Southern California District Qualifier

for the 2023 National Tournament

Information

Southern California District NSDA
2023 District Qualifying Tournaments

Speech and Debate Events: March 25-26 at Bonita Vista High School, Chula Vista
Student Congress: April 1 on at Claremont High School, Claremont

Schools who are chartered and affiliated with the Southern California District of the NSDA are cordially invited to enter and participate in the Southern California District Tournament. The tournament will be held in person at the above locations. Qualifiers to the National Tournament will be based on actual entries competing in each event. This year our District, so long as a minimum number of entries is met, will qualify 3 in most events. The District’s level for next year will be determined by the number of degrees our District has this year. Please enter all of your NFL points soon. The number of spots that your school is allowed is determined by the entry deadline of each tournament.

Procedures and Deadlines for Entry:

1. Enter all competitors online at www.tabroom.com, which will be accepting entries starting February 25. If you have not previously used this entry site, click on the “Create a New Account” link and register your school. Next, click on the link to “Tournaments” and then find the Southern California District Tournament. All students and judges will also need to have a Tabroom account that is linked to your school. Competitor entry on the tournament website should be done by coaches only, and coaches are responsible for meeting all entry limitations and requirements. Online entry deadline is Monday, March 18 at 8:00 pm for the IE/Debate tournament and Monday, March 27 at 8:00 pm for the Congress tournament.

2. You may record drops online without paying a penalty until 8:00 pm on Wednesday, March 22 for IE/Debate and until 8:00 pm on Wednesday, March 29 for Congress. Any drops after these deadlines will need to be sent to gosborn@helixcharter.net and will still be charged a full entry fee.

3. There will be no Official Paper entry this year, but there will be some online forms that must be printed, signed, scanned and uploaded to the tournament site by 8:00 pm on Wednesday, March 22 for IE/Debate and by 8:00 pm on Wednesday, March 29 for Congress.

A complete entry will include all of the following;

1. School Consent Forms (available under “NSDA Forms” tab on registration site),

2. Single Entry Letters of Intent (available under “NSDA Forms” tab on registration site),

In addition, all entry fees and outstanding fees with NSDA must be paid by these deadlines.

4. Tournament manuals for the IE/Debate tournament and the Student Congress tournament are available to all NSDA members on the speechanddebate.org website. In the “District” section, you will find the link to “Tournament Manual”.

IE/Debate

March 25-26 Bonita Vista High School
751 Otay Lakes Rd, Chula Vista, CA 91913

Events: Policy Debate, Lincoln Douglas Debate, Public Forum Debate, Big Question Debate, Original Oratory, Foreign Extemp, United States Extemp, Dramatic Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Program Oral Interpretation and Informative.

Student Congress

April 1 - Claremont High School
1601 N Indian Hill Blvd, Claremont, CA 91711

Events: Student Congress (House/Senate)

Fees: All NSDA dues and outstanding NSDA charges must be paid to NSDA, before any school may participate. District dues (the $50.00 tournament fee) and event entry fees must also be paid to the Southern California District (Information below). No student may compete without the required fees being paid. Itemized tournament fees:

• School Membership fee: $50.00 (one annual payment of $50 included with your entry fees)

• Policy Debate (per team) $40.00

• Public Forum (per team) $30.00

• Lincoln-Douglas $25.00

• Big Question Debate $25.00

• IEs $10.00

• Duo $20.00

• Congress $10.00

For accounting purposes, all schools should be making a single payment (not having students/families send checks/pay individually).

To pay by credit card, please email gosborn@helixcharter.net to request a Square invoice.

Please make checks payable to “Southern California District NSDA”

Send to:

Gregg Osborn
6540 Green Gables Ct.
San Diego, CA 92119

Judges: Each school must provide one qualified adult judge for every five (5) IE entries and one qualified adult judge for every two (2) debate entries. On the Congress weekend, each school must provide one qualified adult judge for every five (5) Congress entries. Your judges MUST be available to judge THROUGHOUT the tournament. You must meet your judging commitment on Saturday as well as all day Sunday. It is imperative that you meet your commitment, as we will be using two judges in each of the preliminary rounds of IEs. Please make every effort to bring qualified judges. If your team does not have the required number of judges, your entry will be reduced. Schools entering in debate must bring debate qualified judges.

Student Congress: This one-day event will be held on April 1, separate from the other District Tournament. Congress entries are independent from the formula used to determine all other entries. Tabroom will let you know the number of entries you are allowed. You may also check the NSDA Congress Manual to determine your Student Congress entries. (See page 60 of the District Tournament Operations Manual) Our district must have at least 6 schools and 10 or more students willing to participate in the Senate to seat a Senate. The number of chambers of the House will depend on the number of entries. We need at least 16 competitors in the House to seat two chambers.

Congress legislation will be available no later than March 17 on the Tabroom website.

If your school would like to submit legislation for consideration for use in this year’s tournament, please email a copy of the bill to the District Chair by March 10. (gosborn@helixcharter.net)

Rules: For individual events, there will be 3 preliminary rounds and we will break a number of competitors to be determined by the District Committee to break rounds. For Debate, there will be 4 preliminary rounds and all undefeated and one loss teams will break to a double elimination bracket. If the entry for any debate event is small enough, the District Committee may determine to use the Round Robin Method for that event, per the District Tournament Manual. Rules for events are available in the NSDA District Tournament Operations Manual. Please read all rules in the manual before coming to the tournament. Violations of the rules may result in disqualification. Each coach is responsible for adhering to the rules and seeing that his/her students and judges are also aware of them. The following are some important notes:

1. Each coach must check the NSDA membership for each student listed on the entry. (Note: the NSDA only credits degrees for your students who have officially registered and joined online. They will have a blue check mark in the “Districts Eligible” column.)

2. A school may enter no more than the maximum number listed on the Chapter Entries Formula from the Tournament Manual. If qualified, a school may enter up to two bonus entries.

3. Each school may, within their maximum number, enter no more than four debate teams, four Public Forum teams, four Lincoln Douglas competitors, four Big Question debaters, four Duo teams and four competitors in each Individual Event.

4. A student may double enter in the IE/Debate tournament with the following restrictions:

-A student may only enter one team/partnership event, unless their partner in one event

is also their partner in the other and both prefer the same event on their Single Entry

Letters of Intent

-A student entered in one of the two extemporaneous events may not enter in another IE.

All students double entering must declare in advance in which event they will attend nationals. This declaration must be uploaded to Tabroom by the deadline listed above. Students who qualify in a team/partnership event and a solo event MUST attend nationals in the team/partnership event unless both members have qualified in a solo event and have indicated on the “Letter of Intent” that they prefer their solo event. Finally, since Student Congress is held at a different time and location, it may be a student’s third event. Remember, a school’s number of congress entries is determined independently of debate and IE entries.

If a student prefers to be considered for a spot on one of the district World Schools teams, they may/must mark that on their Letter of Intent form. This year our District will be allowed to field 3 World Schools teams.

6. We will not be collecting manuscripts. However, all students and coaches are responsible for ensuring that the speeches following all NSDA rules can be accessed in the NSDA High School Unified Manual (check rules for events, updates are highlighted). In addition, Interp source material and properly cited Original event manuscripts must be available at the District tournament in the event of a protest.

7. We will feature Big Question Debate at this year’s qualifying tournament. However, all entries must be single student only and each school is limited to only four (4) entries.

8. Debate Topics:

Policy: Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its security cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in one or more of the following areas: artificial intelligence, biotechnology, cybersecurity.

Lincoln Douglas: Resolved: The justices of the Supreme Court of the United States ought to be term-limited.

Public Forum: Resolved: The Republic of India should sign the Artemis Accords.

Big Questions: Resolved: Humans are primarily driven by self-interest.

9. We are able to send two (2) World School Debate Teams to Nationals. The Southern California District will select its 8-10 qualifying students with the following criteria. First alternates in Public Forum debate, LD debate, International extemp, domestic extemp with the remaining participants chosen from a list of applicants submitted by coaches. The process for submitting applications will be discussed at/after the District Tournament.

10. This year, the District Committee will be reaching out to coaches to work as tournament staff. For all other coaches, you are welcome to judge to meet your requirement. As not all coaches will be part of the tournament staff, there will be a coaches’ review posted directly after the preliminary rounds.

As the tournaments approach, we will send out more information regarding further logistics of the tournament. If you have any questions or concerns please contact me via telephone or email. It makes for a much smoother tournament if we work to resolve any problems in advance of the tournament. I look forward to seeing you at the tournament and I hope you will join my effort to provide a memorable competitive experience.

Look forward to seeing you and your teams,

Gregg Osborn
Southern California District Chair
gosborn@helixcharter.net
619-840-6076

Southern California IE/Debate Qualifier

Saturday, March 25

Registration 9:00-9:30 am
Debate 1: 9:30-11:15 am (CX, LD, PuFo, Big Question)
Draw 1: 11:15 am
IE 1: 11:30-1:00 pm (DX, FX, DI, HI, Duo, OO, POI, Inf)
Lunch Break 1:00-1:30
Debate 2: 1:30-3:15 pm (CX, LD, PuFo, Big Question)
Draw 2: 3:15 pm
IE 2: 3:30-5:00 pm (DX, FX, DI, HI, Duo, OO, POI, Inf)
Debate 3: 5:00-6:45 pm (CX, LD, PuFo, Big Question)
Dinner Break 6:45-7:15
Draw 3: 7:15 pm
IE 3: 7:30-9:00 pm (DX, FX, DI, HI, Duo, OO, POI, Inf)

Sunday, March 26

Debate 4: 8:30 – 10:15 am (CX, LD, PuFo, Big Question)
Draw Semis: 10:15 am
IE Semis: 10:30-12:00 n (DX, FX, DI, HI, Duo, OO, POI, Inf)
Lunch Break 12:00-12:30 pm
Debate Qtrs/Octas: 12:30-1:45 pm (CX, LD, PuFo, Big Question)
Draw Finals: 1:45 pm
IE Finals: 2:00-3:30 pm (DX, FX, DI, HI, Duo, OO, POI, Inf)
Debate Semis/Qtrs: 3:30- 4:45 pm (CX, LD, PuFo, Big Question)
Debate Finals/Semis: 4:45-6:00 pm (CX, LD, PuFo, Big Question)
Debate Finals: 6:00-7:00 pm (if needed)
Awards 8:00 pm or earlier if possible

***Given the nature of double elimination brackets, more rounds will be added as necessary.

Southern California Congress Qualifier

Saturday, April 1

Registration 8:30-9:00 am
Session 1: 9:00 am
Lunch Break 12:00-12:30 pm
Session 2: 12:30 pm
Finals/Session 3: 4:00 pm (if needed)
Awards ASAP