Northern Wisconsin District Qualifier

for the 2024 National Tournament

Congress

The Northern Wisconsin NSDA Qualifier in Congressional Debate will take place April 11, 2024 on NSDA Campus.

All Participating students MUST BE NSDA MEMBERS ON OR BEFORE April 5, 2024. NSDA membership fees must be paid to the NSDA on or before the first day of the competition. Please be sure to get your points recorded, and send the fees.

Be sure to fill out the Single Entry letter of Intent under the "NSDA Forms" tab. For double-entered students, the coach must submit the single entry letter of intent in tabroom under “NSDA Forms” by 2:00 PM Thursday, April 11. Note that if a student competed in a debate qualifier, this counts as one entry toward the double entry limit between debate and speech events. Congressional Debate may be entered as a third event. Partnered events (Duo, PF debate) should take precedence over solo events. Please see the information on partnered events and double entry below.

To run a Senate qualifier, we need participation from at least six different schools and 10 or more students. If that is not achieved, all entries will be transferred into the House. If we have this, we can qualify two senators to the national tournament.

To run a House qualifier, we need a minimum of 16 entries total. Online congress rules state that chambers must be between 8-15 participants, so we will likely have two chambers in our preliminary session. Based on the scores and number of entries in the prelims, 8-15 students will advance to the final session.

The number of house qualifiers for our district depends on the number of entries. If we have 16-29 entries, we will have two qualifiers, 30-59 entries gives us four qualifiers.

Schedule:

Thursday, April 11, 3:45-4:00 pm: check in

4:00 – Session 1 (prelim)

6:30 - break

6:45 – Session 2 (final)

*** The schedule is tentative and may be adjusted based on judge availability, progress of each session, and other unforeseen factors ***

Legislation: Please submit bills/resolutions (preferably 2 per school) as soon as possible, but no later than noon on March 29 to jrademacher@madison.k12.wi.us

All legislation presented shall meet Association formatting criteria (see NSDA High School Unified Manual) and must be the original work of students from the submitting school. Non-original work shall not be considered for the agenda. It shall be the affirmative duty of each school submitting legislation to ensure their materials are original.

Judges: 1 judge per 5 entries. If additional judges are available, please bring them. They will either be hired by the tournament or can be used to off-set any fees owed by your school.

Fees: $10 per entry. Any uncovered judging obligations will be billed at a rate of $125 per judge.

Please make checks payable to: Northern Wisconsin NSDA.

Send payments to John Rademacher, 145 Pine View Dr, Madison, WI 53704.

(Please note, the address to which checks are to be sent has changed from previous years. Be sure to update the records with your school's business office.)

Please direct all questions to John Rademacher via email at jrademacher@madison.k12.wi.us or cellphone: 608-335-4837.

Please note this from the NSDA High School Unified Manual:

Qualifying in a Partnership Event: If a student qualifies in a partnership event (Public Forum Debate, Policy Debate, or Duo Interpretation) and an individual event, the student must attend the National Tournament in the partnership event. However, beginning in 2022-2023, if a partnership officially vacates their National Tournament qualification or alternate slot in a partner event, individuals in that partnership are eligible to enter and qualify in an individual event on a different date.

Partnership Events: Students are permitted to enter in up to two partner events (Public Forum, Policy, and Duo Interpretation) at the district tournament beginning in 2022-2023.

Partnership Event Exception: If two students qualify for the National Tournament in a partnership event and both individuals also qualify for the National Tournament in their respective individual events, the students may choose to enter the National Tournament in their individual events if indicated on their Single Entry Letter of Intent. If two students enter the district tournament in two partner events (as the same partners) on the same weekend, the students must choose one of the team events and both indicate the same preference on their respective Single Entry Letter of Intent prior to the beginning of the tournament in which the partnership would double qualify. If the partner events do not occur on the same weekend, the school may forfeit its alternate position that resulted from the first competition, allowing new partnerships to be created. If the school wishes for the alternate status to be retained from the first competition, the same partnership has to be used when entering the next competition. If a partnership officially vacates their National Tournament qualification or alternate slot in a partner event, individuals in that partnership are eligible to enter and qualify in an individual event on a different date.

Single Entry Letter of Intent: A student who is entered in more than one event must submit a Single Entry Letter of Intent indicating the event in which they will compete at the National Tournament, prior to the beginning of the tournament in which the individual would double qualify.