Monday, December 14, 2009

2010-2111 Policy Topics

Hello-

We've been asked to vote on the policy topic for next year. We'll do a vote in practice tomorrow, since we get one vote per school. Think it over. Here are the choices:

NFHS BALLOT FOR TOPIC SELECTION

Proposed Topic Areas and Resolutions for 2010-11

Mark only the topic and resolution you prefer. The area that receives the most votes will be the 2010-11 debate topic and resolution.

_____ CHINA

Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its economic engagement with the People’s Republic of China on one or more of the following issues: trade, economy, environment.

_____ MILITARY DEPLOYMENT

Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially reduce its military and/or police presence in one or more of the following: South Korea, Japan, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iraq, Turkey.

Mt. Vernon Invite

Here is the info for our Mt. Vernon Tournament, the 22nd-23rd of January. Please sign up with me early! The schedule is at the bottom. We will depart BHS/SQHS/SHS at 2:30pm, so no one will miss classes- yeah!

See you Tuesday. We will be learning to cut evidence (policy) while LD works on new topic. Wednesday we will continue on cutting evidence/writing cases and wrap up with a holiday party. Parents/Guardians are welcome to join us, Wednesday at 4pm at SHS computer lab.
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December 12, 2009

Dear Coach,

The Mount Vernon Debate team is pleased to invite you to the eleventh annual Mount Vernon Invitational Speech and Debate Tournament, January 22-23, 2010. We encourage your attendance for a great weekend of competition.

EVENTS: We will continue to offer the eight Washington State Individual Events in both open and novice divisions, open and novice Student Congress and Public Forum, and three divisions of LD and CX. All debaters will have six rounds of competition, then a final round in all divisions; three rounds and finals in IE’s; two sessions of Student Congress.

REGISTRATION: Registration this year will occur through the website http://www.forensictournament.net. Please do not email or fax registrations unless you absolutely cannot access the website. Problems? Questions? E-mail Charlie Potter at chazpotter@yahoo.com or contact by phone (cell) 360-223-3148.

Deadline for entries is Tuesday, January 19th (which is the day after MLK day, so please plan ahead) and tournament fees will be set at 4:00 p.m. that day. Drops after this time will not be deducted from the entry fee. Please make sure your entries are correct by reviewing them at forensictournament.net. Once the web site is closed, changes can be made via e-mail at chazpotter@yahoo.com until 2pm the day of the tournament; after 2pm make changes at registration. Please try to avoid last minutes changes as this slows down the start of the first round.
Problem with registration? Email chazpotter@yahoo.com. Problems with the e-mail? phone Charlie Potter by cell, 360-223-3148, at school, 360-428-6104/ext. 2198, or phone at home, 360-752-0041.

Housing: We are only an hour north of Seattle, but if you are coming from farther away, many hotels in our area are reasonably priced (see list p. 3). Please let me know if you would like us to provide housing in student homes (on a limited basis, so contact us early).

We look forward to a fun and exciting weekend of competition. See you soon,


Charlie Potter, Head Coach Andrew Oommen, Assistant Coach






To view this invite online go to http://www.forensicstournament.net

Entry Limitation: There are none until the tournament reaches room capacity. Enter as many debate teams, congress participants, or individual events as you wish.

Judging:
Each judge covers 6 IE entries and either 2 CX/PF entries or 3 LD entries. Experienced team members (not competing) may judge in the novice division. Adult judges are required for junior and open divisions. You must bring enough judges to cover all of your entries. We do not have judges for you to hire (unless you are traveling from outside the Puget Sound area – please contact us no later than Thursday January 14th). Uncovered entries may be dropped, starting with open division entries, or additional fees incurred.
Public Forum: Coaches or adults may judge: College debaters who are not coaches may not. Bring qualified judges!
Student Congress: For teams with five or more entries, provide an adult who can act as parliamentarian and/or scorer. They cannot also cover Pattern B IE’s.

Divisions:
CX/LD Debate: Novice, Junior, and Open
Public Forum Debate: Novice and Open
IE’s: Novice and Open
Student Congress: Novice and Open chambers
(Note: we reserve the right to collapse divisions or houses if justified by total entries)

LD: We will be using the NFL Lincoln-Douglas topic for Jan./Feb.: “Resolved: Economic sanctions ought not be used to achieve foreign policy objectives.”
Times are 6-3-7-3-4-6-3, with 4 minutes of prep.

CX: Times are 8-3-5, with 6 minutes of prep time. Novice teams no longer have any of the traditional limitations (the 5 limited case areas adopted by the WSFA and limitations on counterplans and kritiks ended in December). This means we could collapse the Open and Junior divisions or collapse the Novice and Junior divisions together!

PF: Conflicts with other debate events. We will be using the NFL PF topic for January: “Resolved: President Obama's plan for increasing troops in Afghanistan is in the United States' best interest.” We will use the official NFL ballots.

Student Congress: Two sessions of Student Congress will be offered Saturday which conflicts with Pattern B of Individual Events. We will use the bills collected in the WSFA 2009 Spring Student Congress Legislative Packet found online at http://www.wiaa.com/subcontent.aspx?SecID=327 (the “forensics” page, see left side of page for the STUDENT CONGRESS LEGISLATION PACKET). If you have trouble with this, email chazpotter@yahoo.com for a congress packet.


IE’s: It is suggested students enter one event per pattern, but double entering is allowed.
Conflict Pattern A: Extemp, Expos, DI, and Duo
Conflict Pattern B: Impromptu, Oratory, HI and IR (Pattern B conflicts with Student Congress)
Times: 10 minutes (no grace) for DI, DUO, Oratory, and HI
8 minutes (:30 sec. grace) for Expos and IR
7 minutes for Extemp and 6 minutes for IMP
See the state rules, which apply in all events: http://www.wiaa.com/ConDocs/Con277/Forensics%20Regs.pdf

State Qualification: This is a District One bid tournament, meaning that the top open-level District One competitor, not already qualified, who trophies in state speech events, LD, PF, CX, and the top three in Congress are automatically qualified for state in those events.

Fees: School registration fee is $20.00 ($20.00 more if you enter a second squad). $20.00 per CX team or PF team, $15.00 per LD entry, and $8.00 per IE or
Student Congress entry. Make checks payable to “Mount Vernon Debate”

Directions:
Mt. Vernon is on I-5, north of Seattle about an hour. If heading north on I-5, Exit #226/Kincaid, go right onto Kincaid, heading east, up the hill. Go left on 10th street, and proceed about 8 blocks until you run into the high school. The address is 314 N. 9th St., Mount Vernon, WA, 98273. Registration will be in the Cafeteria of New Main (walk between the Old Main and Fine Arts buildings and you’ll see New Main north across the courtyard.

Food: Numerous concessions will be sold at the tournament. There are fast food restaurants along Riverside Dr, but are a long walk, nearly 1 mile away from campus.

Awards:
LD/PF/CX Debate – 1st, 2nd and 3rd place, as well as top three speakers.
IE’s – 1st, 2nd, 3rd and Finalists.
Student Congress: Top three speakers and top presiding officer.

Supervision: WSFA/WIAA requires that there is a certificated coach/staff member from the school or school district supervising competitors at all times.


Mount Vernon Invitational - January 22-23, 2010

SCHEDULE
Friday, January 22nd
3:00 Registration - Cafeteria in New Main Bldg.

3:45 Round I LD/CX/PF

6:00 Round II LD/CX/PF

8:00 Round III LD/CX/PF

Saturday, January 23rd
7:15 IE Registration – Cafeteria in New Main Bldg.

8:00 Round I Pattern A (EXT Prep at 7:30 am, OM Auditorium, 2nd Floor)

9:00 Round II Pattern A (EXT Prep at 8:30 am, OM Auditorium, 2nd Floor))

9:45 Round IV LD/CX/PF

11:30 Round III Pattern A (EXT Prep at 11:00, OM Auditorium, 2nd Floor)

12:30 Round V LD/CX/PF

2:00 Session 1 Student Congress
2:30 Round I Pattern B

3:30 Round II Pattern B
4:00 Session II Student Congress

4:30 Round III Pattern B

5:45 Round VI LD/CX/PF (hidden semis)

7:15 Finals All IE’s (Ext prep at 6:45 pm, room OM 107 – Room change!)

8:30 Finals LD/CX/PF

9:00 Awards Auditorium, 2nd floor of Old Main

Monday, December 7, 2009

Jan/Feb LD Topic

Resolved: Economic sanctions ought not be used to achieve foreign policy objectives.

Thoughts? Parents/Guardians are welcome to weigh-in!

Auburn Results + News for '10

Hello Folks,

Hopefully everyone is recuperating from this past weekend's Auburn tournament. We survived a broken down van, a flat tire, allergies, consecutive late nights- and the students still had a good time.

For Hae Bin it was her first tournament, and I am pleased at how well she and Kylie performed. Gordon and Mitsu joined us after a 2-day round robin tournament in Seattle, so for them it was truly a long weekend.

The big win of the weekend was Nate Cancilla, who was an Octo-finalist in Open Lincoln-Douglas. Congrats, Nate! If you see him, please let him know how pleased we are with his continued success.

Of course I wouldn't have survived this weekend without the extreme patience and generosity of two volunteers, Diane Gerner and Jean Melious. Diane was a trooper, judging for the first time, driving, and even brought snacks. We hope we haven't scared her from volunteering again. Jean, as the former coach, already knows what it's like to be spend two long days in a high school so we appreciate her return to help.

Then there is also Grant Resick who has been committed to helping our LD'ers at each practice, so I would also like to credit him for our success at the Auburn tournament.

Okay, for the news. Please keep checking your or your student's Fund Hub page. You can check it daily to see who has donated, or forward it to family/friends/co-workers that would like to donate. The url is www.fundbunch.com/(yourname)sdebatefund. For instance the Fund Hub for Lee Bartlett is: www.fundbunch.com/leesdebatefund (who, by the way is already halfway to his goal of $300!)

Lastly, for parents: we have the Mt. Vernon tournament coming up in January, 1/22-23. Here is who I have for drivers:
Mt. Vernon HS January 22&23 (not overnight):
Friday- Aly, Jim, Sally, need one more driver
Saturday- Aly, Jim, Becky, need one more driver

We will leave in the afternoon on Friday, return that evening and then spend all day there on Saturday. Thank you for your consideration! Our remaining tournament schedule looks like this:

Mt. Vernon January 22-23
Kamiak Feb 5-6
Western Washington National Qualifier Tournament March 4-6
State Tournament March 19-20

Please talk to your students early about participating since it makes less work for me.

For students, please note that Dec. 16th is our last practice before break. Tuesday, Jan. 5th we will resume practice again. The schedule for tomorrow and Wednesday is...

Tuesday 12/8: Go over ballots, follow up on feedback to work on
Wednesday 12/9: Flow drills (all CX), work on new topic (all LD)

See you tomorrow!

Aly Hoover