I debated policy all through high school. I'm currently one of the coaches for Cedar Valley HS. I don't have a problem with speed.

DEBATE GENERAL: I am not a fan of spreading/spewing; if I cannot understand the speakers, I cannot judge based upon the arguments. Fast is fine as long as enunciation is clear. If it gets to the point where I cannot flow, I will judge you based upon presentation alone. During cross, I want to know that you can answer the question, not only rely upon cards. I prefer a civil debate; it makes my job more difficult if I have to discern between what you're saying and how it's presented.

CON: I expect a debate. Unless it's the first aff/neg speeches, I do not expect canned speeches. I am not a fan of voting blocks to keep people low on priority because I think it's important to see how everyone is doing, not just the select few who are better at networking. That being said, if the debate is not being furthered because there are no new arguments or clash and the same speeches are given over and over again, I welcome a motion to PQ to move the session along. I expect the Chair to know the basics, like Robert's Rules, as well as the Orders of the Day, and keep everything running smoothly.

PF/LD: I am looking for evidence but I also want to know that you understand your cases. In LD, if you are going to run a CP, make sure all of the components are there. While a criterion is not required, I do prefer that you have one. In PF, if there is a framework, I expect it to be upheld.

CX: While the biggest impact is important, it should be a realistic one.

I am a lay judge but I have judged before. I appreciate slow, logical debating with good warrant comparison. Please do not run theory or Ks and explain your arguments clearly in your summary and final focus and signpost clearly. Please define important acronyms that the average person would not know. And please be polite to each other and have fun!

I did LD all four years of high school, alongside some policy, pf, and extemp. I am ok with spreading, as long as you are comprehensible. I will flow, but I will not do your job for you. When you rebuttal, be direct and tell me what you are rebutting. Even if I know your impacts, framework, and links are stronger, unless you tell me so in the round, I can't vote off of it. I will only vote off of what you give me in the round. Crossex will not determine how I vote in the round, however it will determine how high your speaks are.

I am a lay judge but I have experience judging LD. I became involved with debate because I wanted to support my daughter and my teaching colleagues. I appreciate slow, logical debating with good warrant comparison. Explain your arguments clearly in your summary and final focus and signpost clearly. Please be polite to each other and have fun!

Hey yall! I'm super excited to be able to judge and I hope you are super excited to compete!

I debated all through middle and high school. My main event was Policy, I did that for 7 years, but I also competed at least once in HI, POI, OO, Informative, Impromtu, Congress and Newscasting. My passion is Policy, but I am very familiar with speech.

All Speech events:

Clarity and an engaging tone are MORE important than content. Say whatever you want (without being offensive or rude), I don't care as long as your speaking skills allow you to get your point across. I will not judge you whether or not I agree with you, I only judge on how well you get your point across.

I've been a debate coach for many years and have a good understanding of how each event should be done.

I believe that a good debate is one that focuses on the intention of the resolution. I'm not a big fan of definition-based debates that try to win based on how one team interprets the resolution over another.

Evidence is also key. All evidence should be properly cited and relevant. It should also be presented in a way that maintains the original positions of the author(s).

Respect is key. Debate is a civil event. There is never a need to shout or use foul language. You should treat your opponent with respect and remember that we can only hold debates if there are individuals willing to do the activity. Speaking poorly about someone, either in round or outside of a round is uncalled for.

In speech events, I respect originality. I'm not too much of a fan of speaking given solely to create shock and discomfort. I believe that serious issues can be discussed without having to focus on how negative everything is.

Hey guys! My name is Savannah Roylance, and I am right out of high school and am currently a sophomore at BYU. In high school, I was my team's congress captain, though I consider myself more of a speech kid actually. I ended my career with over 2,000 NSDA points, qualified for nationals every year in multiple events, and placed at state. I have tried every speech event multiple times as well. I don't say those things to brag, I just want you to be aware that I know what I'm doing and will be able to judge you fairly (if you are a speech or congress kid). You will notice that my paradigm is pretty wildly different from most judges, so consider yourself warned :)

Speech: Though content is essential to any good speech, delivery will always be my priority. You can have good thoughts and articulate them well, but if you aren't engaging, I will quickly lose interest. For me, it is 60% delivery and 40% content.

Impromptu: Delivery is your biggest job. Intros are the easiest place to catch my attention, and you will always get extra points if you tie that back at the end of your speech. One thing that will guarantee you a high placing is variance in both volume and speed. If you are getting to a big point in your speech, speed up and get louder, hit the point, let it sink in, and then talk slowly and quietly. If you can pull that off well, I guarantee you will get first. Content-wise, I'm looking for something well-organized, well-thought-out, and personable. Impromptu is a fun event, so let it be fun! Creativity is a big factor in impromptu, so show me you can think quick on your feet :)

Extemp: Extemp was a huge event for me. I'm looking for credible sources cited in natural ways. Delivery wise - refer to my impromptu comments. Treat me as if I know nothing about the topics you are assigned.

Oratory and Informative: I would still say it is 60/40 with delivery and content. However, content is a bigger factor here because you prepare it ahead of time. Your topic must be ORIGINAL to be placed high. Hearing the same topics over and over is tiring and boring (ex. abortion, sexual assault, racism, things of that nature. If you can pull it off, good for you, but you will definitely lose some points for originality). Also, relate the topic to ME. If you can't give me a good reason I should care about it, I won't care about it.

(All other speech events run along those same lines)

LD, PF, or Policy: I'm just going to apologize in advance, I'm not well-versed in any of those events. I will work to learn those events better, but please be patient with my judging. Hopefully, I won't be assigned to judge debate events, but if I do, I'm sorry.

Congress: Though I preferred speech events, Congress was my expertise. Congress is always the event that gets judged wildly wrong, but rest assured I will judge you very fairly. Take note: Delivery is my priority in congress. I hated how boring congress was when I was in high school, and I would love to see people take it more seriously in engaging aspects. If you can get up there and give a solid speech extemp style without notes, I can pretty much guarantee you will get top 3, if not first. As far as chairing goes, know that I chaired nearly every tournament throughout high school, so I'm very aware of how difficult it is. I will likely always give a good chair top 3, and an exceptional chair will always get 1st. But know that my standards are high when I say that. Good chairs are extremely quick, accurate, professional, and knowledgeable about procedures. If you can do all of those things, I willgive you first. My biggest thing with congress is I want to know that you were prepared before you started the round. In addition, show me you are paying attention in the round by asking as many questions as possible and refuting points rather than solely bringing up new ones.

Most of all, have fun! I enjoyed debate in high school, and I want all of you to enjoy it too. Let me know if there's anything I can do to make it a better experience for you :) As far as feedback goes, know that I will try to be lavish with my praise but will also give you a lot of areas to improve. Not because you did badly by any means, but because I want you all to improve as much as you can. I can't wait to meet you!

Decorum is paramount!

Please remember this if nothing else. I like to see good flow and obvious preparation with your case, topic, policy or presentation. In impromptu and extemporaneous I want to see your personality and natural instincts on display. I really prefer you take your time and use the grace period after to wrap up your sentence or thoughts so I fully understand and get your message as intended and not be left to assume.  I want to see good compete out of opponents and respectfully aggressive approach. Again decorum is huge with me. Being actively engaged in the entirety of every round is something I look for. You can always be learning from those around you.  And lastly have fun! I am grateful for each of you and for all of your hard work.

This is my 2nd year judging at debate tournaments. Last year I judged mostly speech events and this year I have started judging debate events (mostly PF). I was a political science major in college, and I am a cardiologist.

I judge based on whether an argument is persuasive, backed up by facts and references, ability to counter opponents points, eye contact, body language, and clarity of the oratory itself. Even if an argument is valid and persuasive, it really helps when backed up with examples, facts, references. I strive to provide helpful feedback and really appreciate all the work that you all put into these events.

My name is Jonathan Spencer. I would like to applaud you first and foremost for dedicating the time to such a useful and enriching activity. I am a proud member of generation X and don't believe in voting straight ticket in any election. I have a graduate degree from Westminster College of Utah and I work in the financial services sector. Some of the items I will be looking for when I am evaluating your round or event:

1-Preparation. Chance favors those who have spend the time to prepare and put in the hard work to have a successful round.

2-Passion. I want to be moved to feel why your point of view is relevant and valid even if I may disagree with you.

3-Decorum. Its important people are treated with respect and show validation even when a point of view is not in alignment with your own perspective.

4-Be concise. I am not counting words & I'm not overly sensitive to the time you use (however some judges may be).

5- Politics. It is not important to me what political slant you bring into your topic. As stated earlier I want to sense your passion and energy from your presentation. My assessment of you is not swayed by your political views and this does not factor into my evaluation. However I am very interested to learn & become informed from your perspective. Please do not alter your words or content by compromising yourself on the grounds of trying to pick up points by appealing to what political lenses you believe I want to hear.

I'm looking forward to hearing what you have worked so hard to prepare and eager to be a part of your adventure in your next round.

JS

I'm a flow judge for PF, LD, and Policy. I competed in PF throughout high school and I now compete in Parli for the U of U. I'll list more specific information for each event below, but most of all, be respectful and have a good time! Debate is meant to be educational and fun!

PF:

TLDR: Be nice, tech is fine as long as your opponents are okay with it, weighing/extensions/analytics are important.

Voting: Extensions, impact calc, and terminalized impacts are all very important. I would suggest starting to weigh in summary, and by FF, completely focusing on weighing instead of line by line. Tell me why you’ve won the round, where you’re winning, the mechanism by which you outweigh. Framework is also key and I’d suggest extending it throughout the round.

Extensions: if you make a new argument or bring up a dropped argument in second sum or FF, I will notice. If your opponent brought up a new arg, point that out if you still have a speech left. If it’s second FF and you don’t have a speech left, trust me, I will notice without you pointing it out.

RFDs: I'll always give everyone a good, long RFD on Tab. If there's time, I'll give some feedback in person. If for some reason you don't get a long RFD, its probably because Tabroom locked me out of the ballot.

Evidence: I do value evidence, but I equally value good analytics. If you make sensible argument based on common knowledge or logic, I see no need for a card. Do cite evidence, of course, but I don’t see much use in saying ‘our side has X many more cards than they do.’ I value quality of evidence a lot more than quantity.

Tech arguments: Feel free to go tech as long as it's against a qualified opponent. K and other tech arguments in PF are fine by me, but you can absolutely use theory against such an argument. If you make a good case for why I shouldn't allow it, I'll vote it down.

Framework/Niche frameworks: I don’t see a ton of value in running policy framework arguments in PF, like Baudrillard, extinction good, etc. You’re welcome to do so against a qualified opponent, but I don’t think these args are very valuable.

Theory: Know that I rarely buy paraphrasing theory, but if you make a good case I’ll consider it. Disclosure theory doesn’t matter to me in PF, especially on lower circuit tournaments.

Spreading: Please don't. It is important to keep PF accessible to the general public and those with speech/hearing disabilities. If your opponent is going too fast, feel free to say "slow." If you get slowed, don't worry about it, just drop your speed and continue with your speech.

Non-discrimination and abusive behavior: Offensive or discriminatory language, as well as personal attacks on opponents, constitute and immediate loss and zero speaks. Things like yelling, constant interrupting, dominating cross, and post-rounding will result in low speaks but will not result in am automatic loss unless the behavior is particularly egregious. If you're pushing it, I will warn you and give you a chance to fix the issue.

Evidence Violations: Per NSDA rules, verified instances of falsifying evidence are an immediate loss. In my book, an opponent’s accusation of falsifying evidence is not enough to prove it happened. If you believe someone has falsified evidence, you should stop the round and show me the issue.

Evidence: I do value evidence, but I equally value good analytics. If you make sensible argument based on common knowledge or logic, I see no need for a card. Do cite evidence, of course, but I don’t see much use in saying ‘our side has X many more cards than they do.’ I value quality of evidence a lot more than quantity.

Nine-time judge.

Students: slow down when speaking. Getting more words out isn't beneficial if no one can comprehend what you are saying.

Do NOT put me in Congress.

Overall, I vote on what you tell me to vote on. Pure and simple.

I ran Policy for two years in high school, with an additional year of National Extemp and other events. Within that time I ran almost every event. I went to Nationals twice, once in Policy and once in Informational Speaking. While running Policy, I ran decently traditional, but I have run K's, Theory, Procedurals, just about everything. In LD I ran traditional as well but know K's well enough as well. Generally, I have experiences with most parts of debate. I am now the assistant coach for Viewmont High School.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

GENERAL:

Argumentation:

Evidence is king. Make sure you have evidence to back things up. I am very partial to line-by line analysis of the links and evidence of the debate. If you are able to convince me that an argument does not link, I will drop it. Likewise, if you do not address arguments, they stand without questions. However, these arguments will still be weighed against all other arguments in the round, it is not an immediate win. Lastly, in all debates, telling me what is or isn't abusive (except for in-round debate arguments in policy) is a waste of your time. I've done debate, I can tell.

Cross:

Tag Team Cross is okay, but it will negatively effect your speaker points. No flex prep. I don't flow cross, but am aware of what happened, so if something is important, you will need to tell me.

FLASHING/PREP:

NSDA standard prep times. Period. Flashing does not count (as long as you don't abuse it), and neither does getting up to speak and off time road maps, but talking to your partner, typing etc. are prep and I will start counting.

SPEECH SPEED:

Slow down! Although speed can be fine to an extent, if I can't understand you, I'm not going to vote for you. Slow Down, Enunciate, and ensure I understand, especially on analysis, overviews, and tags.

SPEAKER POINTS:

I'm not going to give a 30 to anyone who can't enunciate and speak well. I know speech quite well, and I evaluate you for speaker points as SPEAKERS not by how fast and well you debate. Good speaking skills are imperative for all events.

LD:

FRAMEWORK DEBATE (Value / Value Criterion / Some Observations):

Framework is how I view the round, not how I vote. If you end up with an uncontested value and value criterion, don't expect to win the round by default. Unless you give me a compelling reason to vote on the framework, I will use it as a way to frame your arguments to decide a winner. Therefore, it is imperative that you tell me why your arguments fulfill the Value or Value Criterion of both you and your opponent, unless you know which one will be the framework for the round.

NON-TRADITIONAL ARGUMENTS:

No. Just no. You will lose because you are not sticking to what this format is about. I understand that there are good arguments that could be run this way, but all of them that can add to the debate can be run in the LD framework without needing policy invasion.

PF:

I am going to vote how you tell me, pure and simple. Clean, simple, easy to follow debate is the way to win in PF. There is no need to tell me that the framework is cost-benefit analysis, as this is a given unless otherwise shown in round. Also, all arguments in the round are potential reasons to vote, dropping arguments does not mean I do not weigh them, so debating on all the issues is your best bet. Make sure you do the analysis and give me voters, and you will do ok.

POLICY:

AFF ARGUMENTS:

Traditional affs are my favorite, Kritical and Performative affs are ok as long as they link and add to the debate. With this, however, it is imperative you tell me why these are a good idea in the face of the topic and debate in general. Performative especially needs to tell me why the performance adds to the round. In my experience, traditional affs are the best way for us to have a good discussion about policymaking. No matter how you run, a harm to solve and some sort of solvency is needed. Without this, I will not vote for you.

TOPICALITY/THEORY/PROCEDURALS:

Topicality and Theory are awful and should not be used unless abuse is present and you are going to go for it. This is IMPORTANT. I HATE TIMESUCK ARGUMENTS. If you decide to run this, it had better have substance, a reason, and impacts. Also, once you introduce it, it is a voting issue no matter whether you drop it or not. Except in very specific situations where T is needed to define the Aff (which doesn't happen very much), if you run T and the aff is topical, no matter what else you run, you will be dropped. For theory, you can expect a bogus theory argument which is trying to timesuck will also get you dropped. Topicality and theory are important to check abuse, but don't expect to run them abusively and get away with it.

DISADS/COUNTERPLANS:

Disads and counterplans are the fundamental way for the Neg to talk about policymaking (what we are there for) in the round. I pretty much like everything but make sure your links are solid. Don't give me a floating counterplan though, it must have a disad it solves. Also, a perm is a test of competition, not a change of advocacy. Just a tip.

K'S:

Kritiques are acceptable, but are situational and only should be run if there is actually an issue. K's are very cool, and they allow great discussions within the debate space, but they should not be used as a win-all but as a discussion about an issue in the aff mindset or the resolution writ large. Don't expect me to vote for you just because you ran a K. Framework is important, and if none is provided, your K will be measured against the 1AC. I'm not going to vote for this A Priori unless you tell me why and there is an impact (in other words, why it is any more than a disadvantage). Also, don't expect me to get your K just because I was a policy debater. Slow down on these.

I have judged Policy yearly for the past 15 years. I prefer LD and PF, but I am familiar with the ins and outs, but I don't know them intuitively as I have never competed in Policy. I am willing to try and follow whatever you present. However, I expect you to communicate with me. I am the judge, not your opponent. What that means is this, you need to tell me what you are doing and why. Slow down and communicate with me. When I say slow down, what I mean is this:

1. I don't follow speed. I try, but I won't get most of what you say if you are going a million miles an hour. However, I understand the strategy and need. If you spread, you need to slow down and tell why I should care about what you just said. Give me a quick, slowed down summary of what you said, and why I should care.

2. Make taglines very clear! Don't assume I heard your 'next DA' when you're going a million miles an hour. If you want it on my flow, make it clear what it is and where to put it. Spread the rest, but slow down for taglines and summarize what you just said! This is especially important for the 1AC and 1NC.

3. Email chains are helpful, but not. It is nice to have an email chain, but if I have to read the email to understand what you are saying, why give speeches? Also, trying to follow evidence because I can't understand you makes it difficult for me as a judge. I will refer to reference, but will not pour over it after a round to determine a winner. Doing that means I don't need to hear from you. I could sit at home and read your evidence to determine a winner. Don't rely on chains.

Lincoln Douglas

I prefer traditional LD Debate with a Value/Criterion. I have voted for flex-negs, and other more progressive type arguments, but I prefer debates that use Value/Criterion. Don't spread! If you spread in LD, I won't flow. You can go at a crisp pace. In fact, I prefer a crisp paces, but...spread and you will most likely lose.

In-round Preferences:

• Weigh.
• Though I flow, I cannot keep up with spreading. Please keep it to a traditional speed in PF.
• Weigh.
• Please signpost — it makes it much easier to flow
• I appreciate critical arguments, but keep them accessible to people who aren’t terribly familiar with K debate or literature
• Weigh.
• Please be consistent with your warranting.
• Offense must be in summary and final focus.
• Weigh
• Do not say racist, homophobic, xenophobic or sexist things. Pay attention to the language you use, and know that I will, too.

Miscellaneous:

• I don't like crossfire. I won’t flow, and you shouldn’t go over time.
• Do not steal prep time.
• Persuade me that you deserve the ballot.
• Weigh.

SPEAKS: High speaker points are earned and not given.

Make it the best debate possible. I look forward to judging, and hope you share the same enthusiasm for competing.