Mockingbird District Qualifier

for the 2024 National Tournament

The Mockingbird District

of the

National Speech & Debate Association

This is your official invitation to have you and your students participate in the Mockingbird District Tournament of the National Speech & Debate Association whichwill be held on the Vaughn Road Campus of Montgomery Academy on March 1-2, 2024. .

For those of you who might not know, the District Tournament serves as the qualifying tournament for the NSDA National Tournament, which this year will be held in Des Moines, Iowa.

This is the MOST important tournament of the year - the number of students at districts determines how many students move on to nationals to represent all of us - PLEASE ENTER THIS TOURNAMENT AND FILL YOUR SLOTS!!!!!!!

The rules for this tournament are outlined on the NSDA website. They are lengthy and involved, but I will highlight a few of them. If you want every detail you can go to speechanddebate.org - scroll down and at the bottom, click on “Forms & Manuals” and you can print out the entire manual. WE MUST FOLLOW THESE RULES. Here are a few highlights that you need to know:

1) The school must be an affiliate or chapter school within the National Speech & Debate Association. Your school must be a member in good standing, meaning the school membership dues have been paid.

2) Any student entered must be a member of the National Speech & Debate Association. If you go to the NSDA website and go to your account, you can click on “School Roster” - you should see a list of student members and a column that says “Districts Eligible”, you should see a blue check mark by students name and that means they can compete. If the student is not listed or if there is no blue check mark, they can’t participate unless they are a member on record at least (7) days prior to the tournament. They must also be listed on your tabroom.com account - you might have to “merge” your NSDA account and your tabroom.com account and there is a button on the right hand side on your tabroom.com account when you log on to register that will walk you through this. If you need help, please ask!!!

3) A student must attend the high school they represent at the district and national tournament.

4) Prep time for Policy is 8 minutes; Lincoln Douglas is 4 minutes; Public Forum is 3 minutes.

5) Topics - the Policy topic is the one for the 2023 - 2024 school year; the LD topic is the one for March/April; the Public Forum topic is the one for March; the Big Questions topic is the one for the 2023 - 2024 school year. We will also be using the evidence rules as outlined in the Tournament Manual for all debate events.

6) Any student competing in Oratory and/or Informative must have a copy of the speech signed by the coach and student in their possession in the rare event of a protest. You must also enter the title of the speech on tabroom.com when you register for the tournament.

7) For the Interp Events - title & author must be entered on the tabroom.com website. There is an obscure rule that prevents students with the same interp piece from hitting in prelim rounds - we must know the titles in order to prevent this from happening.

8) Any student that double-enters, must pre-declare which event they will do if they double-qualify to Nationals. There is a link on your tabroom account to do this. This must be entered BEFORE the District Tournament begins.

9) Students may double-enter except with the following combinations:

A) No doubling in team events - Policy, Duo, Public Forum - example, a student may not enter duo and public forum.

B) A student may not do both US and International Extemp

C) No double entry between 2 debate events.

D) Congress does not count against double-entry, so if you have a student doing Congress, they can also enter 2 events at Districts.

10) The number of entries a school has is based on the number of members and degrees on record with the NSDA. When you register on tabroom.com it is supposed to not let you enter more students once you have reached your cap.

11) ALL COACHES ARE REQUIRED TO BE AVAILIBLE UNTIL THE CONCLUSION OF THE ENTIRE DISTRICT TOURNAMENT - WE WANT TO HAVE AT LEAST 1 COACH ON EVERY FINAL ROUND PANEL.

12) Entry fees - $15.00 for IE entries & Congress and $20.00 for Debate entries. Team events are 1 entry so Duo is $15, Public Forum is $20.

13) The use of electronic devices has been approved for ALL EVENTS.

14)Deadline for Entry in the Mockingbird District Tournament -*February 23rd*. You must be registered on tabroom.com by this date. Yes, you can make changes to your entry. Also, by this date, you must have all points on record for your students with the National Speech & Debate Association.

Deep South Districts Congress

Congress will take place in the morning of March 1st at MA. Session 1 will begin at 8:30 am with either a Session 2 or a Super Congress to follow as soon as possible.

Deep South Districts IE’s and Debate

I.E.’s & Debate will take place beginning on Friday, March 1st at 4 pm on the MA campus and will continue on March 2nd. All students are guaranteed 3 rounds in speech and 4 rounds in debate with the appropriate elimination rounds to follow.

***ALL COACHES ARE REQUIRED TO STAY AT THE DISTRICT TOURNAMENT UNTIL WE HAVE CONCLUDED. NO EXCEPTIONS.