The Maine Forensic Association is pleased to invite you to the Maine Speech and Congressional Debate Scrimmage on November 7, 2020. 

Registration deadline: 5 p.m. November 6

Judge hire request deadline: Noon November 6

Judge entry deadline: 11 p.m. November 6

Fees and judge obligations frozen (nonrefundable): 8 a.m. November 7

Drop deadline: 8:30 a.m. November 7

Nuisance fees for drops applied: 8 a.m. November 7

Any questions, please contact Jason Curry, MFA President, by email: JCurry@msad51.org.

Registration

Minimum requirements for virtual competition

As this is a virtual tournament that will be hosted on Tabroom.com and NSDA Campus, there are three core requirements for participating in a virtual competition with the MFA:

1. All participants (coaches, students, and judges) each must have an account on Tabroom.com as posting and competition is all completed online. New students can register with Tabroom.com and ensure they are linked to their team’s roster.

2. Prior to tournament day, ensure each participant (students, judges, and coaches) have access to campus.speechanddebate.org on the network from which they will be participating. If necessary, work with respective network managers to whitelist the domain.

3. Registration must be completed through Tabroom.com by 5 p.m., Friday, November 6.

Entry Fees

Each participating school will owe $20 for this tournament.

Drops

Drops and changes will be accepted until tournament day at 8:30 a.m. Invoices will be prepared at that time. Late add requests are not encouraged and will be accepted only at the discretion of the tournament hosts. Drops after this time will be assessed an additional charge of $10 per entry.

Events

• Congressional Debate: Senate and House, as needed

• Speech: All Maine State Tournament categories except Duo Interpretation

Event/division definitions

Novice level is for students competing in their first year of high school forensics (i.e. first year competitors). Note that Oratorical Declamation is limited to freshmen and sophomore students only.

Topics

Extemporaneous Speaking topics

Review carefully the high level topics for Extemporaneous Speaking here. Prompts will focus only on these topics.

Congress

Find the docket here.

Judge Requirements

All judges must have an account on Tabroom.com as all balloting is completed online. New judges can register with Tabroom.com and ensure they are linked to your judge roster. Missing a judge results in a $60 fine.

Varsity members of your team are allowed to judge novice competition. Student judges should have: 

• If a member of NSDA, a minimum of 250 NSDA points

• If not a member of the NSDA, be of at least Junior year standing and have competed in many tournaments, ideally with at least some success

If you are registering varsity competitors as judges, they must be added to your judge roster and linked to access their ballots.

Help the meet run smoothly and fairly by supplying your required, trained judges, including unaffiliated, in accordance with MFA rules. Have all your judges finalized by 11 p.m. November 6.

Note judge conflicts or shadow needs in your judge registration on Tabroom.com. Email the tournament host for any complex judge situations. Remember a parent cannot judge the category in which their child is competing.

Fractional entries round up (i.e. six Speech entries = 2 judges). Third, fifth, and seventh judge must be neutral/unaffiliated for Speech.

• Speech or Congressional Debate: one judge for every 5 entries

Judges are expected to be available for ALL rounds of competition. Fines will be assessed for judges departing early unless cleared through Tabulation.

Hiring Judges

If you are struggling to fulfil your judge burden, many coaches have success by announcing their need to the Maine list serv and negotiating an exchange, including pay rate. In this case, add a negotiated judge to your Tabroom roster using the judge’s email address so they are appropriately linked.

If you still can’t fulfill your judge buden, the tournament may have extra judges available for you to hire. If so, fees for purchasing judges will be $60 per judge. Submit requests to hire judges via Tabroom.com by Noon, Friday, November 6.

If you have extra judges, contact the Tournament Director so the judge can be added to the judge hire pool.

Awards

As a scrimmage, hosts will not be tabulating results nor granting awards.

Schedule

7:30-8:30 a.m. Online check-in (see below)

• It is the coach’s responsibility to validate that all students are ready for online competition.

• Tabulation will close check-in promptly to then panel rounds.

• Note that delays or errors in affirming your check-in may delay the tournament.

8:35 Judges meeting in virtual breakouts

• Keep an eye out for an email blast with a link to your respective virtual briefing.

9:00 Rounds begin following briefings

Lunch break for each category as appropriate.

Checking into tournament

To complete online check-in:

1. Confirm that each of your students, judges, and yourself are logged into the following (opening multiple tabs recommended):

1. maineforensic.org/onlinetournament. Passwords will be emailed to all participants the morning of the tournament.

2. Tabroom.com

3. Respective e-mail accounts associated with Tabroom.com. All Tabroom announcements are issued by email and/or text depending on user preference.

2. Once you have confirmed that everyone is present and prepared, follow these instructions to check into the tournament. Check-in closes promptly to accommodate paneling of rounds.