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Judge Certification Page |
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What we expect from you and students at the tournament |
Please read this page carefully and then move on to the next page (link
at the bottom of the page).
Following our tournament rules is critical.
We risk our school saying we cannot host the tournament.
You and your students can be expelled from the tournament.
Whitman team members can receive hours of team service.
I
know most of this stuff is pretty obvious and kind of irritating to read but if
you follow this stuff, it avoids unhappy people and assures we can continue to
host our tournament!
It is important that you be a fair judge.
Follow the rules and guidelines noted on our ballots.
Show respect to the
students especially when you are judging:
·
Turn your cell phones off.
·
Don’t look at videos/games/instant messenger during
speeches.
·
Don’t be derogatory about arguments that students are
presenting—try, as best as you can, to give each person the chance to have
their case/Interp/speech be heard.
·
BE POSITIVE AND SUPPORTIVE.
Show you are impartial about the arguments. Avoid saying
things like “I only vote for the negative on this topic.”
Show you are impartial toward the students. Avoid having
conversations/jokes/etc. that don’t involve ALL TEAMS/DEBATERS/SPEAKERS in the
round.
Do NOT judge your own kids—in the event you are given a
ballot to judge your own school by mistake, bring the ballot back to the ballot
table.
WHEN YOU DON’T DO THE ABOVE—students get upset, coaches get
upset, and it is not happy. :)
WRITE OUT YOUR DECISION
AND COMMENTS. Yes you can and we encourage oral comments BUT YOU NEED TO WRITE
COMMENTS. Coaches use them to improve, to help their students, for adaptation,
etc. Please—a number of people complained last year on surveys that judges did
not write out comments.
Are you a College Student-Debater? Some of the high school
students have complained that they feel some college judges are arrogant and
dismissive toward the “not good enough” high school debaters. Please don’t be
that kind of college debater. Be helpful and supportive. Impart your knowledge
and treat these competitors with respect.
Please talk to them about being courteous, caring judges. EVERY
YEAR, STUDENTS AND COACHES ARE UPSET because they felt a judge mistreated them.
LET’S WORK TO AVOID THAT!
Also, please talk with your kids about the diversity of
judges. Not all judges are stock issues and not all judges like kritiks.
Students need to learn to adapt to differing judges; blaming judges because
they didn’t vote on inherency or because they said the student spoke too
quickly is just not what forensics is about. It is about adapting to the judge
before the speakers.
Complaints
to the tournament about judges are appropriate ONLY IF the judge violates a
rule stated in the tournament invitation NOT if they didn’t vote on inherency
or because they preferred a “performance” over a disadvantage. Examples of situations
where you can register a complaint include:
·
They cut your student’s speaking time.
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They harassed your student.
·
They forced your student to debate or speak about a topic not sanctioned
by the tournament.
· They made your student say things
you weren’t comfortable with.
· They played computer games while
your student spoke.
NOTE: Decisions are NEVER
overturned by the tournament unless something extremely serious happened. This
has occurred once in the past 15 years. Don’t count on it. Instead, we will remove
the offending judge from the tournament and charge the school hiring that judge
a fee.
If one
of your Champ LD or Policy debaters receives a struck judge on the
postings—REPORT IT TO THE BALLOT TABLE IMMEDIATELY. We will fix that.
·
PLEASE—Keep the noise level down in the halls of the
buildings.
·
NO TALKING IN
·
NO TALKING IN RESIDENCE HALLS AT ANY TIME except in
your competition room.
·
Toss Trash and Cleanup Messes.
·
Don’t touch equipment, computers, residence hall
fridges, furniture, etc.
·
Don’t play on campus art including the horses and
other statues.
·
Be nice to Whitties. Obey Staff and Faculty requests to
be quiet or to leave an area. Respect Student Res. Hall Rooms and Lounges.
·
Please keep your voices down—especially in the
morning!
·
Before flushing toilets in Jewett Hall—Please loudly
knock on the wall. That way, people won’t be scalded by hot water.
·
Do NOT go into rooms before your round is scheduled
to start if there is a class in there.
· Do NOT setup “shop” in a room. Use Reid to hang out.
·
Only coaches may use the Library due to problems we
had at the 2003 tournament.
·
COMPUTER USE: Use the Wireless Network or go to Olin
180. YOU CANNOT USE THE REGULAR COMPUTER LABS.
Computers with full internet
connection are available in Olin 180 for use for $1. Printing is 5 cents per
page.
Photocopying is 5 cents per page. NOTE: FOR LARGE PHOTOCOPYING JOBS—GO TO
STAPLES. Get to Staples by going east on
Many of Whitman’ Library resources are available on the web. If students need a
book from the library, coaches can get it and photocopy it.
Respect the space as
you do when you are a guest in someone else's home.
Please do not block
hallways or stand in front of entrances to offices, meeting spaces, and/or
restrooms.
Help out! Pick up and dispose of papers and other garbage
items in a trashcan.
Please do not eat
on the lounge furniture.
Also, please toss
your garbage into the trash cans.
PLEASE DON’T HANG OUT IN THE BOOKSTORE UNLESS YOU ARE PURCHASING ITEMS
Don’t read through magazines you aren’t going to purchase.
Use the bookstore to buy t-shirts, memorabilia, magazines—not as a hang out.
PLEASE DON’T HANG OUT ON THE SECOND FLOOR OF REID
The second floor is an office area
with people busy working on a variety of projects. Please stay off the second
floor unless you have a round there.
Please
make sure no one takes pillows and blankets from your hotel rooms.
Please keep your
team members quiet in the late evening and early morning—you will wake
nearby guests.
PLEASE BE ON TIME.
You need to pick up and return your ballot on time per the schedule.
When you don’t, we will charge you/your school.
We will be monitoring unpicked up ballots and we will post
names of judges who did not pick up ballots on time.
PLEASE—LATE JUDGING CAUSES INNUMERABLE PROBLEMS at a tournament of this size.
BE ON TIME.
GIVING ORAL COMMENTS AT THE END OF A
ROUND? You are forbidden from making the students stay beyond the time the
round was scheduled to end. Doing so subjects you and your school to fines and to the students
forfeiting (they are NOT allowed to say a judge held them as an excuse for
being late to a round).
·
If your round is running late—you need to leave your
room if a class is scheduled in the room. Complete the round in the hall,
another room, etc.
DEBATE ELIMS: ANNOUNCE YOUR DECISION
AND STATE THE DEBATERS/TEAM’S FULL NAMES. Why? To avoid errors. In 2007—two doubleflighted
rounds got decided the wrong way when a judge voted for the wrong Mercer Island
debaters in two doubleflighted rounds. We caught it in time but we want to
avoid this.
DON’T ORDER BON
APETIT FOOD WITH LESS THAN 20 MINUTES.
You MUST order food from Bon Apetit AT LEAST 20 MINUTES before your next
round. Otherwise, you may be late because of the long times they take to get
food done especially when it is busy. Eat the tournament provided food or wait
until later.
Turn in your Ballots by the time noted on the ballot!
Ballot Distribution and Return happen in the Hunter Foyer
this year (across the street from Reid, the main tournament headquarters)
Have you gone over the tournament rules with your students?
Have you explained to students how to handle double-entering?
Have you made sure your students are in the right divisions?
REMEMBER WASHINGTON RULES ARE DIFFERENT!
WHEN DO ELIM POSTINGS
COME OUT? SATURDAY MORNING. ALL OF THEM.
JUDGING
OBLIGATION: YOU ARE OBLIGATED TO JUDGE ALL ROUNDS OF YOUR EVENT UNTIL AWARDS.
If you have
competitors still in after awards, you are obligated to continue to judge after
awards.
SIGN-IN
FOR JUDGE CERTIFICATION
Problems? E-mail Jim Hanson at hansonjb@whitman.edu