is an incentive for the students and judge(s) to begin the debate at the Tabroom pairing start time and to exchange evidence via email chains throughout the debate and after the debate in a timely manner. Coaches, please make sure the people judging for your school are aware of the use of decision times and start their debates on time. Decision times will be included on the schedules for all events. Use of decision time has been extremely successful in the high school and college debate communities. Of course, please feel free to vote well in advance of decision time too. The decision time includes grace time for tech issues. If a team’s technological issues take up more than 10 minutes total of the allotted decision time, the judge should forfeit the team experiencing the technical delays.
Evidence/Ethics Violations
If a team believes an opponent committed an evidence or other ethics violation, the accusing team should stop the debate and ask the judge to adjudicate the challenge.
This type of challenge includes the following situations:
· a team reads evidence is that fabricated
· a team reads evidence that is meaningfully altered to change the author’s original meaning
· a team misrepresents how much evidence they have read in a debate, such as improperly highlighting their evidence, “clipping cards” (the team says they read more than they actually did by clipping a card short of the indicated end), or “cross reading” (the team skips words or sentences in the middle of the text, but indicates that they read all the highlighted words)
· a team receives argument assistance or reads or responds to communications from a coach or other person after the debate has commenced, whether verbal or electronic, including the transfer of evidence after the round starts.
The accusing team will explain to the judge what alleged violation is being asserted. The judge will evaluate the violation based on the evidence available to the judge. The judge should remind the accusing team that if the judge does not believe the opposing side committed a violation or cannot determine it based on the evidence provided, the accusing team will lose the debate. At this point, the accusing team should have an opportunity to withdraw their challenge without consequence. Ultimately students need to be aware that if they raise an ethics challenge and the judge does not find or agree an ethics violation occurred or cannot determine if one occured, that the accusing students lose the debate.
If the judge finds that an ethics or evidence violation was committed, the offending team will be assigned a loss. If a single team member committed the violation, that debater will receive zero speaker points. The judge may assign speaker points to the non-offending debater. If the violation occurs prior to the non-offending team member delivering a speech, the judge may award points based upon the cross-examination, if applicable. If the non-offending team member has not delivered a speech or participated in a cross-ex, then the tab room will assign the average of the non-offending debater’s speaker points from prior debates. Any decision to challenge evidence violations or unethical behavior must be made during the round in which the infraction occurred before the judge submits a decision. No challenge can be made to conduct committed in any round after the ballot has been submitted. The judge assigned to the round will decide the challenge made in the round based solely on the evidence submitted by the teams in the round. No appeal, modification or reversal of the judge’s decision regarding the challenge or the consequences resulting from the challenge is permitted.
Policy Debate
Varsity, junior varsity, and novice policy debate divisions will be switch-side, cross-examination style, with an 8-3-5 format, 10 minutes of prep time. Varsity debaters should only include your finest competitors. Policy debaters may not enter any other tournament event.
The policy topic for the 2021 Glenbrooks is Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its protection of water resources in the United States.
Right now, there will be seven preliminary rounds in varsity policy. Varsity policy will break to double-octofinals (sextos). Octafinals and subsequent elimination rounds will take place on Monday. Please note that the tournament has discretion to make changes to the schedule based on entries.
Appropriate disclosure is required within five minutes of the check in time. Appropriate disclosure includes disclosure of the advantages and plan text if the affirmative has been read before. If not, the team should let the negative know that it is a new affirmative. Negative teams should disclose previous 2NRs.
In order to increase the quality of the judging pool in policy, we are instituting an entourage rule for policy. Any adult who coaches teams at the tournament that is capable of judging must be in the pool for at least 2 rounds and available to judge elimination debates they are obligated for.
Lincoln-Douglas Divisions
Lincoln-Douglas will include Varsity and junior varsity divisions, with NSDA rules and time limits. Varsity LD debaters should include only your finest competitors. LD debaters may not enter into any other tournament event. The November/December NSDA Lincoln-Douglas topic will be used. There will be seven preliminary rounds in Varsity Lincoln-Douglas. Varsity LD will break to double-octofinals. Octafinals and subsequent elimination rounds will occur on Monday. Please note that the tournament has the discretion to change the schedule based on entries and other factors.
There will be six preliminary rounds in the JV division of LD. This division will break to octofinals, assuming the numbers continue to remain consistent with previous years. We reserve the right to break to octos.
Appropriate disclosure is required within five minutes of the check in time. Appropriate disclosure includes disclosure of the advantages and plan text if the affirmative has been read before. If not, the team should let the negative know that it is a new affirmative. Negative teams should disclose previous 2NRs.
Given the need for LD judges over the last several years we are instituting an entourage rule for LD. Any adult who coaches teams at the tournament that is capable of judging must be in the pool for at least 2 rounds and available to judge elimination debates they are obligated for.
Public Forum
Public Forum will be an open division using NSDA time limits. Please note, we are using the new NSDA speech and prep time rules for Public Forum.
All decisions made by the judge in the debate are final - we will not listen to protests. If you think you need to challenge something done by the other team, then do it in the debate through the judge.
Public Forum debaters may not enter any other tournament event. The November NSDA public forum topic will be used. The Public Forum division will have seven rounds and will break to triple octafinals. This is subject to change based on entries and other factors.
Congressional Debate
There will be multiple chambers of approximately 10 to 12. After prelims there will be a semifinal and final session. NSDA rules and time limits will apply; see the NSDA website www.speechanddebate.org for further details.
Each school may enter a maximum of twenty (20) Congressional debaters to start. Based on numbers, the tournament may grant extra spots per school. The Glenbrooks tabroom staff will apportion the chambers and assign committees. Congressional debaters may not enter any other event.
Each school may submit a maximum of three (3) pieces of legislation, but no more than one
(1) per committee (economics, public welfare, foreign policy). Legislation must be in the proper NSDA format and uploaded on Tabroom.com by October 20th. Please only upload legislation on Tabroom.com. We are unable to accept late legislation.
Please see the template for Congress legislation on the NSDA website
at: http://www.speechanddebate.org/congress. Legislation is expected to be of sound quality and the tournament personnel reserve the right to exclude legislation that does not meet that standard. Legislative packets will be posted on the website for each participating school to download by November 1st. It is each school’s responsibility to check the Tabroom.com website for the legislative packet.
Congressional Debate competition will conclude on Sunday. It is each school’s responsibility to make sure they have adequate judging for Sunday regardless of whether their school is competing in the elimination rounds. We can not make exceptions to this policy.
Speech Events