February 2, 2023

Dear Valley Forge Coaches:

I am pleased to invite you to our district tournament. Our local qualifier will be run in-person.

The NSDA Unified Manual governs all District Tournament procedures. The Tournament will be
administered by the District Committee, which will adjudicate all disputes that may arise. The pilot rules
for internet usage and penalties will be in play.

Valley Forge is a level 3 district. Level 3 districts who field at least 10 entries in a given event will qualify
three entries to nationals in that event. If we can only field four entries in an event two will qualify to
nationals. NSDA is again expected to permit each school who participates in the district tournament to
be able to send two non-qualifying students who competed at the district tournament to nationals in
supplemental events.

ENTRY LIMITS
School entry limits – the total number of entries you may have - are driven by NSDA members and
degrees. You can check your school’s status by logging into the NSDA website and navigating to the
district tab. Regardless of your total limit, you may have no more than four entries in any speech or
debate event (congress limits could be higher or lower for you, depending on your school’s NSDA
strength).

BONUS ENTRIES
If a school enters two entries in each contest category, they may enter two additional entries, regardless
of their chapter strength, but totaling no more than FOUR entries in each category.

JUDGE QUOTA
In order to run our district tournament effectively with three judge panels, the following quotas must be
met:

Debate
1 entry – 2 judges
2 entries – 3 judges
3 entries – 5 judges
4 entries – 6 judges

Speech
1 judge for every 3 entries, up to a maximum of 5 judges. For judge obligations above 5, your
school will be required to hire the additional judges at $200/each from the league.

Congress
While no set quota is in place if you have judges willing to judge congress, please let me know. If
you are able to provide a neutral judge, you avoid a $50 fee.

Judges in their respective categories will be obligated for the entire tournament.

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FORMAT
Congress will use the congress rules spelled out in the unified manual. Speech will use the speech rules.
Debate events will continue to use the double elimination bracket format following four preliminary
rounds. All debate entries with a winning record will clear to the bracket. The tournament draft schedule
is found at the end of this letter.

DOUBLE ELIMINATION PATTERNS

All entries may compete in the house or senate PLUS the event of their choice (subject to school limits).
Policy debaters will again be able to double enter only in Lincoln Douglas debate. Lincoln Douglas and
public forum double entry is not possible. Other double entry combinations are possible. Big Questions
entry is over and above the aforementioned limits.

SINGLE LETTERS OF INTENT

Remember to submit your single letters of intent in advance of our qualifiers. For students entered into
the house or senate, the deadline is February 19th. For students not entered in the house or senate, the
deadline is March 4th. The single letter of intent form will appear as a link in Tabroom.com as you go
through the entry process.

WORLD SCHOOLS
Two world schools teams will represent the district at nationals. Those teams will be not just from one
school, but from the district itself. No more than four students will be selected from any given team. A
total of 10 students will be selected to form our two entries.

World Schools Debate is a mash-up of debate, congress, rhetoric, and interp – combining all the best of
each of the disciplines, without the spreading and kritiks, or the empty and meaningless politicking, or
the annoying tech. A successful team has a mix of talents and competitive experience. There needs to be
team members who are the policy wonks who know the facts of each issue inside and out. There needs
to be team members who are the firebrand speakers who can move the judge to laughter and tears.
There needs to be team members who can lead and inspire the team and move them forward in their
research and writing, and be the hype man between rounds. Keep in mind that:

1. Students who will be successful in World Schools Debate do not necessarily need to have prior
debating skills. This format privileges articulate speakers who communicate clearly and with
poise. Thus, students who have backgrounds in public speaking , student congress, and
interpretation events can do quite well.

2. This event requires the participant to seek out information on the topics assigned for debate
and to compile it in an organized manner for the purpose of debating. Students with strong
research skills and intellectual curiosity will find this event to be rewarding.

3. Students in World Schools Debate must be able to work cooperatively with a team. This includes
communicating with their team in both a proactive manner (reaching out) and reactive manner
(responding to communications)

In addition, we are adding the requirement that students commit to the following:

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1. Attendance at two in-person practices, one of which will be at the Southern Lehigh tournament.

2. Participation in a MINIMUM of 6 weekly virtual practices. The schedule will be set when we see
the availability of the team members.

3. Commitment to meeting research and writing deadlines.

4. Prompt communication with coaches and team members.

A failure to meet these commitments will put in jeopardy your school's ability to submit future
applications.

The district committee and/or an ad hoc committee will facilitate the selection process at our district
tournament.. The application form is found here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bWskZGLX6qcQzV5-eohxx_X8AVaVXuztfh-PXWMEBKo/copy.
Applications for the Valley Forge World Schools team are due by February 28th and should be uploaded
here: https://forms.gle/ewEaqyR9SuQv2Gz7A.

SPECIAL AWARDS
Coach of the year and student of the year nominations should be submitted through the National
Speech and Debate Association website. Our volunteer of the year award should be submitted through
the Valley Forge form attached. Nominations for all of the above are due by February 24th.

DUES AND FEES

Valley Forge membership - $50
House and Senate school fee - $50 (the House and Senate fee is only for schools entered in Congress!)
Individual events - $8
Partner events - $12
House and senate entries - $10

Please note that you may avoid the House and Senate school fee by providing a judge for February 26th
that we are able to use during the congress qualifier. The House and Senate school fee will be adjusted
accordingly.

CONGRESS BILLS
Congress bills are due on February 2nd. Each school is able to provide two pieces of legislation. You
should email your bill to Chris Berdnik at [email protected]. I plan on posting the packet on
February 6th.

ORATORIES AND INFORMATIVES

Schools with entries in oratory and informative are required to provide this speeches electronically with
a certification by the coach and student that they are the original work of the student. You should
submit the speeches by March 10th to Michael McCabe at [email protected].

QUALIFIER DATES
House and Senate – February 26th
Speech and Debate (except for Big Questions) – March 11th and 12th
Big Questions – April 1st

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PROGRAM AD COMPETITION
The NSDA publishes a tournament program including ads from the districts competing, wishing their
competitors well. Our district offers a $50.00 gift certificate at the NSDA store for the selected design.
Coaches should submit their competitors’ designs to [email protected] by March 31st.

DRAFT SCHEDULE FOR FEBRUARY 26th

Sunday at William Tennent High School
Congress Session 1 – 9:00
Congress Session 2 – 12:00
Congress Finals – 3:30
Awards to follow

DRAFT SCHEDULE FOR MARCH 11th and 12th

Saturday at Pennsbury High School East
IE/CX 1 - 9:00
IE/CX 2 - 10:30
IE/CX 3 – 12:00
LD/PF 1 - 2:30
LD/PF 2 - 3:30
LD/PF 3 - 5:00
LD/PF 4 - 6:30
LD/PF 5 – 8:00

Sunday at Pennsbury High School East

IE/CX 4 - 9:00
IE /CX 5 - 11:00
IE/CX 6 - 1:00
LD/PF 6 - 1:00
LD/PF 7 - 2:20
LD/PF 8 – 3:40
LD/PF 9 - 5:00
LD/PF 10 – 6:20
Awards to follow
QUESTIONS?
Should you have any questions, please call me at (215) 428-4114 (w) or (412) 992-8472, or email me at
[email protected].

s/Chris Berdnik
Valley Forge District Chair