Tournament Guidelines

Clark/Plano Guidelines

*Ballots will be ONLINE through Tabroom.com. All coaches, competitors, and judges will need to create a Tabroom.com (free) account to participate in the tournament.

*An adult sponsor (authorized by the school) must be in attendance at all times.

*All written manuscripts for Oratory and Informative Speaking must be available upon request.

*All typed cuttings and physical copies of sources for all Interpretation events must be available upon request.

*Any team or competitor that is more than 15 minutes late to their round will forfeit that round with zero speaker points. Exceptions will be made for those who are late due to tournament error.

*We will accelerate the schedule when possible – please remain available during the tournament to avoid forfeiture.

*No-show judges, like no-show students- will be charged.

*If you are not listed on an assigned round to judge, you will be on standby and should stay in hospitality until the round is cleared.

*All school judges- both IE and debate are obligated to judge 1 round past their student’s elimination; please remain available.

*Facilities Fee - a $25 facilities fee will be charged per school. What does this cover? It covers online platform management and building maintenance.

*Concessions will be available for purchase. Our wonderful booster club is hard at work providing students with a variety of meal options.

* Brackets will not be broken in any debate event. We will also be planning to have panels in elimination rounds, if possible.

Entry Limits, Event Sections, & Cross-Entry Sections

Students cross-enter at their own risk. Students who do not arrive in time to perform to their round risk disqualification or being ranked last in their round.

Entry Limits Per School: Quick Reference Chart. Entry caps are based on available rooms. Additional entries may be placed on the waitlist and we will pull in as many as our logistics allow.

Debate Topics

* The LD topic will be the January 2024 NSDA topic.

* The CX topic will be the high school 2023-2024 Policy topic.

* The PFD topic will be the January 2024 NSDA topic.

* The World School Debate Topics - Round 1 - "This House believes that NATO has done more harm than good." Round 2 - same motion, but flipped sides. Round 3 - Impromptu. Round 4 - "This House supports a salary cap for professional sports teams." Out Round 1 - Impromptu motion. Out Round 2 - "This House would implement a compulsory national service system." Out Round 3 (if necessary) - "This House prefers investment in public transportation infrastructure over investment in automobile infrastructure."

* Congress Legislation - TFA Spring 2024 Docket - Prelims - Items 1,2,3,4. Semis - Items 5,6,7,8. Finals - Items 9,10,11,12. The items are available here .

Extra Notes on Topics:

* Contact us if you need event rules for the TFA events, which can be found at www.txfa.org.

* Congress legislation and World School Debate prepared motions are available at the same location.

Deadlines

* Friday, January 12 at 5:00 pm - Entry Deadline. You may continue to make changes on the site without penalty until the drop deadline. No new schools may enter after this time.

* Monday, January 15 at 5:00 pm - Judges Due & Fees Freeze.

* Wednesday, January 17 at 5:00 pm – Drops and Name Changes Deadline. All name changes and drops are due at this point. Drops made after the this point and before the first day of the tournament will accrue a $25 nuisance fee plus the loss of your entry fee.

Payment

Please pay as promptly as possible. Payment is due upon registration or proof of check request or a purchase order. If you have concerns about paying on time, email Neal White at neal.white@pisd.edu for assistance. No student will be allowed to participate unless proof of payment arrangements are provided. Checks should be made to “Clark Speech & Debate”.

Please send checks to the school address:

Clark High School

Attn: Neal White

523 W. Spring Creek Parkway

Plano, TX 75023