Congress Information and Schedule

Congressional Debate Schedule

Congressional Debate will be hosted at Falcon Ridge Middle School for all preliminary and elimination sessions. Registration for each division will take place at Apple Valley High School. Shuttle buses will be available to take competitors to Falcon Ridge Middle School on Friday for Session 1 (see schedule). Judges can report directly to each site but will not be allowed in the Middle School until 3:00pm. 

2017 Preliminary Legislative Docket (posted 10/14/2017)
2017 Elimination Sessions Legislation (posted 10/20/2017)

FRIDAY  

The building opens at 3:00 pm for debaters and judges.

3:00                 Shuttles Depart for Falcon Ridge Middle School

3:45 - 5:45       Session 1

5:45 - 6:30       Dinner

6:30 - 8:30       Session 2

SATURDAY

The building will be open at 7:00 am.

8:00-10:00      Session 3

10:45-12:30    Semifinal Session 

12:30-1:00      Lunch

1:00-2:40        Final Session

3:15                Awards Ceremony at Falcon Ridge Middle School

REMEMBER, ALL JUDGES ARE OBLIGATED FOR THE FINAL SESSION OF CONGRESS, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THEIR STUDENT ADVANCES.

Rules/Procedures:  The MinneApple uses NSDA rules for speeches and procedure.  Students set agendas upon a majority vote in each preliminary chamber based on the items in the docket released on the tournament website. Legislation debated during a previous session may not continue into subsequent sessions (so, if there were three speeches on bill X toward the end of session 1, session 2 must start with bill Y).

Advancement and Finals:  Students advance to elimination rounds based on cumulative rank totals from judges, using NSDA tournament procedures for tabulating ranks.  We will break about one-third of the preliminary session field to semifinal chambers of 9-12 students, and a final session chamber of 10-14 students. Semifinal and final round legislation information will be released October 20.  Direct questioning will be used for the final round.

Awards/TOC Bid Level: The top six students will receive MinneApple apple awards, the remaining final session participants will receive an award.  The top PO from each preliminary chamber -- as well as the final session PO -- will receive a gavel.  New in 2017: all final round contestants earn one bid/leg to the University of Kentucky Tournament of Champions.

Student Leadership Award: While student vote will not determine the outcome of the tournament, a special award modeled after the NSDA National Tournament "Leadership Bowl" will be conferred upon one final round debater who earns preferential ranking by his/her peers, in addition to final round observers.  All observer ballots will be tallied at one-quarter strength of contestant ballots.

Judges: One judge for every five Congressional debaters. This judging obligation may not be shared with other divisions.  Since the Minneapple offers small chambers to allow students more meaningful opportunities to debate, more judges will be needed.  Please note experience as a parliamentarian in the notes area when registering judges.