Congress legislation can be downloaded here.

Hello! Hello! IHSSA Debate Directors!

We are beyond excited to host your school at the 2024 IHSSA State Debate tournament this weekend, January 5/6. We are thrilled you are offering your students this forever opportunity! The tournament will be held at the Ankeny campus of DMACC. Building 5 will house the tournament headquarters. Please review this MAP of the campus.

Some reminders of rules/regulations for the IHSSA tournament:

1. SCHEDULE: Registration will be in building #5 (Student Center) between 10:30 - 11:15 on Friday. Round 1 of Policy, Lincoln-Douglas, and Public Forum begins at 12:30 pm on Friday. 

NEW this year: a required Public Forum for all coaches/judges at 11:30. 

Student Congress has a General Meeting at 12:30.  Also NEW this year: Four sessions of Student Congress. 

Saturday's first round for all events is at 8:00 am. 

Review the full schedule HERE.

2. JUDGES BOND: Each school MUST pay a refundable judges bond of $200. This bond must be received prior to the tournament or at registration. Please be professional and on time with your payment. The refund will occur after the completion of your school's judging obligation. This bond may be a separate school check or a personal check which will be held for return at the end of the tournament. If the bond is included in the entry fee, a check will be written for the refund amount. It will be mailed if not picked up.

3. IHSSA Constitution Rules: Please make certain you are familiar with the rules for the events found at this IHSSA CONSTITUTION Link. In addition here is the IHSSA POLICY regarding the USE OF AI LINK. Additional constitutional updates can be found HERE. 

4. ONLINE BALLOTS: PF, LD, and Policy judges will use online ballots through Tabroom.com; paper ballots will not be printed. Judges, please make sure you bring a laptop or tablet to complete your ballots! If you're new to online ballots, review this how-to sheet.

5. ONLINE PAIRINGS: Pairings for PF, LD, and Policy will be released online through Tabroom.com. Students can navigate to ihssa.tabroom.com and click the Pairings tab to see when and where they are debating.

6. PARADIGMS: Judges in Policy and Lincoln-Douglas must have a judging paradigm. Please log in to Tabroom and click "Paradigm" under the Judging header on the right side of your account. Answer the questions found on this form for Policy and this form for LD in your paradigm.

7. HIRING: We are hiring LD and Policy judges! Please email Lauren Burdt (lauren.burdt@speechanddebate.org) if you know judges available to be hired in those events. 

8. FOOD: Food options including vegetarian and gluten-free options will be available onsite by Johnston Booster Club will be serving food Friday from 12:00 NOON - 6:00 PM and also all day Saturday.  You are encouraged to support the Booster Club as they are filling a need for our IHSSA Family.  We appreciate their willingness to assist the IHSSA. Likewise, they will certainly appreciate your willingness to support them. 

9. PF JUDGING: In early January, we will split PF entries into two divisions. At that time, the Judges tab of your school's Tabroom registration will show that your school's judges are in a different division than your competitors. As long as your judging tab is not highlighted red, that means your obligation is covered and no action is needed! Feel free to reach out to Lauren to confirm you're all set if you have questions.

10. CHARACTER COUNTS: Please review with your students expectations about taking care of facilities and leaving things better than we found them.  We are most grateful to DMACC for their generous partnership with the IHSSA and hope to continue this relationship. 

Last reminder - don't forget to enter judges by the 11:59 pm deadline on December 19. 

In the spirit of speech education,

Lauren Burdt, IHSSA Debate Contest Manager & Stacy Hansen, IHSSA Executive Director