I did not debate in high school or college, but have served as a debate assistant for several years. I have judged about 10 rounds on this year's topic. I am policy maker or stock issue judge. I appreciate when teams listen to the evidence that the other team is reading and analyze it and check the warrants. I hate just reading blocks without explanation.

The Affirmative has the burden of proof to support the resolution. You will probably do better if you do not speed read to me.

Generic Disads, Counter Plans, Kritiks are fine. Topicality is fine. Specific links are important. Explanation is important.

The last speakers should weight the round.

I will penalize rudeness. Just be nice to each other.

I competed in high school debate in a small 4A/3A school for four years in the late 80’s, was part of K-State’s CEDA national championship team in the 90’s. I coached for about 10 years before taking a break to raise kids and I am now in my 5th year back.

I know debate and my coach's heart is strong. . . but I am better at the older style of debate than the newer style of debate.

Important:

1. My most important rule is “Be Kind.” There is a reason this activity needs to be accessible to all. Don’t pollute the activity that I love.

2. I used to say speaking fast is fine. I am editing my paradigm now to say that the recent fast rounds that I have judged have not been articulated clearly enough for me to understand. In the end, this is still a communication activity. Additionally, mindless reading of blocks without clash is not good debate. Please flow and put your arguments on the flow. You shouldn't be able to speak from just a preloaded block on your computer. I enjoy line by line argumentation. I expect summarizing and explanation in between. I appreciate speed most when it is utilized to analyze and weigh responses and dislike when teams spread through unwarranted responses to attempt to overwhelm the other team.

3. I am probably closest to a policy-maker or a stock issues judge, but am willing to consider other paradigms if you want me to.

4. I expect you to weigh the round and analyze the voting issues in the final rebuttals.

5. Please include me in any email chain or evidence sharing, but I will probably only look at the evidence if it's important to my decision and 1) someone asks me to or 2) I think it sounds misconstrued.

6. I will not evaluate any K's, or theory arguments unless you tell me how to approach the argument and how it weighs in the round. Don’t get me wrong, I am willing to listen to K's, although I have little experience reading or evaluating them. If you run these arguments, please avoid excessive jargon. You are going to have to be super clear.

7. Cross-ex is for questions not arguments. You will get a lot further with your argumentation if you save it for the speech. I don’t flow cross-ex and usually am working on the ballot during that time.

8. I will vote on topicality if necessary.

9. I will not vote on vagueness unless clarifying questions are asked of the affirmative in cross-examination AND their case becomes a moving target.
10. I will not vote on disclosure theory. Just debate the round.
11. I know that I am old school, but I believe that feeding your partner what to say during their speech or cross-ex makes that partner look weak. Trust your partners. They are smart people.
12. I hate rudeness and will penalize. Don’t put another person down and don’t try to make them look stupid . . . other than that, speaks are based on strategy/arguments, not style/speaking ability. I stick to 27 - 30 for speaker points unless you are rude, condescending, racist, sexist, homophobic, etc.

I am frustrated by excessive tech time (there is a reason that we added prep-time). Please keep a fair track of your time. I don’t want to have to worry about it. But don’t cheat on time.

If you have any questions, ask before the round. I will do my best to give you meaningful feedback about your strengths in the round and how I think you can improve on the ballot.

Best of luck! Have fun! Enjoy! Form connections . . . that’s what debate is all about!

Put me on the chain: tianamarion7@gmail.com

Background: I debated four years at Salina South High School (2017-21). I was also the 5A 2-speak state champion in 2021 on the prison reform topic. I currently debate in college at Kansas Wesleyan University (parli + LD), and I had a brief stint at Yale. I have assistant coached at Salina South, head coached at Sacred Heart high school, and assistant coached at McPherson High School.

Judging Philosophy: Tech over truth. I think debate is a game, whoever plays it best wins my ballot. With this, I have often voted against good plans or good counterplans that I think are good ideas, because they weren't argued correctly. I try to keep my own personal biases (in any way) out of the debate round. Do not change how you debate to adapt to me; I want to see how you debate at what you believe is your best. I'm comfortable with any speed from conversational to rapid spreading. Speech drop > Email chains. ****I am of the belief that all on case and off case arguments need to be read in the 1NC. Also no new in the 2NC. I will not vote you down because of this, but I will not be happy.

Topic Specific: This year, I have been judging and coaching on the 4A and 3-2-1 A circuit. I am not a big fan of "soft left" impacts which are huge on this topic, so it will be much easier for me to vote on high magnitude impacts (yes, I am an unironic nuke war impact enjoyer).

Topicality: I believe it is an a priori and will judge it first before examining the case. I judge topicality on whether you can prove specific in-round abuse and if it sets a precedent for bad debating. I have enjoyed debating and coaching topicality, so please do not be afraid to run it!

Counterplans: I believe every counterplan has to have a net benefit, and I don’t care about whether it’s topical or not. I don't think conditionality is abusive in most cases, but I can be convinced with a really good condo bad shell.

Kritiks: I am most comfortable with Capitalism, Settler Colonialism, Security, Queerness, and Anti-blackness. Anything further will probably require some explanation. Must have Framework to tell me how to weigh the K vs Case.

pamela.williams@usd428.net

I competed in high school debate in a small 3A school for four years in the late 80’s and competed in college for 2 years in the 90s. I am currently an assistant coach after leaving competitive speech for many years.

I know debate, but my experience is from 20+ years ago, and therefore I prefer an older style of debate.

Important:

1. It is essential to me that you are kind, courteous and respectful to one another and to me. Courtesy is far too undervalued and often overlooked, but I will vote against teams that are discourteous.
2. I must be able to understand what you are saying to me in order to vote for you. If you have good articulation and enunciation when you are speaking quickly, then go for it. That being said, I will not give you points for just saying the most words in the time you have.
3. I expect you to clash. If you have not directly related your evidence block to the argument of the other team, you are not debating. Reading of blocks without making those connections is not clashing and therefore not debating. I am looking for summarizing and explanation. Prove to me that you understand the evidence you are using well enough to explain why I should care about what it says.
4. Don’t Lie. Do not try to read evidence and then claim it says something else in your summary or explanation. Do not try to cut a few words or phrases that completely change the meaning of the evidence. Do not leave off the last half of the card because it is problematic for your case. If there is an issue with how the evidence is explained, or you are trying to twist the meaning, I will give you a 4 and a loss. Don’t lie by omission or false representation. Use strong, analytical arguments and you won’t have to lie with your evidence.
5. Stacking arguments in an attempt to overwhelm the other team is not good debate. I will flow the round and therefore I will notice when arguments are dropped, but I will also notice when arguments are superfluous.
6. I want you to signpost your arguments.
7. In the final rebuttals, I want you to evaluate what has occurred in the round, explain the voters and remind me why "your team” had the superior arguments.
8. I would like to be included in any email chain or evidence sharing, however unless the evidence is problematic or it seems to have been misused, I am probably not going to spend much time looking at it. (See #4, above)
9. I am not opposed to K’s or Theory arguments but I expect you to be very, very clear about how the argument links. Generic arguments generally won’t get you very far with me. Make me understand how the generic or theoretical argument is relevant in this particular debate or I am not going to consider it.
10. Do not present arguments in cross ex. Ask questions, get clarification, and set your partner up to clash.
11. I will vote on topicality if the argument is convincing. I am most likely to vote on stock issues and extending the arguments through. Do not drop an argument and hope I won’t notice. If an argument is dropped by the other team, remind me of that in your final rebuttals.
12. I award speaker points for strategy, understanding of the argument and your ability to explain the argument so I care about it.
13. Pronounce words correctly. If you are mispronouncing the words in your evidence, it assures me that you are not familiar with that card. Know what you are reading and be able to pronounce it.
14. Don’t be a jerk. That includes being condescending to your opponents, racist, sexist, homophobic, etc.
15. You have prep time. All technological maneuvers should be completed during that prep time. Do not use all your prep time, walk to the podium and then spend additional time sharing a speech or an evidence file. When you walk to the podium you should be ready to speak. Milking the clock by waiting to share your files is cheating in my opinion. I will generally time each speech as well as the prep time for myself and I will punish you for cheating the time.

If you have any questions, ask before the round. I will try to give you good, useful feedback on the ballot as well as a clear reason for the decision. I will happily shake your hand before the round, but please don’t try to shake my hand after the round. I want to be focused on the ballot and giving feedback during that time. Be courteous to your opponents and then feel free to leave.

In summary, speed and spread alone won’t get you a W. Clash, summarize, explain, and convince me to care about YOUR position and its importance. Keep reminding me of your position. Ask me to vote for you and give me reasons to do so.