Southern Minnesota District Qualifier

for the 2025 National Tournament

District Communication History

Did you miss an email? Or maybe you just cannot find that last update. Or want to share something with your team. We have you covered. You can find a copy of all district email messages in this folder.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1AcmW1Ns6lKEc5hYVmruANMeSrkMvCIRP?usp=sharing

Tournament Registration Dates & Information

Full event calendar of all registration dates and more can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/181Ru67MsW7xo-Ud5Hf6138c29Is7bxlYqQU8p_MDsq8/edit?usp=sharing

Southern MN Judge Requirements and Burdens

The Southern MN Committee will hire judges for each of the four qualifying tournaments. For Debate (LD, PF, CX) and Speech, the Committee will hold an election process to hire the required number of judges for each tournament. This election typically takes place within 30 days prior to the event. For Congressional Debate and Big Question Debate, the Committee will collaborate with Central NSDA and coaches to hire appropriate judges who have no conflicts of interest for these events.

To be eligible to judge, individuals must be at least two full years post-graduation from high school. However, if the individual is an active head or assistant coach at a program in Southern MN, they are eligible to judge if they are only one full year removed from high school. For the 2024-25 season, this means that all eligible individuals would need to have graduated by 2022 at the latest. An active head or assistant coach would need to have graduated by 2023.

The following judge requirements are set for all competition events:

• Congressional Debate: 1 judge for every 5 entries.
• LD/PF/CX Debate: 1 judge for every 2 entries.
• Big Questions Debate: 1 judge for every 2 entries.
• Speech: 1 judge for every 5 entries.

Southern MN encourages all judges to complete the NSDA Cultural Competence Judge Training. You can find information about the training on the NSDA website.

https://www.speechanddebate.org/judge-training-introductory-courses/