New York City District Qualifier

for the 2025 National Tournament

2025 New York City District Tournament Series Invitation

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The New York City District Committee invites you and your students to participate in the 2024 New York City District Tournament Series!

Dates and Locations

• LD/PF: Friday, February 21st and Saturday, February 22nd

• Regis High School, 55 E 84th Street, New York, NY 10028

• Speech: Saturday, March 1st

• Syosset High School, 70 S Woods Road, Syosset, NY 11791

• Congress (House and Senate), Big Questions, & Policy Debate: Saturday, March 8th

• The Berkeley Carroll School, 181 Lincoln Place, Brooklyn, NY 11217

2025’s NSDA National Tournament will be held June 15-20 in Des Moines, Iowa.

District Status & Number of Qualifiers

The NYC District is a Level 3 District this year. This means the following:

• The NYC District is entitled to 3 qualifiers in every event (except for Congressional Debate), as long as there are a minimum of 10 entries in that event.

• Any event not meeting that threshold is entitled to two qualifiers, as long as there are at least 4 entries in the event.

• Information regarding the number of qualifiers in Congressional Debate is available on pg. 65 of the NSDA 2024-2025 High School Unified Manual.

• Additionally, we may take 4 qualifiers in any event that has 50 entries or more.

We encourage all member schools with eligible students to participate in each leg of the tournament series so that we may reach these goals and send as many students to Nationals as possible! We must enter as many students as possible to ensure full qualification within each category.

• If you wish to participate in the qualifier but do not wish to attend the national tournament, please feel free to register on tabroom.com, and then email District Chair Eric DiMichele edimichele@regis.org or our Districts Tabroom Coordinator and District Committee Member WK at wkay@berkeleycarroll.org so that qualifying slots may be awarded to the appropriate students. We appreciate your effort to allow others to compete!

Eligibility

• Schools must be current members of the NSDA

• Students must be registered, fully paid NSDA members before the close of registration for the District Tournament Series. They must appear on the school’s NSDA roster as both a member and as “districts eligible” (having earned 25 points). Students must also be registered with a valid, unique email address on their NSDA account.

• In the past, when a student received 25 points, that student automatically became a member and an invoice was created for that student's membership. That has changed. You may make any student a member, regardless of the number of points the student has (you have to pay!), and you need not make a student a member, even if that student has reached 25 points (but that student cannot compete and does not count towards your strength.) If you look at the School Roster on the NSDA website, you will see a column marked MEMBER. That column has either a blue check or a red X with the word BUY. You must purchase memberships for students now; it is no longer automatic. If you click on the BUY option. it will give you a list of non-members, and you can purchase the ones you wish to add.

• As you may remember from the past, students had to complete a registration themselves before strength counted. Now, you can start the process. In the column next to the MEMBER column is a column marked ACCOUNT. If there is a pencil and an account name, that student is registered. If there is a blue +ADD, you need to register that student. Click on the +. Put in a username and password. Give the student the username and password so that the student has access to his or her account.

Registration

This year, we will once again be using Tabroom for registration and tabulation. If you log onto tabroom.com, you should see the district tournament at the top of your list of tournaments. The program will keep track of the number of students you are allowed to register. Guidelines for District Tournament Series registration can be found on pp. 68-71 of the NSDA 2024-2025 High School Unified Manual.

The opening of registration for each leg of the tournament series is staggered as follows:

• For PF/LD: January 21st at 8am

• For Speech: February 1st at 8am

• For Policy & Congress & Big Questions: February 8th at 8am

You must sign the school consent form and the double entry forms. Please prepare them and email the scanned documents to edimichele@regis.org at least 3 days before the first leg of the tournament you are participating in. This will make registration much easier.

The deadline to register is 8pm on the Wednesday before that leg of the tournament series:

• For PF/LD: February 19th at 8pm

• For Speech: February 26th at 8pm

• For Policy & Congress & Big Questions: March 5th at 8pm

Entry Limits

A school’s entry limit will be determined by its chapter strength (calculation chart on p. 68-69 of the Manual). IEs/Debate and Congress are tallied separately, and Big Questions entries do not count towards a school’s entry limits. Regardless of strength, schools will be limited to no more than 4 entries in any event, and may not exceed the number of allowed entries based on their strength.

Students entering ANY two events (debate, speech, or Congress or combination thereof) MUST fill out a single entry intent form BEFORE competing in any event, indicating the event in which they will compete at Nationals should they qualify for more than one. EXCEPTION: if BOTH members of a team event also qualify in a single event category, they MAY BOTH enter the single event; however, if only one member of a team double qualifies, both students MUST attend the nationals as a team. Students may not enter two debate events. See Manual, p. 70, for further explanation.

Judging Obligations

• ALL TEAMS MUST MEET THEIR JUDGING OBLIGATIONS TO PARTICIPATE. THERE ARE NO JUDGES FOR HIRE. THERE IS NO FEE FOR LACKING JUDGES: YOUR PROGRAM SIMPLY WILL NOT BE ADMITTED TO THE TOURNAMENT.

• Debate (including Big Questions): All participating schools must provide 1 judge for every 2 entries in each division: for example: 3 LD entries and 1 PF entry will require 2 LD judges and 1 PF judge.

• Speech: All participating schools must provide 1 judge for every 3 entries.

• This is because there will be 3 preliminary rounds with 2 judges in each room.

• Congress: All participating schools must provide 1 judge if they have fewer than 5 entries, and 2 if they have more than 5 entries.

• Previously, the NSDA has required that all Congress judges be unaffiliated; this rule has been done away with, and so now we require schools to provide judges.

Online Balloting

• This tournament will use online balloting. All judges must have linked Tabroom.com accounts. Please contact Tabroom Coordinator WK wkay@berkeleycarroll.org if you or your judges need help getting this set up.

Fees

• Each participating school shall incur a $15 school fee

• Each entry shall incur a $20 registration fee

• All checks should be made out to NEW YORK CITY NFL

• If fees are an inhibiting factor in your participation in the District Tournament series, please email Eric Di Michele edimichele@regis.org

Tournament Rules

This tournament follows all competition rules and tabulation procedures as dictated by the NSDA 2024-2025 High School Unified Manual. We know that member schools in our district compete on many different circuits using many different rules: the rules contained in the above-linked manual are the only rules that are relevant to this tournament. We encourage all coaches, competitors, and judges to review the manual to make sure everything is clear on the day of the tournament. Please reach out to our Tabroom Coordinator WK wkay@berkeleycarroll.org if you have any questions. They will send out more information about connecting with the tabroom as each leg of the tournament series draws closer.

Schedules and Information

Debate

• On Friday, in-person registration begins at 1:30 PM. Registration will close at 2:00 p.m., and the first round will begin at 2:30 p.m following a mandatory judge meeting for all judges. We will have three preliminary rounds on Friday. On Saturday: be present no later 8:45 a.m, as rounds will begin promptly at 9:00 a.m.

• There will be 4 preliminary rounds, and all teams with a winning record (4-0 and 3-1) will advance to elimination rounds. The number of elim rounds will be based on the number of advancing debaters. The debaters in elims will be seeded. Therefore, same-school rounds may occur, and coaches will consulted in these instances. Elims will be double elimination. Elims will continue until we have the correct number of qualifiers.

• See the NSDA 2024-2025 High School Unified Manual for a complete overview

• Resolutions are those as announced by the NSDA:

• BQ: “Resolved: Creativity is a more powerful force than intelligence.”

• CX: “Resolved: The United States federal government should significantly strengthen its protection of domestic intellectual property rights in copyrights, patents, and/or trademarks.”

• LD: “Resolved: The United States ought to become party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and/or the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”

• PF: TBA January 1st.

Speech

• In-person registration opens at 8:30am on Saturday and runs until 9am. We will begin Round 1 at 9:30am after a mandatory judge meeting for all judges.

• Events: Dramatic Interp, Humorous Interp, Original Oratory, International Extemp, Domestic Extemp, Program of Oral Interpretation, Informative Speaking, and Duo Interp.

• NB: Students MAY double enter in speech EXCEPT in the two Extemps (see Manual, p. 70, for further explanation.)

• Advancement will be based on 5/6 judge scores from prelims, with the worst score dropped. If there is a tie for the last one in, all speakers receiving the same score will advance. If 21 or more advance, we will go to quarters; If 8-20 advance, we will go to semis; if 7 or fewer advance, we will go straight to finals.

• See Manual, pp. 89-90, for further explanation

Congress

• In-person registration opens at 8:30am on Saturday and runs until 9am. We will begin Round 1 at 9:30am after a mandatory judge meeting for all judges.

• Legislation. Chapters are encouraged to submit at least two bills or resolutions no later than EOD Wednesday, February 12th, 2025 to wkay@berkeleycarroll.org. All legislation presented shall meet Association formatting criteria (see rules section) and must be the original work of students from the submitting school. Non-original work shall not be considered for the agenda. It shall be the affirmative duty of each school submitting legislation to ensure their materials are original.

• The District Committee shall attempt to accept at least one bill or resolution from each school submitting bills or resolutions, provided the legislation is submitted by the deadline.

• By February 19th, each participating school shall receive a copy of at least six bills or resolutions, which shall constitute the agenda for the District tournament.

• Only legislation distributed by the District Committee shall be debated.

Worlds

The NSDA has made World Schools Debate a full event. Each district will be able to send two teams of 3-5 students. These students need not be from the same school. The selection process is as outlined here. We will solicit interested students. Then, we will offer it first to seniors who were in final rounds (1-6 place), with the spots going to students with the highest NSDA points (excluding service). Then to juniors in the final round, then sophs, then freshmen, then semifinalists (7-12) in the same order. Names must be emailed to edimichele@regis.org by noon on Sunday, March 8th. Eric will contact coaches by 1 pm that same day. Coaches have until noon on Monday, April 8th to accept. The quick turnaround time is necessary so that schools may make proper tournament financial arrangements. We must provide 1 judge for every Worlds team. If we cannot get one from the schools attending we will have to hire a judge. We will charge the schools competing in Worlds on a prorated basis.

Harassment and Discrimination Policy

The New York City District of the National Speech & Debate Association is committed to providing its participants, judges, coaches, and staff the opportunity to pursue excellence in their endeavors. This opportunity can exist only when each member of our community is assured of an atmosphere of mutual respect. Accordingly, all forms of harassment and discrimination, whether written or oral, based on race, color, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, citizenship, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by any applicable federal, state, or local law are prohibited, whether committed by participants, judges, coaches, or observers. Individuals who are found to have violated this policy will be subject to the full range of sanctions, up to and including removal from the tournament.

Belonging & Inclusion Station and Accessibility Contact

The New York City District Tournament is committed to providing a safer, more inclusive speech and debate competition. To that end, we will offer a Belonging and Inclusion Station as a tournament resource to provide interpersonal support to anyone who feels that an element of the tournament has excluded them. The BIS will also provide safeguards to any concerns about behavior that violates the above harassment and discrimination policy. At the start of each day, tab staff will make an announcement introducing that day’s Belonging and Inclusion Advocates who will be able to assist you should you need them.

BIS Location(s)

The BIS can be found in the following rooms:

• Regis: Room 204

• Syosset: Main Office (adjoined to Tab)

• Berkeley Carroll: The Learning Center

Accessibility Contact

To further our accessibility and inclusion efforts, we have also designated an Accessibility Contact for the tournament. The AC is responsible for accommodations as well as helping with seating, ensuring captioning and other technology is working, maintaining clear pathways, or other needs. This year’s AC is Andy Forest: they can be reached before or during the tournament at anthonymstowers@gmail.com.

Contact Info & Signoff

If you have any questions about the District Tournament Series, please don’t hesitate to reach out to:

Eric DiMichele // WK Kay

District Chair // District Committee Member & Tabroom Coordinator

edimichele@regis.org wkay@berkeleycarroll.org

Sincerely,

Eric DiMichele, Lydia Esslinger, Julie Sheinman, Jim Shapiro, and WK Kay

Your NYC District Committee