2019 James Logan Martin Luther King Invitational
Dates: 1/18/2019 - 1/20/2019
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Coaches & Competitors,

 

Welcome to the 2018 Martin Luther King Jr. Invitational. We are excited to once again host this wonderful opportunity for top caliber speech & debate competition! The tournament will take place from Friday, January 12th – Sunday, January 14th, 2018 at James Logan High School, 1800 H Street, Union City, CA 94587.   

IMPORTANT TOURNAMENT ANNOUNCEMENTS!

We are proud to announce our two new co-Directors of Forensics to James Logan High School who are both former students of Dr. Lindsey and the program. Jesse Garrett (jgarrett@nhusd.k12.ca.us) will be Tournament Director for Debate and Justin Kurup (jkurup@nhusd.k12.ca.us) will be Tournament Director for Individual Events. 

 

MLK Circuit Policy Debate Tournament

Due to popular demand, this year we will be offering programs the opportunity to participate in a separate circuit style policy debate tournament on the campus. This tournament will be completely independent of the traditional MLK tournament and is designed to provide an exceptional circuit policy debate tournament option for programs interested in this style of debate. To sign up, please visit Tabroom.com at "MLK Circuit Policy Debate Tournament" or visit the link www.mlkcircuitcx.tabroom.com. Registration for this tournament will open by November 1st, 2017.


Public Forum and Parliamentary Debate entries will be capped this year. 

In order to facilitate a smoother tournament experience for our competitors, a total tournament entry cap of 89 teams will be implemented this year in order to ensure that all 4-1 teams will clear. A per program entry of 6 teams will also be implemented, for fairness and balance in the overall entry. Per program entries beyond the 6 team cap will be waitlisted for the tournament and cleared into the tournament as space becomes available.

Congressional Debate 
We are excited to be exploring some enhancement options to our Congressional Debate offering at MLK this year. We are currently negotiating with Adam Jacobi to redesign our traditional CA Congressional Debate tournament in order to provide our competitors with a more fluid and real-time decision making experience that we believe will add value to the tournament. Please check back in late November for more information about what we have in the works for this year!

 

Judging Requirements & Schedule

All judge names must be entered into Joy of Tournaments to cover entries. We will be pre-panneling rounds and distributing judging cards to judges at the tournament. We especially need judges committed to the back to back debate double octo & octo final rounds on Saturday night to ensure that they go smoothly.  Uncovered round fines will be strictly enforced, so please make sure that your judging commitments are fulfilled throughout the entire tournament schedule.

Registration & Payment 

  • Teams registering to compete at the tournament must certify mail (require a signature upon delivery) a cashier’s check, money order, or check from their school district directly. ABSOLUTELY NO PERSONAL CHECKS WILL BE ACCEPTED!

Make Checks Payable to:

  Friends of Forensics

 

Mail to:  

  ATTN: Jesse D. Garrett, Room 408  

 

James Logan High School 

 

1800 H Street 

 

Union City, CA 94587

  • All registration checks must BE RECEIVED no later than Wednesday, January 3rd, 2018. If your registration check is not received by this deadline, all of your team’s entries into the tournament will be immediately dropped. 
  • The Drop deadline for this year’s tournament will be Monday, January 8th, 2018. Any drops made after this deadline will incur the full registration fee penalty for that event. ALL FEES WILL BE FROZEN ON THIS DATE AND DROPS AFTERWARD WILL NOT BE REFUNDED!
  • Waitlisted entries to the tournament will be cleared by Tuesday, January 9th, 2018. Cash payment, cashier’s check, money order, or check from your school district will be accepted at registration for any waitlisted entry fees for competitors that are admitted into the tournament. 

We also wanted to share with you a couple of reminders:

  • Debate Topics: We will be using the January Topic for Public Forum and the January/February topic for LD.
  • Registration: On Friday, January 12th, 2018 registration will be open from 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM, in the Pavilion located in the center of the campus on H Street. The first rounds of Debate will start at 4:30 P.M. Additional registration will be held for schools competing only in speech events on Saturday, January 13th, 2018 starting at 7:00 AM. 
  • Judges: Again this year, we will be pre-paneling judges for all events, so please make sure that your judging list entered at Joy of Tournaments is accurate PLEASE ENTER ACTUAL NAMES FOR EACH JUDGE. We will do our best to accommodate the Judging Pool preferences that you indicate for each judge, but feel that it is important to note that judges are not guaranteed to receive ballots for the pools that are indicated. We reserve the right to use any and all judges for any event offered at the tournament, in order to ensure that we stay on schedule.
  • Food: We encourage you to stay on campus. Food will be sold to students in the Student Union cafeteria and available to judges/coaches ONLY in the Pavilion. 
  • Information Desk: Any questions or concerns should be directed to the information desk, which will be located directly in front of the Pavilion during registration or to the judges table, once the tournament begins.
  • Bathrooms: Available bathrooms during the tournament are as follows: 
    • Girls/Boys Locker Room (near Judges room, Al Rodriguez Gym)
    • Staff Lounge bathroom (in Senior Patio)
    • Hallway near rooms 6, 63, 71 (Women) & 60, 62, 82 (Men) 
  • Awards: The award ceremonies will be held on Sunday evening immediately following the Duo Final Round in the JLHS Center for the Performing Arts (large blue building located across from the Swim Complex). Please pick up out-round trophies in the foyer for the following competitors: 
    • Awards will be given for non-advancing semifinalists in Individual Events 
    • Based on event entry counts, awards for non-advancing quarterfinalists in Debate Events will be given. 
    • Non-Advancing Trophies will be available for pick up on Sunday, January 14th starting at 3:00 P.M. Please make arrangements to pick up your trophies that day. If you would like to request that your trophies be mailed to you, an email needs to be sent in advance making the request along with a separate $25.00 check to help offset the cost of shipping.
  • Classroom Supervision: Please remind competitors that they are not allowed to be in rooms without a judge present. Any student in violation of this rule will be immediately disqualified.

If you have any suggestions, comments, or recommendations to help us improve the tournament, please feel free to contact us. We are excited you have chosen to compete at our tournament and wish you and your team the best of luck! 

 

Sincerely, 

 

Jesse D. Garrett & Justin Kurup 

Co-Directors of Forensics
James Logan High School 

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