The 11th Annual Bargain Belt Invitational!

Saturday & Sunday October 21-22, 2023.

Hello Speech and Debate Coaches,

Please accept our cordial invitation to The 11th Annual Bargain Belt Invitational hosted by Claremont High School. We pledge to you a full service, low-cost, well-managed weekend of excellent In-Person competition. As a competitive high school team, our mission is to provide the unique educational opportunities inherent in forensic competition at an affordable cost to the forensics community. This tournament will be conducted In-Person unless the Los Angeles County Health Department recommends otherwise. Our two-day competition schedule allows for a relaxed atmosphere with most debate events on Saturday only and ALL speech events scheduled for Sunday only. We believe this schedule allows you to maximize your judges without overwhelming them. We look forward to hosting your team and providing a great weekend of competition on our beautiful Southern California campus. Here is the link to our Tabroom page.

http://bargainbelt.tabroom.com/

We welcome all competitors from 6th -12th grade from both public and private institutions. We will also accommodate independent entries which meet our entry qualifications. Below you will find all of the specific details relating to the tournament. If you have any questions, please contact me via email at: chamberlainofchs@gmail.com or you can reach me by phone at 951-966-4417. We are excited to once again include a free lunch on both Saturday and Sunday for all student competitors, all judges and all adult chaperones. This has been a unique staple of the Bargain Belt since its inception a decade ago and we are excited to continue the tradition of FREE LUNCH for Everyone! We continue to provide a large number of awards and competition divisions to increase your program’s chances of success.

Events and Divisions:

In debate we offer Novice and Open divisions in Public Forum debate, Lincoln-Douglas debate, Parliamentary debate and Student Congress. There will be a separate Presiding Officer competition. We will use the Sep./Oct. LD topic and the Sep./Oct. Public Forum topic. Note, if a novice or varsity division does not reach at least 16 entries, we may collapse into a single open division. (We do not utilize the Novice LD topic.)

In Speech we offer Novice & Open divisions in all CHSSA Speech events, to include: Dramatic Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Original Oratory (OO), Original Advocacy (OA), Impromptu, Program Oral Interpretation (POI), Oratorical Interpretation (OI), OriginalProse/Poetry (OPP), Informative (Info) and Extemporaneous (combining domestic and international).

Speech will have three preliminary rounds, then break to semi-finals (>30 entry) or finals (<30 entry). Note, if a novice or varsity division in speech does not reach at least 10 entries, we may collapse into a single open division. Finally, we are pleased to recognize the top Middle School competitor in every event with an award.

We are pleased to announce NIETOC bids continue at Bargain Belt! Tournament bids are based on entry numbers, and will be offered in DI, HI, Duo, OO, POI, Informative, and Extemp. For additional information on how NIETOC works, please visit their website at www.nietoc.com.

We will provide information on the extemp prep room at a later date. Parli will be open prep (partners can prep anywhere and use the internet, but should not communicate with anyone else, including coaches and teammates), with the topics announced on a Google Doc.

Students may enter up to three events; consisting of one debate event and two speech events. Exceptions: A student entering Extemp, may only single enter in the speech events; but may still enter one debate event.

Awards and Recognition

Awards will be given to all Speech finalists and semi-finalists. All Congress finalists will receive awards. All Octa-finalists and higher in the debate events will receive awards. And, awards will be guaranteed for the top performing middle school student in each event. Keep in mind, debate divisions may be collapsed if the entry in one of the divisions is fewer than 16 entries.

Entry Procedure and Fees:

All tournament entries will be handled through Tabroom.com. There are NO entry limits for schools. The deadline to add entries on the website will be Wednesday, Oct 18th at 11:55 pm. Any “Adds” after this deadline may be considered via email (chamberlainofchs@gmail.com ) Drops may be made online or emailed without penalty until 11:55 pm Thursday, Oct 19th. Any drops after this deadline will still be charged the regular entry fee. Entry fees must be paid online at Claremont HS Speech and Debate, or by check received via U.S. Postal by Friday, Oct. 20th, or presented in person at Saturday morning registration. The mailing address and PayPal link are available on your invoice on Tabroom.

Make checks payable to: Claremont High School ASB

School Fee: None!

Public Forum: $30.00

Parliamentary: $30.00

LD: $20.00

Congress/PO: $10.00

IE: $10.00 (DUO $15)

Extemp & Parli Topic Selection and Congress Legislation

We invite the community to submit potential topics or topic areas for consideration and integration to the tournament. All topic selection decisions will be made by the Tournament Director. If you or your students would like to create congress resolutions, suggest extemp topic areas, or submit Parli resolutions, please email all ideas to ( chamberlainofchs@gmail.com ). Congress legislation must be received by October 1st so that the congress bills can be posted online three weeks prior to the tournament. The deadline for suggested Parli Topics and Extemp Topic areas will be October 10.

Judging Commitments and Judge Hires:

Schools must provide one judge for every six speech and congress entries, and one judge for every two debate entries. A single judge may easily cover both Speech and Debate patterns if they commit to judging both days. You cannot enter one judge for both Congress and Debate, as these judges will be combined into one pool and could be assigned to any of the events on Saturday. All judges are committed to judge one round beyond when the last student from that school/institution is eliminated from competition. This means that all judges are committed for the first Elimination round. Also, if your school has 4 judges and one of your debaters advances to the Quarter-final round, ALL 4 judges are committed to judge the Semi-final round. Please make sure your judges are available for their full commitment both days. Missed rounds will incur fees as we have to replace those judges with hired judges or school judges beyond their commitment. All judges must have a Tabroom account with both correct email and phone number, and they must be on site and available to judge.

All judges must be entered by October 19 at 11:55pm. Judges must be responsive to tournament email communication or they will not be eligible to judge. A limited Judge training will be provided on both Saturday morning and Sunday morning, 20 minutes before the start of the first round. Also, judge training videos will be linked on our Tabroom registration page.

Schools may choose to hire judges at a rate of $100 per hired judge in Congress and Speech, and $150 per hired judge to cover both days of debate. Hire requests are not confirmed until the tournament accepts and acknowledges with you that hired judging has been secured to cover your entry. The tournament makes financial commitments to individuals when we confirm your hire request. Therefore, once confirmed, hired judging may not be reduced or deleted even if you have reduced your entry. The deadline for requesting hired judges is October 18th at 5 pm.

Competition Procedure:

Debate rounds one and two will be preset, debate rounds 3-5 will be power-matched. A school will not hit itself in prelims. However, we will not break brackets in elimination rounds. School vs. school in elimination rounds will require a coach’s walk-over decision. The tournament will advance the higher seeded debater if the coach does not indicate a walk-over decision. Speech preliminary rounds will be preset. A team’s speech entries advancing to semi-finals will be spread equally between panels. There will be a 10 minute forfeiture rule in place for all rounds of competition.

Disputes and Equity:

It is our goal to host a fair, transparent and equitable tournament. The Bargain Belt Invitational will utilize an Independent Dispute and Equity Committee with authority to adjudicate all competition and equity issues that are brought to the attention of the Tournament Director.

Claremont High School’s Bargain Belt Invitational Tournament Schedule 2023

Saturday, October 21st

7:30am – 8:15am Registration @ 800 Teacher Lounge & Judge Assembly in Library

8:30am Debate Round 1 PF, Parli, LD Congress-1

10:30am Debate Round 2 PF, Parli, LD Congress-2

Lunch Break ☺

1:00pm Debate Round 3 PF, Parli, LD Congress-3

2:30pm Debate Round 4 PF, Parli, LD

4:00pm Debate Round 5 PF, Parli, LD

6:00pm Debate Elim 1 Congress Finals

Sunday, October 22nd

7:30am – 8:15am Registration 800 Teacher Lounge & Judge Assembly in Library

8:30am Speech Round 1

10:00am Speech Round 2

Lunch Break ☺

11:30am Debate Elim 2

1:00pm Speech Round 3

2:30pm Debate Elim 3

4:30pm Speech Semi-Finals

6:00pm Speech Finals Debate Elim 4 (If Needed)

7:30pm Awards