Requirements:

1. Each student will be required to have a parent judge available to judge for the entire tournament.

  • One person cannot serve as the parent judge for more than one student except:

+ A parent with multiple children competing
+ The parent of team policy debater can be the designated judge for his/her child's partner
+ If you need an exception to these requirements, then please email [email protected].

  • Each parent, or their designee, will be responsible for judging up to 5 rounds.
  • Historically we have not had many community judges. It can be tricky to have enough "clean" judges for each event.
  • As a result, Tab will slot judges in the speech and debate rounds before the tournament. The rounds each parent is expected to judge will be highlighted on the schedule on the back of the parent's name tag. Please see the Judge Slotting Page for more information.
  • To help Tab slot you in an event to your liking, please indicate via the dropdown box in judge registration, which debate events you prefer judging or if you have no preference.
  • Please report to Ballot distribution 30 minutes before the start of each round highlighted on the schedule on the back of your name tag.
  • If not judging, Parents, please hang out in the 3 Family Hangout Rooms in case we need to find you to judge unexpectedly.
  • Also, Tab will assume that you will be there all day to judge. If this is not the case, please email [email protected].
  • Please do not plan on leaving campus to pick up food. We may need you to judge.

Debate rounds will have only one judge with the exception of the Final rounds, which will hopefully have a minimum of 3 judges.

2. Please Communicate Changes to your attendance or your student's attendance or your student's events as soon as possible by emailing [email protected].

  • Since a lot of work before the tournament goes into slotting parents into judging rounds, please give as much advance notice as possible.

3. Before judging, parents or their designee should attend the respective Stoa Debate training at least once during the 2023-2024 competition season.

  • On Saturday morning, if you haven't already attended judge training this year for either Lincoln Douglas debate or Team Policy debate, please attend the combined debate training in the Judge Training Room at 7:20 AM (Building D).
  • Parents, it is your responsibility to be trained as early in the day as possible for both types of debate (Lincoln Douglas and Team Policy) regardless of your judging preferences. We will be giving a combined debate training for Lincoln Douglas and Team Policy.
  • If you are called on to judge and cannot fulfill the duty, due to lack of training or neglect, your student may be disqualified from the tournament.
  • On Saturday, a combined debate judge training for both Lincoln Douglas and Team Policy based on the updated judge orientation Powerpoints will be given before each round at 45 minute intervals.
  • You will be given a good overview of the events and the judging process at the tournament during Judge Training.
  • Click on the green links below to view the training materials that we will use for our Debate events. Please feel free to read them and become familiar with them.

A combined Team Policy Debate and Lincoln Douglas Debate Judge Orientation PowerPoint based on the updated 2023 Judge Orientation slides will be used due to space and personnel limitations at the tournament. Please feel free to read and become familiar with the debate training slides content by clicking on the green links below.

Combined Lincoln Douglas and Team Policy Debate Orientation Slides

4. Be mindful of judging conflicts

  • If you have a close personal relationship/friendship with, are related to, or have coached a competitor, we ask that you do not judge that individual.
  • Parents, please include the names of the following in the Conflicts Section when registering to judge:

- Your children's TP debate partners
- Students that you may be traveling with
- Students that you have listened to or helped at club.
- If it is the entire club, please include the club name below in "Club Conflicts" below. If you have only helped a few students in debate, please enter that information as individual conflicts.

  • Alumni judges, please be sure not to judge anyone you have coached or who was a competitor during the time you competed.

5. Complete forms

  • Parents should complete the liability form and turn it in during check-in the morning of the tournament or email it to [email protected] by 8 PM on February 9th.

6. Local F5, Level Up, and Parakaleo Families Recruit Community Judges

  • We need your help not only in judging but in recruiting others to judge from within your community, i.e. your family, friends, fellow church members, fellow home school parents from your co-op and tutorials, coaches, teachers, neighbors, etc. Please attempt to recruit two community judges. Recruiting more than two is wonderful!!
  • Tournaments depend on community judges Community Judges are crucial because they’re unbiased and do not personally know the majority of our student competitors.