Crisis Congress Procedure & Rules

RULES & LOGISTIC

CRISIS CONGRESS PROCEDURE

PRELIM SESSION 1 - Run as a NORMAL LEGISLATIVE SESSION with legislation provided by the staff. 

PRELIM SESSION 2 & ALL OUTROUNDS - Crisis Session

Legislation for Session 1 can be found HERE

Prelim Session 2 & ALL OUTROUNDS will be Crisis Sessions. Logistics Below:

1. All orders of the procedure are the same - motions, speeches, selecting speeches, amendments, CX, gaveling, etc.

2. In lieu of a compressive legislation packet, competitors are provided memorandums (message from the House/Senate) that briefs you on the current crises (topics). It is broad and does not specifically tell you what debate or legislation will be. LEGISLATION IS RELEASED 1 HOUR BEFORE SESSION

3. There is ONE memorandum (topics/legislation) per session, each with THREE PIECES OF LEGISLATION released 1 hour  before session commences.

• Competitors may select: how many you debate, which you debate and in which order, base 2, etc.

4. Prelim memorandums will all be CURRENT issues, SemiFinals and Finals issues will be CURRENT, PAST and NEAR-FUTURE issues. We will highlight dates!

5. If you are debating a PAST or FUTURE issue, you can use sources/info from ANY year AND analysis of that event in the present day. A date does not restrict your research, it only asks you act as if you were in Congress during that event.

• Ex. The memorandum will notify you the year is 1919 and that Germany has surrendered. You are a Congress in the year 1919, prompted whether or not to approve the Treaty of Versailles. Use present research and data, but speak as if you are debating this issue as it occurs. 

6. ONE HOUR before the session starts, competitors will be called to JOIN THE GOOGLE MEET and ALL legislation for that session will be released. At this time, you begin prepping and determining authorships, etc. YOU MUST BE IN THE GOOGLE MEET during this prep time.

7. After 1hr, the session will open. Debate the bill, give speeches, pass/fail, etc.

8. After you pass/fail a bill, the Parli will read the result or impact of your decision.

MEMORANDUMS & Session 1 Legislation

For this tournament, you will NOT submit legislation. For PRELIM SESSION 1 - staff provided legislation. For PRELIM SESSION 2 and ALL OUTROUNDS - memorandums, written by the staff, are briefs on the possible legislation you will debate. This legislation will be released ONE HOUR before session. 

Here

CHAMBERS

Chambers will be assigned randomly on Tabroom as you register. 

TOURNAMENT RULES

Below are guidelines and regulations ALL competitors and judges must follow and refer to. This tournament will be run first by NSDA 2020 Congressional Pilot rules, then Robert's Rules of Order

1. ROUNDS: 2 Preliminary Rounds (4 chambers) - 1 Semi-Finals Round (2 chambers) And ONE FINALS competition (1 chamber) 

2. QUESTIONING: ALL ROUNDS - questions will be DIRECT. Expository questions allowed. AUTHORSHIP/FIRST NEG = 4 mins, 30 sec per speaker. ALL OTHER SPEECHES = 2 mins, 30 sec per speaker.

3. ETIQUETTE: Competitors are Representatives for all Prelim Rounds and Senators for all outrounds. 

4. INTERNET ACCESS: Per NSDA 2020 Pilot Rules, internet access will be allowed, however, we ask that competitors come prepared and don’t rely solely on this privilege.

5. SELECTION OF PRESIDING OFFICERS: PO WILL BE COMPETITOR FOR PRELIM and STAFF FOR OUTROUNDS! This will be determined in session, however, you may politic for POs before the tournament on Discord.

6. OUTSTANDING SENATOR:  Each chamber in preliminary, semi-final, and final rounds will vote for its “outstanding senator.” Competitors will nominate peers.This will be conducted via strawpoll at the end of the round. (does NOT affect score)

7. DRESS CODE: Competitors - There is no specific dress code. HOWEVER, we highly suggest that in order to present as "senatorial" you dress in professional attire or business casual. Judges - optional business casual

Google Meet Instructions

This tournament will be hosted on Google Meet. The meeting code will be sent via REMIND, TABROOM & DISCORD a few days before the competition and posted here:

Available here

BREAKS, SCORING AND RESULTS

Breaks

1. Our 4 Preliminary chambers will have 13-15 competitors in it. Judges will rank the top 8 best debaters. In the event of a tie, the Parli ranking is the tie breaker.

2. TOP 8 (depends on entries)WILL BREAK FROM EACH PRELIM CHAMBER TO SEMI FINALS

3. TOP 8 WILL BREAK FROM EACH SEMI-FINAL CHAMBER TO FINALS

Speech & Rank Scores

• Rank: Determines who breaks. Judges will rank top 1-8 competitors, while Parli ranks all competitors in a chamber. In the event of tie, Parli is tiebreaker. 

• Speech: DOES NOT determine who breaks. As per NSDA Scoring Guidelines all judges will rank every speech from 1-6, with 1 being the worst and 6 being the best

Results

• Results and breaks for Prelims, SemiFinals and Finals will be posted on Tabroom.

• Ballots will be sent via Tabroom ASAP after the tournament concludes.