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Your Schedule for the
Puget Sound N.F.L. Districts Tournament 2012 at Snohomish High School
1316 5th Street Snohomish, WA. 98290 And Congress at the Capital Complex in Olympia Updates and New Items The most important notes are these: We will be using the JoyofTournaments (JOT) site for congress and main tournament registration again this year, and it is the only means of registering, so please do not send me an e-mail with your entries. I can’t do this for you. Your yearly dues (the $99 charge) must be paid by 7 days prior to the first tournament you attend for the system to allow you to enter. NFL will take a credit card (we can’t), and you can do it instantly online. Your membership fees (the $15 for individual membership for students) must be paid at the start of the main tournament for you to compete, so I can collect that then if you want. For congress, your competitor registration must be done by 2/17. For the main tournament, it must be done by 2/22, although drops are allowed after that point. The JOT system will not allow you to enter a competitor who does not have 25 NFL points by then, and there is nothing we can do for you to get around that requirement. For congress, all legislation used is out of the Spring WIAA packet and needs to be e-mailed to me by 2/17 (just send the page number and title) and I will forward this to those attending so that they have the opportunity to research. You may nominate your own legislation and you have priority on that---no one else can nominate it. Or, you may choose any legislation from a school not in our district (see our membership at NFL) and sponsor that. The advantage in doing so is that your students will get a speech in sponsorship should they wish it, and this increases their odds of doing well. If we can get 61 competitors in the house, we will get three entries in house. Senate is separate and we need eight schools competing to get the two entrants in senate. I am hoping we can have 15 schools there! Paperwork requirements need to be tightened up to be in compliance with NFL guidelines. Last year, Don Garnand, who tabs the tournament, was concerned about the number of schools we had showing up without principal or student signatures, payment of membership dues, ISBN info, and so forth. He’s right to be concerned, because the NFL does audit and we were way out of compliance at the start of the tournament. We have been for many years, and sooner or later, it is going to bite us. For both congress and the main tournament, your paper registrations, single-entry letters of intent, oratory and interp title and ISBN info, and any other forms needed along with tournament entry fees and membership dues are due at the start of the tournament or we can’t allow you to compete. Those have always been the rules. We just need to do a better job of complying or bad things can happen. If you have questions on any issues or the forms themselves, shoot me an email or call me in advance, so I can help you solve them. And many thanks to the majority of teams who show up with everything done perfectly each year. Congress at the Capital Complex in Olympia on 2/25/12 Congress, Saturday, 2/25: This year congress is again a separate event to be held at the State Capital Complex in Olympia. I’ll be sending a map quest link from both directions and the complete address as we finalize details over the next few weeks, but for now just note that the building we will use is adjacent to the state capital building in Olympia, and that we have reserved conference rooms for this event. It’s easy to find. Some years we do have to pay about $4 for parking. Some Important Notes about Congress: Congress is completely separate from the main tournament, and it is free of charge. In fact, we supply judges, so you don’t even need those. So, if you’re a team who does just debate, this is an opportunity to try congress with no charge or judge commitment. All you have to do is register and get to the state capital. What you will need to do is register your competitors on Joyoftournaments, and you will need to fill out registration paperwork signed by coach, students, and principal. This is due before the tournament begins and cannot be turned in later! There are limitations on how many you can enter and you can find those here Click on the link, click “district,” and select “Puget Sound.” The number you can enter in the houses are in the column “house slot.” All schools may enter two senators and no more, regardless of the school size. The Tournament Schedule for Congress:
Puget Sound N.F.L. District Debate and Speech, March 1-3, Snohomish High School CX and PF: Thursday March 1, 2012: Registration/confirmation: 3:00 for CX and Public Forum in the Commons CX uses the yearly national topic; PF uses the MARCH topic For teams who have already paid and turned in paperwork at congress, please simply confirm that you have all competitors and judges. For teams doing PF and CX, you need to register, turn in all signed paperwork, pay for the tournament entries/hired judges and for all owed membership dues prior to the fist round. No POs, please. If you want the tournament to run on time, we really need to avoid drops and to show up with all judges at the first round and make sure they stay through the tournament, because when we go to triple judging we need every one of them there. Adds are not allowed by JOT at the tournament, and an event change is considered an add. The commons is located in the center of campus, near the large amphitheater of concrete blocks. Our school is not out until 2:12, so I won’t be available until around 2:30 in the commons, and buses will find parking difficult until about 2:25, so I wouldn’t arrive before then. You may want to have a driver let kids out and park down the street until our departing buses clear, then there is ample parking on either the south or north side of campus. Your students should go to the commons located in the center of campus. We will have signs up and students posted near them to help you out. Here is the competition schedule for THURSDAY, March 1st
Note: We do not have to comply with the 9:00 rule at this tournament, but we try to keep it reasonable. We are going to try to get in a minimum of six PF rounds, and I think we can make this schedule. You may have noticed that after round three I have had to build in some extra time to turn the next rounds. This is because the rounds 1 and 2 are pre-matched, and 3 and 4, where we still have large numbers, are not. The PF and LD fields keep growing and it takes much longer to match, print, and turn rounds than it did even four years ago. It’s a good problem to have. This is a double-down and out tournament, so it can run on a long time, depending on outcomes. If our entries are the same size or larger, unless there is a miracle in mathematics, we will not finish PF on Thursday. LD and remaining CX and PF, Friday March 2nd, 2012: LD uses the MARCH/APRIL Topic For teams already paid, please simply confirm that you have all competitors and judges. For teams doing only LD, you need to register, turn in all signed paperwork, pay for the tournament entries/hired judges and for all owed membership dues prior to the fist round. No POs, please. If you want the tournament to run on time, we really need to avoid drops and to show up with all judges at the first round and make sure they stay through the tournament, because when we go to triple judging we need every one of them there. Adds are not allowed by JOT, and an event change is considered an add. The commons is located in the center of campus, near the large amphitheater of concrete blocks. Our school is out on Friday at 12:12, so you are welcome to arrive early. There is ample parking on either the south or north side of campus. Your students should go to the commons located in the center of campus. We will have signs up and students posted near them to help you out.
Note: A very few competitors may still be alive after Round 5 in LD---maybe 4 to 6 or so. In the past, we have scheduled them for Saturday, working the schedule to accommodate their speech events. This has worked well, but be aware that you need to prepare for this possibility, and since there are so many more kids in the speech tournament, we work LD around speech and not vice versa. Saturday March 3rd, 2012: ALL SPEECH IE Registration/confirmation in the COMMONS, 8:00-9:00 . For teams already paid, please simply confirm that you have all competitors and judges. For teams doing only speech, you need to register, turn in all signed paperwork, turn in original source material and scripts, pay for the tournament entries/hired judges and for all owed membership dues prior to the fist round. No POs, please. If you want the tournament to run on time, we really need to avoid drops and to show up with all judges at the first round and make sure they stay through the tournament, because when we go to triple judging we need every one of them there. Adds are not allowed by JOT, and an event change is considered an add. The commons is located in the center of campus, near the large amphitheater of concrete blocks. There is ample parking on either the south or north side of campus. Your students should go to the commons located in the center of campus. We will have signs up and students posted near them to help you out. Remaining LD rounds (if any) may be run starting very early in the morning, so be prepared for this possibility if you have LDers. EXTEMP PREP will meet in room E234. Students may leave extemp tubs there on Friday night if they wish. 8:30-9:00 Extemp prep 7:00 Awards for everything if it only takes 6 rounds for all, which is likely, and we will probably conclude at 7:00. The event that is most likely to go more rounds is extemp. If that happens, we will do awards for all but extemp so that teams already out in that event can depart and will then run the final extemp round, as follows: A cheat sheet on the basic rules we are often asked to clarify: 1) Judges required or charged for: One judge per debate entry; one judge per four I.E. entries. These are tight requirements but every year we barely have enough to cover the triple judging rounds. JOT will show us how many rounds each judge picked up. We do have a limited pool of hired judges upon request at $75 a day. It is far better to let us know in advance if you are short, because if we are out of judges, we will have to cut competitors rather than hold up the entire tournament. No judges required for congress---we provide them.
2) Each team has a maximum of four entries per event, excluding congress, which has separate limits (consult your entry limits for that). 3) NFL determines your entry limits. You can view these on the NFL site here Click on the link, click “district,” and select “Puget Sound.” The JOT system will not allow you to exceed your team limit. We can’t give you more at the tournament, so make sure your points are current. 4) There is no such thing as a “novice” entry. All are combined into open. 5) Students may not enter two team events unless it is with the same partner. They cannot enter both forms of extemp because the prep runs simultaneously. They cannot enter CX and PF because they conflict, but may enter LD and PF if they have no other events. They may enter one speech and one debate, or two speech events, subject to the limitations above. Congress is a completely separate limit and does not count toward your entry quota in main events. 6) Speech forms are U.S. extemp, Foreign extemp, Oratory, Humorous, Dramatic, and Duo. No impromptu, expository, or I/R. 7) Even if they win in several events, they can only go in one, and they must have already designated their preferences in the single entry letter of intent (see rules) or they are disqualified. And here’s the boilerplate on full rules: Puget Sound NatQuals rules A special note: This year we will begin using JoyofTournaments (referred to as JOT hereafter) for all tournament registration. We are among the last of the districts to make this switch. JOT has a number of huge advantages, but be aware that it is inflexible in several regards. First of all, you will not be able to register anyone if you are not paid up. Second, you have to register seven days before congress for congress and seven days before the main tournament for that. Third, you can’t register anyone who does not have 25 NFL points by that date. There aren’t any exceptions and nothing I can do to help you if those conditions aren’t met, so it’s up to you to get that done. The Puget Sound Congress will be held February 25th in the Capital Building complex in Olympia. The Puget Sound District Debate and Speech Tournament will be held between March 1st, 2nd, and 3rd at Snohomish High School. The main tournament will start on Thursday with CX Debate and PF. On Friday we will finish up with CX debate and PF (if not finished on Thursday) and begin (and hopefully end) L.D. debate. Saturday is Individual Events, and we have a generous schedule that should allow us to finish on time or even early. It is vital that all chapters and affiliates who have not paid yearly membership dues to the N.F.L. do so immediately. Congress is technically a separate tournament, and if you are competing in congress, your congress competitors must have at least 25 NFL points and your dues must be fully paid at least seven days prior to the tournament (2/17), and you must register by then. Most of you appear to be up to date on dues, but get points in now, well before the cutoff. Congress is free, so no money is due at that tournament, but you may pay ahead for CX, LD, PF, and IEs. The Same rules apply for the Debate and Speech tournament: your competitors must have at least 25 NFL points and your dues must be fully paid at least seven days prior to the tournament (2/23), and you must register by then. Listed below I have a summary of the information that you will need to participate in this N.F.L. qualifier in the order NFL recommends: 1. District Chair: Bill Nicolay @ Snohomish High School, 1316 5th Street, Snohomish, WA 98290, school (360) 563-4190, home (425) 512-0779, cell (206) 595-5634. 2. Dates of Tournament: Congress, 2/21, all other 3/1-3/3 3. Form accuracy: Please pay particular attention to NFL forms, and especially the Single-entry letter of intent: These must be completely filled out, regardless of how obvious the situation is. For instance, if a competitor is in a team event and a solo event and qualifies in both, the rules stipulate that they must go in a team event. BUT, we still need the letter of intent indicating this, and if we don’t have it, the entire tournament is in jeopardy. 4. Electronic devices: They are now okayed for use in debate and congress, but you need to consult the rules on their use. The violations that could cause disqualification include use of the internet in prep or round (at all), communication with a teammate or coach in round, or failure to allow an opponent to see your case, even if it is on computer. 5. Events: Congress, CX Debate, L.D. Debate, PF (Also known as Public Forum or Controversy), Foreign Extemp, U.S. Extemp., Oratory, Dramatic Interp, Humorous Interp, Dual Dramatic Interp. 6. For PF and LD, we will be using the MARCH and MARCH/APRIL TOPICS, respectively. 7. Entry Limitations: See the Membership report on the N.F.L. web site. Go to “enter points,” click on “membership” and look up your district (#100 or Puget Sound). The page will show you how many slots you have for main events in IEs and debate, and in congress house and senate. 8. Conflicts: All forms of debate will potentially conflict on Friday. In addition all I.E.’s are conducted at the same time on Saturday (there are no patterns). Students with two speech events will be very busy, but they should be able to make both if they pay attention. 9. Students can compete in just two main events. This might mean one form of Debate and one I.E. or it could mean two IEs, or possibly LD and PF. Students may not compete in two team events (unless in both cases they have the same partner). Student Congress is considered a separate event so students can compete in one form of debate, an I.E. and congress. ****Note: Even though you can compete in two events at the Nat Quals Tournament, you may only go to nationals in one event. If you qualify in a team event and an individual event, you must go in the team event. If you qualify in two solo events, you must have declared before hand which event you will go to nationals in. (See Single Entry letter of Intent form on N.F.L. website) You cannot compete in two team events---unless you have the same partner in both events. Also for this tournament, we will not allow a student to sign up for U.S. Etemp and Foreign Extemp. Or for CX Debate and Public Forum Debate, even with the same partner in both. It won’t work within the schedule. 10. Judging Requirements: You will need to provide one judge for every debate team you enter and 1 judge for every 4 Individual Event Entries. There is no judge requirement for Student Congress. The same judge can cover debate and IE’s but cannot cover different forms of debate. Judges are committed to one round beyond the school’s last entry being eliminated from the tournament. 11. Fees: $35 school fee;$40 per CX team; $30 for L.D. and PF; $25 per Individual Event. Judge Penalties: $75 Thursday, $75 Friday; $75Saturday. 12. Make Checks Payable to: Puget Sound N.F.L.. This is a check and cash only tournament. P.O.’s are not acceptable for this tournament. 13. Deadlines: Congress entries, 2/17, All other entries, 2/23. The system will not allow any changes/adds/drops at that point. 14. Cut off dates: School memberships as well as student memberships must be recorded with the National office by February 17th for congress, and the 23rd for IEs. 15. Copies of selections: Either the book itself or a photo copy of the title page and ALL pages used for the selection must be available at I.E. registration for a script check. Orators need to have a hard copy of the oratory available at the tournament with quotations underlined. NOTE: Though we collect interp cuttings and oratories, we do not fully inspect them at the time of entry. They are inspected only in the case of a challenge, which happens from time to time. Ultimately, competitors and coaches are responsible for making sure they follow correct procedure, which is available on the NFL site. In the case of a challenge, appeal, etc., the district will first look at the material you provide to consider the matter and render a decision. Ultimately, a decision may be referred to the national office. 16. Student Congress. Student Congress is considered a separate tournament from the debate and I.E. portion of the tournament. So your students may sign up for a form of debate an I.E. and congress at this tournament. There is no fee for competition and there is no judging requirement associated with registering your student for congress. 17. Student Congress legislation: This year we will be using the Spring Packets on the WIAA site. I believe you are all familiar with them. You may nominate one of your own school’s pieces of legislation. Schools that do not have legislation in that packet may author unaffiliated bills (those that belong to no other schools within our district who are competing). All nominations must be sent to me by 2/17 (I just need to know the page number and title in the packet) and I’ll e-mail all schools the legislation you nominate so that they can study up on it. It should make for the best possible debate. 18. Forms that you need to bring to the tournaments: A. A copy of your District Tournament Registration (for congress, to the congress, for speech and debate, to that tournament). Note that these will require signatures that have to be done in advance, including a principal’s signature. B. Single Entry Letter of Intent for every competitor, INCLUDING CONGRESS. Note that these require signatures (including students, parents and principal) which must be done in advance. C. If you are nominating a Student of the Year, a copy of the nomination by the first day of competition in the main tournament (3/3) D. District Congress only: A copy of your School entry form and a legislation packet for your students. I think that is it, but since JOT is new to us, I may be sending clarifications and updates as we go along. I look forward to seeing you at the tournament. Bill Nicolay | ||||||||||
