Congress

CONGRESS

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD 2015 EARLYBIRD CONGRESS RESULTS 

ENTRY AND LOGISTICAL SPECIFICS: 

Entries & Legislation 

Each school may enter up to ten (10) legislators in Student Congress. There is no double-entry between Congress and any other event.   Legislation and names of all students entered must be received no later than Thursday, September 3rd,

Each school may also submit up to three (3) pieces of legislation, but no student may be the author of more than one (1) piece of legislation. Bills and resolutions may be written on any topic that is current and appropriate for debate.

All legislation must be typed, double-spaced, contain numbered lines, and follow the National Forensic League guidelines. The author's name and school must be included at the end of the legislation. Legislation that does not conform to these requirements will not appear on the agenda.

Method of Entry

Step 1: Enter all contestants and judges on tabroom.com

Step 2: Send an email to Congress Director Keith Pittman (keith.pittman@asheville.k12.nc.us), with the following information:

• 1. School name, coach's name, and coach's email address.
• 2. The name of one (1) judge per six entries who is or can be trained to evaluate Congress.  A minumum of one judge is required per school. 
• 3. The full text of any legislation for the agenda. Submit this information by attaching a Microsoft Word file to the entry email. Make sure that the author's name is listed on each piece of legislation.   PLEASE NOTE:  Legislation MUST use the official NSDA template available at this link.   Legislation produced with any other template or using any other format will not be accepted.

All schools that follow this procedure correctly will receive an email containing chamber assignments, procedural rules, and the full text of all preliminary legislation by Monday morning, September 7th.  

Semifinal legislation will be released by Wednesday, September 9^th.   Finals legislation will be given to finalists at a mandatory meeting Saturday night after semifinals.

Because legislation will be available prior to the tournament, each student is responsible for bringing his/her own legislation packet. No additional copies will be available at the tournament.

Tournament Format Overview 

This tournament will use NSDA rules with adult scorers determining the advancing students and the winners.

Student Congress begins on Friday afternoon. After committee meetings to set the agenda, there are two sessions of preliminary debate (one on Friday evening and one on Saturday morning). Please note that each preliminary session will be divided into two segments (A & B).   Each segment will have its own presiding officer, but precedence will not reset until the end of the full session.    Judges will also stay in a chamber the entire session (both segments A and B).

NEW THIS YEAR:  If entry numbers permit, we plan to break to a semifinal session on Saturday afternoon. 

JUDGING INFORMATION  

One qualified judge must accompany every 6 entry slots (or fraction thereof). Hired judges are available for $120.00 per obligated judge slot (one judge slot per 6 entry slots).  Congress judges may be used entirely for Congress, or may be placed in the IE pool at the tournament staff's discretion.

Any scheduling issues with your judges (leaving early, arriving late, etc.) should be communicated to the tab room well in advance of the tournament.   All Congress judges are obligated through Finals.

CONGRESS SCHEDULE

FRIDAY, September 11, 2015  - at North Forsyth High School

4:00 - 4:30     Opening Congress Assembly for contestants and judges.

4:30 – 5:00     Agenda setting and Presiding Officer elections in chambers

5:00  - 6:00    Dinner break

6:00 - 10:00   Preliminary Session One

SATURDAY, September 12, 2015 - at North Forsyth High School

8:00 - 12:00   Preliminary Session Two

12:00 - 1:30   Lunch Break

1:45               Posting of Semifinalists

2:00 - 6:00     Semifinals

6:45               Posting of Finalists 

7:00 - 7:30     Mandatory Meeting of all Finalists

SUNDAY, September 13, 2015 – at Wake Forest (building TBA):

7:45 - 8:00     Preliminary Business in Chamber

8:00 - 11:30   Finals

1:00:               Awards Assembly, Wait Chapel

NOTE:  Awards may be moved ahead of schedule and begin as early as 12:30.  Please check postings and announcements for updates.)