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MEYERS SPEECH & DEBATE Eleventh Floor Phone (570) 822-3311
We offer competition in fifteen different speech and debate events, five of which are unique to this tournament and bare special relationships to the life and legacy of Dr, King. Because one of the missions of our tournament is to honor the memory of Dr. King, we permit double entries in order to encourage participation in the special Dr. King events. Our debate events are: policy debate (3 preliminary rounds, semi-finals and finals); Lincoln-Douglas debate (4 preliminary rounds, semi-finals and finals); public forum debate (4 preliminary rounds, semi-finals and finals); congress and parliamentary debate (3 preliminary rounds, semi-finals and finals). Parliamentary debate is being offered as a three person team debate pursuant to PHSSL rules. Since JOY OF TOURNAMENTS is not currently set-up to register 3-Man Debate Teams, we are asking that all Parliamentary Debate Teams be emailed to us! The prepared topic for this tournament is: This House believes that the poverty of the third world is the fault of the first world. The impromptu topics for this touurnament will be the same as those listed for PHSSL Districts and states: Impromptu Motions for Parliamentary Debate (2011-2012): 1. This House would offer dictators immunity in return for leaving power. 2. This House would legalize the sale of human organs. 3. This House would protect the right of collective bargaining by public employees. 4. This House believes that the total popular vote should determine the election of the President of the United States rather than the Electoral College. 5. This House believes that social welfare is a more important priority for the US government than deficit reduction. 6. This House believes that the number of members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly should be substantially reduced. Our speech events are declamation, original oratory, oral interpretation of prose and poetry, extemporaneous speaking, dramatic performance, dramatic duo and crisis management. The special Dr. King speech events are Dr. King declamation (presentation of a Dr. King speech or sermon, open to all competitors, manuscripts permitted); Dr. King commentary (limited prep on topics related to Dr. King's legacy and causes); Dr. King oratory (on topic related to Dr. King's legacy or causes); and, Dr.King original poetry (inspired by Dr. King's life, legacy or causes). The speech events will have three rounds of preliminary competition followed by a final round, or, if the number of competitors in the event are sufficient, a semi-final and a final round. Double entry is permitted for all events except policy debate, Lincoln-Douglas debate, public forum debate, parliamentary debate and congress. Double entry is not permitted between extemporeaneous speaking and Dr. King commentary. Students may double enter in original oratory and Dr. Martin Luther King original oratory, but they may not use the same speech for both. The same is true for declamation and Dr. Martin Luther King declamation. To the extent that registrations warrant, events will be divided into varsity and novice divisions. A novice is any student in the seventh through tenth grade or any student in his or her first year of forensic competition. The rules of the National Catholic Forensic League shall apply, except for public forum debate, for which the rules of the National Forensic League shall apply, and except for the special Dr. King events and crisis management and except for Parliamentary Debate for which the rules of the Pennsylvania High School Speech League will apply. Event rules and ballots will provided upon request. Tabulation rules for all speech events will be as follows: For events breaking to final rounds the total ranks in FINAL ROUND only will be used. Tie breakers will be judge’s preference, then reciprocals, and lastly speaker points. For events not breaking to final rounds cumulative ranks from the three preliminary rounds will be used to determine the winner. Tie breakers will be reciprocals, number of 1s, and lastly speaker points. Awards will be given to the first six places in each event and to the top three ranked policy debate speakers. In addition to our event awards, we also offer a traveling, overall sweepstakes award; the Bob Crawford Memorial Award; and, the Public Affairs Award. Mr. Crawford was a beloved teacher at Meyers and this award in his memory is presented to the school with the most sweepstakes points in the special events dedicated to Dr. King. The Public Affairs Award is presented to the school which achieves the greatest number of sweepstakes points in our public affairs events: extemporaneous speaking; Lincoln-Douglas debate; Dr. Martin Luther King commentary; Dr. Martin Luther King parliamentary debate; Dr. Martin Luther King original oratory; policy debate; public forum debate; crisis management; and, congress. We do not school protect room assignments in preliminary speech rounds. For congress, you may submit bills of your students’ authorship, but are not required to do so as a condition of registration. Because we will be sending to congress registrants a packet of bills to be used at the Tournament by Friday January 13, 2012, please submit any bills you wish to use by Tuesday, January 10, 2012, to allow us to include them in the packet. No bills submitted thereafter will be considered at the Tournament. Lunch will be provided in the Meyers cafeteria at the cost of five dollars ($5.00) per person, which may be paid on the day of the Tournament. Policy, Lincoln-Douglas and public forum debaters will eat lunch at Meyers after the completion of their preliminary rounds at Kistler. Complimentary lunches will be provided for coaches and judges in the Tournament’s hospitality suite, and snacks and sodas will be sold throughout the day. Registration for the Tournament is accomplished at the website of www.joyoftournaments.com. Our registration deadline is the close of business, Wednesday, January 18, 2012. However, due to potential space restrictions at both schools, we reserve the right to close events as early as January 11, 2012. Should any event be closed, coaches will be able to place their students on wait lists in those specific events. Tournament day registration opens at 8:00 a.m. and closes at 8:30 a.m. Registration fees are $20 for each policy debate team, public forum debate team and parliamentary debate team and $10 for each entry in an individual event, including congress and Lincoln Douglas debate. Checks should be drawn to the order of Meyers Speech & Debate. To encourage participation in the MLK events, registration fees in the five (5) specialty events will be discounted by 50%. Drop fees in these events will not be discounted. Each team is required to provide one judge for each six individual event entries (or fraction thereof), including congress; and, one judge for every pair of entries in each debate event (or fraction thereof), including parliamentary debate. Parliamentary and public forum debate judges will be drawn from the speech pool. Judging pools will not be divided between varsity and novice divisions. Judges may be purchased at the following rates: policy debate, $75; Lincoln-Douglas debate, $35; and, individual events (including parliamentary and public forum debate), $25. All judges are committed through the final rounds of their respective pools. A portion of the proceeds of the tournament will be donated to the Wyoming Valley Martin Luther King In order to make the registration process more efficient on the day of the tournament, we are asking registrants to call us at our cell phone numbers, 570-357-5334 or 570-357-4860, Saturday morning with any drops or any other changes as soon as you know them. We will have your registration packet with the changes available upon your arrival. As an incentive, we will include all teams which do the "call ahead" Saturday morning registration in a drawing for a lovely and delicious snack basket. Please call us with any questions at our office, 570-822-3311, or our home, 570-824-7061. We look forward to seeing you at the Tournament on January 21, 2012. Very truly yours, Ruth S. Borland
Kimberly D. Borland Coaches E.L. Meyers High School Speech and Debate Team | ||||
