VBT/SoCal Championships Registration Open

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Registration is now open for the VBT/SoCal Championships. The site for updates and information can be found at: http://victorybriefs.com/

Dates: January 2-3, 2010 (required registration will begin at 4:00pm on January 1, 2010 at the tournament hotel)
Events: Lincoln Douglas Debate, Public Forum, Policy Debate, Student Congress, Extemp, Dramatic Interp, Humorous Interp, Duo and Original Oratory.
Location: UCLA Law School
Tournament hotel: Courtyard Marriott in Sherman Oaks

The tournament is an Octafinalist Qualifier to the TOC in LD and a Semifinalist Qualifier in Public Forum.

Downloads:
Full Invitation
Entry Form

Text of the Invitation:

Dear Colleague:

You are cordially invited to the SoCal Championship/VBT High School Debate & Speech Tournament. We will offer: Lincoln Douglas Debate, Public Forum, Policy, Student Congress, Original Oratory, Extemporaneous Speaking, Dramatic Interp, Humorous Interp and Duo Interp. We hope you can join us.

Once again we are planning on hosting our tournament on the campus of UCLA.

A couple of important notes:
1. We are now an Octafinals qualifier to the Tournament of Champions in Lincoln-Douglas Debate.
2. We are a Semifinals qualifier to the Tournament of Champions in Public Forum Debate.
3. Our registration process is changing a bit. We will still use an online system to make competitor and judge entries, but will be requiring a paper + payment registration for your registration to be complete.
4. We will be using a judge preference system this year in Lincoln-Douglas. We will be extremely diligent in making certain that all judges who are entered have a judging philosophy prior to December 15, 5pm PT. Schools will be charged a $100 penalty if they do not meet this commitment. Schools who do not have judge philosophies completed by December 31 will be charged the fee in addition to not having their own preferences honored.
5. Our tournament hotel is the Courtyard Marriott-Sherman Oaks. We were able to negotiate a rate that is significantly lower than last year’s rate. You can receive a rate of $99.00 per night by reserving through the website at:
http://cwp.marriott.com/laxsf/victorybriefs/ .

Please read through this entire document. Given that we are now a TOC qualifier in two events, both of which at higher level than last year, we anticipate that we will fill fast.

Do not make plane reservations until you have had your entries confirmed by Mike Bietz.

If you have any questions, please email Mike Bietz at bietz@victorybriefs.com.

DEBATE EVENTS

Lincoln-Douglas
Lincoln-Douglas will be a single division. Unless noted prior to the tournament, will be using NFL time limits. A school may enter a maximum of six (6) debaters. Approximately 200 debaters will be accepted into the competition. Students in Lincoln-Douglas may not enter any other events.

There will be seven prelim LD rounds. We will break to double-octafinals.

Public Forum
Unless noted prior to the tournament, Public Forum will be using the NFL time limits.

A school may enter a maximum of four (4) public forum teams. There is space for approximately 50 teams. Public Forum debaters may not enter other tournament events.

The January NFL Public Forum topic will be used.

We anticipate there being 6 rounds of Public Forum. We will clear up to an Octafinal level, but will not clear any team that does not have a winning record.

Policy
Unless noted prior to the tournament, Policy will be using NFL rules and time limits – 8-3-5. A school may enter four (4) policy teams. There is space for approximately 40 teams. We will clear up to a quarterfinal round, and will not clear any teams that do not have a winning record. Policy debaters may not enter other tournament events.

The resolution is: Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase social services for person living in poverty in the United States.

Computers are allowed to be used in rounds.

Student Congress
There will be multiple chambers of approximately 20 students in each, with a Super Congress to determine final placement. Each school may enter a maximum of 10 Congressional debaters. NFL rules and time limits will apply.

Each school may provide a maximum of 3 pieces of legislation. Legislation must be in the proper NFL format and emailed as an ATTACHED MICROSOFT WORD document to bietz@victorybriefs.com by December 15. Please see the template for congress legislation at http://www.nflonline.org/CoachingResources. Legislation is expected to be of sound quality and the tournament reserves the right to exclude legislation that does not meet that standard. Legislative packets will be available for download by December 22. These packets will not be faxed. They will be available at http://www.victorybriefs.com.

INDIVIDUAL EVENTS
We are going to offer the following events:
Original Oratory, Mixed Extemp Speaking, Duo Interp, Dramatic Interp and Humorous Interp. NFL rules will govern each event, unless noted prior to the tournament.

Each school may enter a maximum of four (4) contestants in each category. Students may single or double enter, but each one counts as a separate entry for the purpose of assessing fees.

There will be four prelim rounds and may break up to a semifinal round, if entries warrant.

JUDGING REQUIREMENTS
Qualifications
The VBT is committed to providing top-notch judging across all of its divisions. The judges a school provides must be qualified to judge at a national-level forensics competition. In LD and Policy debate, judges are expected to be “flow-oriented.” Judges in Policy and LD are expected to have their philosophy posted to the judge philosophy wiki at:

http://judgephilosophies.wikispaces.com by 5pm on December 15th.

Schools using judges who have not submitted their philosophies by that time will be charged $100.00. Those who do not have judge philosophies submitted by December 31 will not have their preferences honored at the tournament.

Allocations
All schools must enter at least a ½ time judge into the judging pool. If the judge entered is an inexperienced or “parent” judge (we realize some parent judges are quite qualified, and that should be noted in the judge philosophy). These judges may be used in other divisions.

Half-time judges are 4 rounds in 6 round debate events and 5 rounds in LD. In addition, all judges are required to judge 1 round past their schools last eliminated debater.

In Individual Events, there are no half-time commitments. All judges are eligible to judge finals.

Judging quotas:
LD Debate – one full-time judge for every 3 debaters, or fraction thereof. 2 debaters requires a full-time commitment. 3 debaters requires full time. 4 debaters is 1.5 commitment. 5 & 6 debaters would be 2 full-time judges.
Policy Debate – one full-time judge for every two (2) teams.
Student Congress – one fulltime judge for every five (5) entries or fraction thereof.
Public Forum – one fulltime judge for every three (3) teams.
Invidividual Events – one (1) judge for every five (5) entries or fraction thereof.

All judges should check postings in all events.

HIRING JUDGES
A limited number of hired judges are available through the tournament at $200.00 per half-time commitment needed.

A couple of restrictions:
1. A school must have someone available who can fulfill at least a ½ time commitment. No exceptions.
2. Each division for which you are entered restarts your judging commitment. This means you cannot have someone do ½ a commitment in policy and ½ a commitment in LD. Our schedules may overlap and therefore make it difficult (if not impossible) for you to fulfill those commitments.
3. This means you must have at least a ½ time judge available in each of the pools in which your school is entered.
4. As for fees, this means if you enter 6 LD debaters and bring a ½ time judge, you would be hiring 1.5 judges – and the fee would be $600.00

We calculate our fees based on the fact that we fly-out and house (in the hotel) nearly all of our tournament staff and hired judges.

No hired judges will be available after December 8, 2009 at 5:00pm PT. If you intend on hiring judges, please send in the judge hire form and fee postmarked by December 6, 2009.

There are NO REFUNDS for hired judges – even if you drop by the drop deadline of December 23, 2009.

LODGING
Please make your reservations at the Courtyard Marriott in Sherman Oaks. You can reserve now for $99.00/night at:

http://cwp.marriott.com/laxsf/victorybriefs/

FLYING IN
If you are flying in for the tournament, we recommend flying in to either Burbank (BUR) or Los Angeles International (LAX). The airports are equidistant from the Courtyard Marriott.

PRE-REGISTRATION PROCESS

Before you can complete your online registration, you must fill out the form below and send it in, along with a payment to:

Victory Briefs
925 N. Norman Place
Los Angeles, CA 90049

Do not mail in any registration without the appropriate fees. Your registration will be discarded. With the exception of penalties, we will not be collecting any fees during registration at the tournament.

No refunds will be given on hired judges after December 1. If you have to change or drop entries, you may do so until December 8. After that point, no refunds will be available.

Please make your checks payable to “Victory Briefs.”

Fees & Penalties
LD – $85.00 per debater
Public Forum – $50.00 per two-person team
Policy – $30.00 per two-person team
Student Congress – $15.00 per entry
Individual Events – $15.00 per entry
Duo Interp – $25.00 per entry
Hired Judge fee – $200 per halftime commitment

Drop penalty (after 5pm PT on Dec 8th) – Loss of original entry fee plus $10 per entry.

Late name penalty (after 5pm PT Dec 23rd) – $100 per school

Late judge philosophy (after 5pm PT Dec 15th) – $100 per judge

COMPLETING ENTRY:

1. Complete the entry forms included with this invitation. PLEASE WRITE LEGIBLY. ILLEGIBLE ENTRIES WILL BE DISCARDED.
2. Mail the entry form, along with a check in the exact amount due to:

Victory Briefs
925 North Norman Place
Los Angeles, CA 90049

3. Do not fax forms or the check.
4. We will email confirmation within three working days of receipt. Incomplete or incorrect registrations may or may not be confirmed. DO NOT MAKE HOTEL OR PLANE RESERVATIONS UNTIL YOU HAVE YOU RECEIVED CONFIRMATION FROM US.
5. Once you have received a confirmation, you should proceed to our online system to fill out registration online.
6. If you register for an event that is full, we will send you a refund for those entries.

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