Judge Obligations/Requirements

ALL judges must have a linked Tabroom account.

Judge Strike Information:

Each NMSDA member school in good financial standing may submit the names of up to three people who they strike as judges for their team at the state tournament. This list must be submitted to the NMSDA president by the registration deadline. A school wishing to strike a judge must have provided the requisite number of judges for the tournament.

Judging obligations are determined by the number of entries a school brings per pattern (speech or debate). A CX, PF, or Duo team counts as a single entry.

Judges MUST monitor their Tabroom accounts and/or emails for assignments. The $200 judge bond will be forfeited if a school misses a single judging obligation. Each subsequent round missed will result in a $15 fine.

A school must provide judges for all semi-final rounds for patterns in which they are obligated. If a team had no students that made it to out-rounds, they may check out during the semi-final round.

For example, Springfield High School only brings speechies, but no one broke to an outround. They must provide speech judges for the semi-final round of speech, but the coach may check out during semis of speech and they may leave after that.

Any school which competes in semis must provide judges for final rounds.

Entry fees and judge bond must be received in full at registration. Additionally, any fines occurred from missed rounds at previous year’s state tournament must be paid in full by registration, or that team may not compete that year.

FAQ:

Can the same individuals judge both speech and debate rounds?

This is up to the coach of each school. Penalties will not be incurred if a school’s judges are held up by a round going late. However, once the judge is out of that round, they will have to immediately report back to the judge’s table. Additionally, judges who are assigned both speech and debate rounds will not have a break between rounds if they judge back-to-back. Coaches should endeavor to find separate judges for speech rounds and debate rounds.

Coaches should NOT consider themselves available to fulfill a judging requirement if they have been assigned a tournament job.

Schools may recruit community judges to judge on their behalf. The community judge will have to understand what school they represent. If there are no conflicts with community judges knowing students from the school they represent, the judges’ table staff has discretion to allow that judge to be in a room with students from said school.

A school does not need to provide names of judges for specific rounds, although this may be helpful to the coach.

Different judges may judge on different days: for instance, a parent who can help judge Thursday does not need to show up Friday. However, the school must supply the number of judges needed to cover their judging obligations at each round.