Congress

We are excited to announce that students earning a Top 6 placement will earn a bid to the Tournament of Champions. As a result, we have made some changes to this year's tournament. Please read the information below carefully.

Competitive Sessions: The novice division will feature three (3) sessions, each consisting of two (2) hours of debate as well as a semi-final and final round. The Varsity/Open division will feature three (3) sessions, each consisting of two (2) hours of floor debate and a semi-final and final round. If there are more than 120 entrants, the tournament reserves the right to reduce the number of prelim rounds in order to add a semi-final. Student Congress will be offered on Saturday and Sunday. All sessions will conflict with Debate events, so students entered in Student Congress may not enter LD or Policy Debate.

Legislation Requirements: Each school must submit at least one piece of legislation for consideration. Legislation should be emailed to jackhowelegislation@gmail.com by Wednesday, September 13th at 5:00 PM PDT. The tabulation staff is willing to review and provide guidance on your legislation if it is submitted no later than Monday, September 11th by 5:00 PM PDT. This will give you plenty of time to make any needed revisions.

We will be using the tournament-approved templates, which can be downloaded this website. If you have never used a template before, it is easy! Simply download the appropriate template and type directly on to the opened document. There will be guidelines. When done, please save the document as SchoolName.docx.

Procedure: A number of our traditional rules have changed. Please refer to the Congress Information Packet, which is downloadable from the main tournament page. 

Judging Commitment: All schools entering students in Student Congress must provide at least one critic who is capable and willing to act as a Parliamentarian and/or chair.

Presiding Officer Contest: One of the big changes this year is that we will no longer have a separate presiding officer contest. Coaches must nominate and certify prior to the close of registration, which students would like to be considered for presiding officer nomination.

There is one (1) elected Presiding Officer in each session. No legislator may serve in that office for more than one session if there are other willing candidates within the chamber. In the event none of the school-recognized presiding officers choose to run for election, nominations may be taken from the floor. The Parliamentarian using a secret ballot conducts elections. A majority vote is required to elect a candidate. The chamber’s best presiding officer as determined by the Parliamentarian and Scorers is guaranteed to advance to the next round of competition.