Holiday Havoc Invitational

Welcome to the 2018 Holiday Havoc Invitational presented by Columbia High School, Nampa.  We are excited and honored to host you on our campus on Friday and Saturday, December 7 and 8, 2018.  We will offer speech and debate events in an effort to get some much-needed practice before the long holiday break.

In debate, we will offer Lincoln Douglas, Public Forum, and Policy Debate in both novice and varsity divisions.  We also will have Congressional Debate, Big Questions Debate, and Worlds School Debate in a varsity division only. 

Debate will begin on Friday afternoon and conclude Saturday. In LD, PF, Policy, Big Questions, and Worlds School Debate formats there will be 4 preliminary rounds plus the gold/silver award round.  In Congressional Debate, there will be 3 prelims sessions plus a Super Congress final session gold/silver round. If there are insufficient entries in any of the formats or divisions, they may be collapsed together or eliminated.

On Saturday there will be 3 preliminary rounds in all speech events in an open division (this is different this year due to our tournament being awarded NIETOC tournament status).  We will recognize the top novices in each speech event so please help us identify them at registration or in the tab room. Students may triple enter unless they are in a draw event (Extemp, Radio, or Retold) or Panel Discussion and then they may double enter.  Students, if they are double or triple entered, are responsible for making it to their rounds in time as we will not hold up the tournament due to late arriving students. For events large enough to warrant it, there will be a finals round.  

This tournament also serves the community outside speech and debate by holding our annual glove and mitten drive to benefit elementary school children in our area that may not have the means to keep warm this winter. Students are encouraged to bring gloves and mittens and there will be a special recognition for the school that brings the most per entry. Since its inception, we have collected over 1,200 pairs to help local kids! Thank you!

As usual, we will hold the annual coaches ugly holiday sweater contest, and we will likely be visited by the pet therapy dogs, Santa, and we hope to have a couple more surprises up our sleeves!

It is recommended that you enter this tournament early to reserve your space.  To make it fair to allow as many schools to enter as possible, entry limits have been set but waitlisted entries can be entered and they will be added as soon as possible to allow for a robust field of competition.  Schools will be limited to a total of 10 debate entries in the following formats (PF, LD, CX, and Congress). Schools will be allowed to enter 2 Worlds teams and up to 4 in Big Questions. Schools may enter up to 10 in each speech format. The website will close early if we reach the maximum space allotted to this tournament so early entry is recommended.

If you have any questions, please contact tournament host Jeff Stoppenhagen at jstoppenhagen@nsd131.org or at cell 208-887-7939.  The students, team, coaches, and administration of CHS look forward to welcoming you to Columbia High!

Best regards,

Jeff Stoppenhagen, Program DirectorTucker Bates, Assistant DirectorLibby Jordan, Assistant CoachLogan Potter, Assistant Coach

Tournament Schedule

We have made every effort to provide a safe and sane schedule for competition this weekend keeping in mind that we need to be fair to judges, allow for as much competition as possible, and be aware of potential weather-related issues this time of year.  The tournament staff reserves the right to make any adjustments to this schedule should the need arise.

Friday, December 7

2:00 pm          Registration (The Commons) - students to the Auditorium2:30 pm          Welcoming Session - Auditorium                       Judge Meeting - Library (2nd floor)3:00 pm          Debate 1 (CX, LD, PF, Big Q, Worlds)                       Congress 1 (3:15 - 5:30)5:00 pm          Debate 2 (CX, LD, PF, Big Q, Worlds) 6:15 pm          Congress 2 (6:00 - 8:30)7:00 pm          Debate 3 (CX, LD, PF, Big Q, Worlds) 

Saturday, December 8

8:00 am Debate 4 (CX, LD, PF, Big Q, Worlds)                        Congress 3 (8:00 until 9:30)10:15 am Round 1 – Speech (students in Panel MUST go to that event first)12:30 pm       Gold/Silver Medal Round – All debate events 2:30 pm  Round 2 – Speech (students in Panel MUST go to that event first)4:30 pm Round 3 – Speech (students in Panel MUST go to that event first) 6:45 pm         Finals – all speech events (students in Panel; MUST go to that event first) 8:00 pm Awards Assembly                         

Entry Fees/Nuisance Fees

Fees for the tournament will be set at the entry deadline of Wednesday, December 5, at 5:00 pm MST.  Drops after this date will be assessed the Nuisance fee.  As soon as this deadline is met any additional waitlisted entries will be added and coaches notified.  This will be equitably from all school having those on the list.

Entry fees are as follows:

Speech entries                          $10 each 1 judge covers 6 speech entries

Team Debate (Policy, PF, Worlds)   $15 each       1 judge covers 2 teams in CX

and Worlds and 4 in PF

Flighted Debate (LD, Big Q) $10 each        1 judge covers 4 entries 

Congressional Debate                     $10 each        1 judge covers 10 entries

Uncovered entries are:  $20 for Congressional Debate, LD, Big Q, and speech entries and $25 for team debate (PF, Policy and Worlds).

Drops are a nuisance to handle after the deadline of Wednesday, so we ask that you do your best to get them taken care of prior to the drop deadline.  There will be a $25 Nuisance Fee charged for any drop after Wednesday at 5:00 pm MST and they will be enforced unless they are due to a special circumstance.  Please see the tournament director regarding this if it applies.

Please try to have checks ready to present at registration Friday or checks in process prior to the holiday break so we don't have to hunt you down.  Thank you, in advance, for your help in this matter.  It is appreciated! 

The "Shiny" Stuff

Recognition for your students and team are an important part of competition.  We strive to provide meaningful and fitting awards for your students and sweepstakes awards to the top performing schools with your entry fees you provide us.  In an effort to recognize those that achieved outstanding success at the Holiday Havoc we are offering the following awards:

Sweepstakes: We will recognize the top 3 schools in two separate divisions (small entry and large entry) based on the total number of entries in the tournament as of the drop deadline of December 5. We will also recognize the top 3 schools overall in Squad Efficiency (total points divided by number of entries).

Speech Awards: Students advancing to the final round in all speech events will receive awards. If an event does not justify a final round due to low numbers, an appropriate number of students will still be recognized with awards.

Debate Awards:  Those advancing to the Gold/Silver round will receive awards for advancing to the elimination round.  In Congressional Debate we will recognize the top Presiding Officer in each preliminary chamber.  In debate we will recognize the top 3 speakers in each of the following formats (LD, PF, Worlds, Big Q, and Policy).

Critics Awards:  There will also be special recognition for outstanding judge ballots. Perhaps the most important part of a tournament is the feedback the students get from them.  The tab room staff will be selecting an appropriate number of judges that will be recognized at the awards ceremony for their meaningful and thoughtful contribution to our activity.

Tournament Information

Rules:  For information regarding the IHSAA Rules and Regulations that we follow for this tournament, please see the website at idhsaa.org under the "activities" tab.

Extemp:  We will use questions from October, November, and December 2018 for this tournament as students may choose from either International or Domestic questions in draw. 

Panel Discussion:  We will use 3 of the following topics in Panel Discussion prelims and 1 in the finals round (these are the same topics as the Canyon County Classic):

How are the results of the US midterm elections affecting and/or going to affect the US political sphere and climate? 

Should dress codes should be abolished in all US schools?

Should schools be focusing more on non-college related employment for high school students?

Does living in a dormitory help students assimilate into the college community or does it hurt the educational process?

Why is sexual education no longer taught as frequently it used to be in schools?

Debate Topics:  

Policy Debate:  We will use the 2018-2019 topic.

Public Forum:  We will use the November/December topic.

Lincoln Douglas:  We will use the November/December topic.

Worlds School Debate:  In prelims, we will have 2 rounds of impromptu topics and 2 rounds of prepared topics, alternating. The final round will be a prepared topic. 

Congressional Debate:  We will use Fall 2018 District 3 Congress Docket. For schools not in District 3, each school may submit 2 total pieces of legislation and should submit them on behalf of the school, not the student by signifying so at the bottom of the legislation.  The submission deadline is Friday, November 30, at 5:00 pm MST. Please submit them to jstoppenhagen@nsd131.org and the supplemental docket with additional legislation NOT from D3 will be e-mailed to the coaches no later than 5:00 pm on Saturday, December 1. 

Gold/Silver debate round:  The top entries in debate format will meet for the Gold and Silver awards.  Depending on judges and entry numbers in each format, there will an appropriate number of those participating based on the number of entries that would normally advance to outrounds.  IT IS IMPERITIVE that we have as many judges report for this round as possible so that we can offer as many of these rounds as possible. Gold/Silver rounds will be flighted in PF, LD, and Big Questions, and the remaining formats will be single-flighted. 

Parking:  School buses can drop off students at the south end of the school AND MUST vacate the area until after 3:00 pm.  They must drop the students as this is the same place where our students will be boarding buses after school lets out at 2:39 pm.  They can return to this lot after 3:00 pm.  Judges can park in the front lot on Happy Valley Rd and access the school through the front doors.

Concessions:  We will offer a good variety of food and beverages for student, coaches, and judges.  A Judges Lounge will provide dinner Friday evening, breakfast foods, lunch and dinner on Saturday, and lots of snacks and beverages throughout the weekend.  There are no fast food options near our school so we hope you will take advantage of our offerings.

Tab Room:  Tab room will be closed to anyone not part of the tournament staff.  To make this tournament run smoothly, it is expected that all coaches will serve in some aspect of running the event and therefore cannot act as judges to cover your entry.

Contestant Codes:  In an effort to get students used to anonymity in entries, we will use a combination of letters and numbers for your competitors for postings in speech and debate, where the system allows us to do so.  It is critical you share these with the competitors as soon as you get them and every effort will be made to e-mail those to all coaches on Thursday, December 6 so you can provide them ahead of time to make round 1 as easy as possible for all.    

Again, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at jstoppenhagen@nsd131.org. See you in December!