About

The Ohio Speech & Debate Association (OSDA) and its partners will collaboratively create and foster speech and debate competition and education, promoting effective communicators, critical thinkers, and ethical leaders.

Inclusivity

We will provide access, opportunities, and resources to all participants to create a sense of inclusion and belonging within a supportive community.

Excellence

We will endeavor to be our very best and make the most of our opportunities.

Integrity

We will conduct ourselves consistently with honesty and with an unwavering sense of ethics.

Voice

We will celebrate the unique perspectives of members and encourage the respectful expression of ideas in our organization.

Growth

We will continuously strive to improve ourselves and our community through our participation in the OSDA.

The Ohio Speech & Debate Association (formerly the Ohio High School Speech League) is a non-profit organization of public, private, and parochial high schools and middle schools in Ohio and is organized exclusively for educational purposes.  The purpose of this organization shall include, as far as personnel, facilities, and finances permit, these major objectives:

• To provide guidance and aid to Ohio high school and middle school directors of debate, speech, and drama, henceforth referred to as forensics, in the development of their curricular and co-curricular work in those areas.

• To provide opportunities for the effective speech training of high school students as outlined below.

• To encourage practice tournaments throughout the state.

• To supervise the conducting of BQS, PDQ, District and State Tournament in competitive communicative arts.

• To recognize excellence of performance at these tournaments.

Since its activities in promoting interscholastic forensics competition are educationally sound, worthy, and timely, and contribute directly to the educational, civic, social, and ethical development of the students involved, this organization endorses the guiding principles and criteria established by the Activities Committee of the Ohio Association of Secondary School Administrators.

The objectives of the forensics training opportunities provided by this organization include:

• Educational development - to develop the skills of analysis, research, critical thinking, and informative and persuasive communication, understanding and appreciation of literature, oral interpretation of literary, dramatic, and oratorical selections.

• Civic development - to develop understanding of public issues on local, national, and global levels, to prepare for the responsible exercise of citizenship rights and duties, especially to prepare for articulate and informed civic leadership.

• Social development - to develop better understanding and tolerance among students of different schools and communities, to stimulate interest in the solving of social problems, to develop well-balanced personalities in competitive situations.

• Ethical development - to develop personal qualities of truthfulness, fairness, and tolerance in bearing the ethical responsibility of public speakers to be honest, and to learn to win or lose graciously.

The Ohio Speech and Debate Association is comprised of the membership of Ohio high schools and directed by a Board of Directors and an Executive Director. 

All matters of basic OSDA policy shall be determined by the Board of Directors, which consists of twelve members elected by one voting representative of each member school. This voting representative shall be an active coach or forensics director, as designated on the registration. Only a debate, speech, drama coach, or forensics director so designated shall be eligible for nomination to the Board of Directors. 

The Board of Directors shall elect a Chair, Secretary, and Financial Secretary for a term of one year or until their successors are elected. This election shall take place at the first meeting after the Board election results are known. No Board member may serve more than three consecutive terms in any one of the aforementioned offices. 

The Board is accountable directly to Association schools, and any Board member may be removed by a majority vote of member schools. 

The Executive Director shall be appointed by the Board of Directors to serve for a period of one year. The Executive Director will administer the work of the OSDA and attend Board meetings. 

Annual membership fees, the State Tournament fees, and other monies received by the Association shall constitute a fund known as The Ohio Speech and Debate Association Fund. 

The Financial Secretary shall provide to the members of the Board the reports of the financial situation of the Association at regularly scheduled meetings. The Executive Director and Financial Secretary shall submit an annual written report of receipts and expenditures at the close of each school year to the Board of Directors and to the members of the OSDA. 

Q: What is the Ohio Speech and Debate Association? 

A: It is a non-profit organization of high schools in Ohio which field a competitive forensic program. Public, private and parochial high schools are eligible to join. Junior high schools may join if ninth grade is "housed" in the junior high, but only ninth graders may compete. 

Q: Who runs the Association? 

A: A Board of Directors of twelve active coaches is elected by the head coaches of the member schools; this is a voluntary position with a term of office of three years. There is a part-time Executive Director who runs the day-to-day operation of the Association; the Executive Director is reimbursed for his/her expenses. 

Q: What is a forensic program? 

A: This activity involves four types of debate and nine types of speech events in competition among schools. Each coach determines for himself/herself what events he wants to coach; some schools just compete in debate, some just in speech events. 

Q: What are these events? 

A: The four types of debate are 2-Person Policy Debate; Lincoln-Douglas Debate; Public Forum Debate; and Congressional Debate. The nine types of Speech Events are International Extemporaneous Speaking; U.S. Extemporaneous Speaking; Original Oratory; Declamation; Informative Speaking; Duo Interpretation; Humorous Interpretation; Dramatic Interpretation; and Program Oral Interpretation. 

Q: Where can I find information about these events? 

A. Our Web site (under "Manuals") contains the OSDA Tournament Events Manual with descriptions of these categories and information on how to coach and judge these categories. Judge Ballots and Critique Sheets can be found under "Judging". The Association has a good network of coaches helping beginning coaches. The Association hosts an annual one-day coaches' workshop in the fall and, periodically, a longer summer workshop. 

Q: What costs are involved for the schools? 

A: Membership in the OSDA has an annual fee of $125, due by November 1 or before a team competes at its first OSDA tournament.  Each tournament requires a participation fee for each student; the tournament host sets those fees, anywhere from $3 per student at the beginning of the season to $17 for State Tournament. Coaches may have to pay their judges, either a negotiated flat fee or a per-round fee. Coaches may have to purchase materials for their teams or pay transportation costs to tournaments. These are the minimum expenses. (Note: Because of the OSDA Endowment Fund, it may be possible to waive the membership fees for the first year for a new school program.) 

Q: What kind of monetary support does the OSDA have? 

A: Membership fees provide the bulk of the budget for OSDA. There are also fees for the State Tournament. Individual donations can be made to the Endowment Fund, which was created to provide security for the Association, help new programs by paying their membership fees the first year, help existing programs that may have problems, and provide $100-scholarships to seniors at the State Tournament. 

Q: How does a school join the OSDA? 

A: Once the school board and principal give permission for a school to have a forensic program and select a coach, the coach can then go to the "Member Schools" link to learn more about applying for OSDA Membership through SpeechWire. There is also information regarding the OSDA New Program Grant on that page. 

Q: Where can I get more information? 

A: Contact Alan Bates, OSDA Board Chair. You may also contact any of the members of the Board of Directors listed on the "Leadership" page.