QUALIFYING RULES

FROM https://sites.google.com/site/coast4n6league/resources/cfl-constitution/cfl-constitution-by-laws

C.CONGRESS

1.The VP/C shall act as tournament director and will assign other positions in assigning judges and tabulating results. The host school staff is typically assigned to physical plant operations and meal coordination and is not assigned other duties.

2.CHSSA will determine the number of qualifiers to the State Student Congress. Each CFL school will be allowed 7 entries (One may be a PO). If there are more PO candidates than houses, a test of Parliamentary Procedure will be administered. The top students will advance and the others will be added to the Houses. Students are to be listed in order of strength. There will be 3, 4, or 5 houses depending upon the number of entries. NFL points will be awarded the same as in the Senate of a preliminary tournament.

3.If, at the Fall CFL meeting it is determined that there is a minimum of eight hours available, then the State Qualifier for Congress shall consist of two sessions, the preliminary Session and the Super Congress.

a. Preliminary session:

i. The preliminary session shall consist of up to 5 qualifying houses of up to 20 participants each.

ii. The preliminary session shall consist of two segments of at least one and one-half hours with a one-half hour break.

iii. During the break, scorers will return ballots and be reassigned.

iv. There shall be one Presiding Officer for each segment.

v. Each house shall have at least three scorers to evaluate the representatives.

vi. Three scorers will be assigned to evaluate Presiding Office contestants. These scorers shall rotate among all five houses at pre-designated times, giving every effort to give equal time to each contestant.

b. Super Session

i. The super session shall consist of 20 representative contestants, selected equally from each house in the preliminary session.

ii. The super session shall consist of the top two Presiding Officers as determined by the scorers in the preliminary session.

iii. The super session shall consist of one segment of at least two hours or until all twenty contestants have had an opportunity to give a speech.

iv. Five scorers shall be selected to evaluate representative contestants.

v. After the session,scorers will return ballots.

vi. There shall be one Presiding Officer for each hour.

c. Selection of qualifiers

i. Selection of representatives to the State Championship shall be based on the aggregate scores of the scorers in the super session. (Low cumulative total, then greatest number of first, seconds, etc.) If there are ties, the totals from all judges, including the preliminary session, will be used to break the ties (Low cumulative total, then greatest number of first, seconds, etc.)

ii. Selection of the Presiding Officer to the State Championship will be by the majority vote of the representatives in the super session.

4.If less than eight hours are available for the State Qualifying Congress then the following rules will be followed:

a.The VP/C will assign students to the number of houses necessary with no more than 20 per house.

b.The PO candidates will be randomly assigned to houses; they will be reassigned after the break to different houses.

c.There will be two sessions of at least 1.5 hours each with an approximate 30 minute break.

d.Judge / Scorers will be assigned for each session. They will assign NFL points as well as rank the top speakers. They will turn in ballots during break, ranking the top 9 students. They will be reassigned to another house with other judges for the second session.

e.A separate panel of three judges will judge the PO candidates. Judges will move from house to house and rank them after the first session and after the second. The judges will assign NFL points as well as rank the PO’s. The student with the lowest cumulative total will advance to the State Tournament.

f.Alternates will be chosen by the lowest cumulative score in all houses. If a congress qualifier cannot attend, or qualifies in another event at a later tournament, the first person listed as alternate moves up. This has nothing to do with which house the original qualifier was in.