| ||||||||||
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 Puget Sound NFL District Chair | ||||||||||
