Broad Run Spartan Invitational Legislation Docket Posted

We are pleased to invite you to participate in the Fifteenth Annual Broad Run Spartan Invitational Speech & Debate Tournament, to be held at Broad Run High School in Ashburn, Virginia. Your students will be able to choose from nine Speech events — Dramatic Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Extemporaneous Speaking, Humorous Interpretation, Original Oration, Poetry Reading, Prose Reading, Storytelling, and Impromptu — and four debate events (Student Congress, JV & Varsity Lincoln-Douglas, JV & Varsity Policy Debate, and JV & Varsity Public Forum).

Our original tournament date (snowed out) was timed to provide a “tune-up” for schools entering VHSL Debate and Forensics Conference competitions, in addition to its primary goal of quality speaking and debate competition; fortunately, our snow date will still offer that opportunity for debaters and for speakers going to Regional meets (as well, as speakers desiring to extend their seasons).

With the rescheduling due to Snowzilla, we fully expect there will be roster changes as student and school availability changes (new deadlines have been established, and, of course, there will be no penalties or fees for drops/changes from the initial date to the new one).

The tournament will be held Saturday, February 20, 2016.  Broad Run is located at 21670 Ashburn Road, Ashburn, Virginia 20147.

There is no school fee

$25 per Public Forum or Policy team

$15 per Lincoln-Douglas or Congress team

$15 per Speech entry (Duo Interp is $25)

$60 per hired judge (limited availability; request early)

Dates & Deadlines:

 Checks must be made out to "Broad Run Debate & Speech" and mailed to—

Ron Richards
Broad Run High School
21670 Ashburn Road
Ashburn, Virginia 20147-4710

—or turned in at tournament registration. (Please, no cash, and do not make checks out to Broad Run High School.)

Registration for all events is 8:00 – 8:30 am at Tab (Library). This schedule is tentative, and each round will be announced in the Cafeteria and Judges Lounge. Student Congress sessions are 8:45 – 12:00 and 1:00 – 4:00.

Tentative Schedule

Student Congress will consist of two three-hour sessions (morning and afternoon); topics are not predetermined, but legislation must be appropriate to the event, and designed to promote debate. The agenda is determined by the tournament in a random pattern to vary topics and the region of sponsorship; the order of debate can be amended, but requires a 2/3 vote. Each speech will begin with a mandatory one-minute questioning period (the first affirmative or negative speech on each piece of legislation will have two minutes), supplemented with direct questioning in 30-second blocks of back-and-forth between the speaker and questioners recognized by the presiding officer.

Laptops are allowed for flowing and evidence retrieval, but absolutely no connectivity allowed. Each chamber will set a legislative agenda prior to the first Session, and may include any piece of legislation published in the tournament packet in any order, even if the author (or representative of the author’s school) is not present.

Legislation is due by 11:59 pm, Wednesday, February 10, and will be published by Sunday, February 14. Submit it to BRHSCongress@gmail.com. Legislation must be submitted using the Congress Bill and Congress Resolution templates provided via the links in the menu to the right.

Entry Fee:  $15.

Judges: Schools must provide one judge per 1-5 entries. You may not cover Congress entries with judges from other divisions. A limited number of hired judges may be available at $60 per judge. A judge orientation will be offered at 8:30 AM.

We offer two divisions of Lincoln-Douglas, Varsity and JV. We will use the NSDA January-February resolution, “Resolved: In the United States, private ownership of handguns ought to be banned.”

Entry Fee:  $15.

Judges: Schools must provide one judge per 1-4 entries. You may not cover LD entries with judges from other divisions. A limited number of hired judges may be available at $60 per judge. We will offer a judge orientation at 8:30 AM at the tournament.

We offer two divisions of switch-side Policy, Varsity and JV. We, of course, are using the NSDA 2015-16 resolution, “Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially curtail its domestic surveillance.”

 Entry Fee:  $25.

Judges: Schools must provide one judge per 1-2 entries. We ask that you make every effort to provide experienced judges, and you may not cover Policy entries with judges from other divisions. A limited number of hired judges may be available at $60 per judge. We will offer a judge orientation at 8:30 AM.

There are two divisions of PF, Varsity and JV. We are using the NSDA February resolution, “Resolved: The United States federal government should adopt a carbon tax.”

Entry Fee:  $25.

Judges: Schools must provide one judge per 1-4 entries. You may not cover Policy entries with judges from other divisions. A limited number of hired judges may be available at $60 per judge. We will offer a judge orientation at 8:30 AM the day of the tournament.

The tournament includes competition in Dramatic Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Extemporaneous Speaking, Humorous Interpretation, Original Oration, Poetry Reading, Prose Reading, Storytelling, and Impromptu. Our tournament’s timing has always been intended to provide a warm-up to Virginia High School League (VHSL) conference and regional competitions. Although our snow date rescheduling this year interferes with that goal somewhat, the Spartan Invitational will still be able to give VHSL competitors an opportunity to polish their performances, and everyone the ability to extend their tournament season.

Entry Fee:  $15 (Duo Interp is $25).

Judges: Schools must provide one judge per 1-6 entries. You may not cover Speech entries with judges from other events. A limited number of hired judges may be available at $60 per judge. We will offer a judge orientation at 8:30 AM.

In Policy, Public Forum, and Lincoln-Douglas debate, medals will be presented to each of the top three speakers. Trophies will be presented to the top three entries in each division of Debate and Speech. The top four entries in Student Congress will receive a trophy. A sweepstakes trophy for each category of competition will be presented to the top school in the corresponding category, and a beautiful, overall sweepstakes trophy, the Spartan Cup, which rivals the best college tournament cups, will be awarded to the school with the most sweepstakes points in all five events.

 Food and snacks will be available for purchase in the morning and for lunch, served by the Broad Run team parents.