Golden Desert District Qualifier

for the 2020 National Tournament

Districts Eligibility

Standards for Holding a District Qualifying Tournament District Eligibility

1. Minimum Schools Requirement: Any district that maintains at least 8 active charter chapters or 16 active chapters of any type is allowed to hold a district qualifying tournament series. If a district does not meet this minimum requirement, it may not hold a tournament series. However, schools in the district may petition to attend a qualifying tournament in a contiguous district. Schools must attend the entire district tournament series (inclusive of debate, speech and Congress) in their own district.

2. Minimum Entries Requirement: If a particular speech or debate event has fewer than four entries, regardless of the district’s qualification level, no qualifiers are allowed in that event. An entry must participate in at least one round (or in the case of Congressional Debate, must give at least one speech) in order to count as an entry.

3. Minimum School Entry Requirement: In order to qualify entries in a speech or debate event to the National Tournament, a minimum of two schools must have entries that participate in the event. (See Congressional Debate Exception below.)

4. Congressional Debate Exception: The number of Senate and House qualifiers is independent of all other district tournament benchmark standards.

      A. Senate: A district with eight (8) or more schools represented in the Senate will qualify two (2) senators to the National Senate. If fewer than eight (8) schools are represented, no Senate may be seated.

      B. House of Representatives: Refer to the chart below to determine number of House chambers, final round requirements, and advancement to the National House (note that the number of students in the far left column is based on participation—speaking or presiding at least once):

National Tournament Qualification Requirements for House

Participating Students/ Qualifiers

16-29 =2

30-58= 4

59-87= 6*

88-116= 7*

117-145=8

146+=9

*Most likely where GDSDA will qualify for Nationals.

In Speech and Debate events, exempting Congress, GDSDA qualifies 2 entries to Nationals. We will earn a 3rd qualifier in events with more than 30 entries, and a 4th qualifier in events with more than 50 entries.