Inland Empire District Qualifier

for the 2018 National Tournament

Tournament Info

We are only a few days away from the first day of the tournament, and there are some notes I need to get to you.

I am a very by-the-book person, and I made a few discoveries as I worked my way through the district tournament manual. Some of them are rule changes from last year. If they are opposite of what you have heard or done in the past, I’m sorry for the short notice.

Before that, though, I have received only one nomination for district student of the year and one for district principal of the year. I also have people in mind for the Alumnus and Volunteer awards, but I really don’t want this to become the Chiawana Show.

In addition to qualifying for nationals, you may nominate for the following awards:

District Student of the Year This nomination is done online at https://www.speechanddebate.org/student-of-the-year-nomination-form/ . As I am nominating a student myself, I will have a panel of teachers evaluate the nominations with names and school names removed.

District Principal of the Year Nomination letters can be done at https://www.speechanddebate.org/high-school-coach-of-the-year-nomination-form/ . I have one nomination so far.

District Alumnus Achievement Award Nomination letters can be sent directly to me. If I have a candidate, I will have an independent panel evaluate the nominations

District Volunteer of the Year Nomination letters can be sent directly to me. If I have a candidate, I will have an independent panel evaluate the nominations

**Registration on Tabroom.com will open at 3:00 p.m. Thursday, February 15 and end at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, February 21. It will require you to download and print some forms. You will need to have those signed forms with you at registration.

**I know this will come as bad news to some of you, and I apologize for the late notice, but I’ve been reviewing the manual and contrary to what has been permitted in years past, the updated High School Unified Manual says that schools participating in the National Qualifying (District) Tournament must be members of the NSDA prior to competition. (See below; changes this year are highlighted. This is lifted straight from the manual.)

Prepare for the district tournament series. Chapters must be sure that all of their contestants are Association members on record in the national office prior to entering the tournament. Point reports and applications are to be submitted.

Most Association tournaments are held in February, March, and April. Chapters must be sure that all of their contestants are Association members on record in the national office prior to entering the tournament.

If you are trying to get a handle on whether your students will be eligible for membership, remember that you can enter points for the prior school year as well as the current one. The below will help you calculate how many points your students will have; they need 25 in order to be eligible. The number of entries you have overall is also affected by the number of student degrees your school has achieved. If you only have a couple of entries and you’re worried about money, you may want to just purchase enough memberships to earn enough entries in the district tournament. Does that make sense? For number of entries based on team strength, please refer to page 60 of the 2017-18 Unified High School Manual.

Main Association events may earn 6 points per 1st rank, 5 points per 2nd rank, 4 points per 3rd rank, 3 points per 4th rank, and 2 points for ranks of 5 and below. Those events include Extemporaneous Speaking, Original Oratory, Informative Speaking, and Humorous, Dramatic, Duo, and Program Oral Interpretation.

Non-main Association events may earn 5 points per 1st rank, 4 points per 2nd rank, 3 points per 3rd rank, 2 points per 4th rank, and 1 point for ranks of 5 and below. Use the appropriate category name, or a similar category name as appropriate.

Extrapolate what speech categories best match outside contests. For example, American Legion Oratorical Contest’s two speaking events are recorded as Original Oratory and Extemporaneous Speaking. Poetry Out Loud, Slam Poetry, and Spoken-Word Poetry are recorded as Poetry.

**Please bring copies of all scripts for Informative, Original Oratory, and all interp events.

Vicky Hyde, Head Coach/Inland Empire District Chair

 vhyde@psd1.org; 509-543-6786 ex. 5610; 406-471-4129 (cell)

 Sara Hyde, Assistant Coach