CONGRESS DEBATE

 

1. Congress Topics—Bills Packet

Congress Bills Packet will be posted in mid-late October
make sure the packet shows the packet for this quarter.

 

2. Congress Debating Times

•                     Each speech is 3 minutes.

•                     The first pro and con speech on each topic will have a 2 minute questioning period broken into 4 blocks of 30 seconds for direct questioning. And all other speeches will have 1 minutes for questions.

•                     We have two sessions that are 1.5 hours long.

 

3. Congress Debating Rules

·                As always, Respect and Safety are Paramount. Ages range from Elementary school to high school. There can be large age differences, being respectful to all competitors is important.

·                Dockets are made by the tournament tab staff with the topics in order. Competitors may propose an alternative docket with the topics they want debated,
in the order in which they want to debate them. Then they are voted on if there is more than one proposed docket.

·                PO elections take place after a nomination process (self nominations are allowed) and an anonymous vote is taken. In person this is through ripped pieces of paper, or else a straw poll is typically used for online tournaments.

·                We follow NSDA Rules.

·                There should be no communication with coaches, parents, friends etc. that are not involved in the debate.

·                No information should be fabricated (made up).

·                POs will elect speakers and questioners based on Precedence and Recency. Precedence is the number of speeches that have been made and Recency is how recently one has spoken.
The person with fewer speeches is given priority if they choose to speak.
If all speech numbers are even, then priority is decided based on how recently a person has spoken with the least recent person to have spoken given the higher priority.
Precedence will always override recency. Speeches are run with recency (includes Precedence) and questions are usually run based on precedence exclusively.

·                There must be at least one full cycle of debate (one Affirmation Speech, followed by one Negation speech) on each piece of legislation before you can have incomplete cycles (consecutive aff speeches or neg speeches).

·                Once the first cycle has started you must finish it before tabling the legislation or moving to previous question.

·                Presiding Officers (POs) are elected after the dockets are decided.

·                Breaks, switching topics, addressing the chamber, formally asking questions and ending sessions are all run through motions.
The PO and Parliamentarian (most experienced Congress Judge) will rule on motions; this is done either by conducting a vote or by a “decision of the chair” this is a choice made by the PO and
most often used for a recess at which point the Parliamentarian (parli) will advise the PO on whether a recess should be allowed.
 This sheet has the motions that are used. Not all motions need to be made in one round.