How to Join

Overview

The Fairview Speech and Debate team is an after-school extracurricular activity, which provides students with an amazing opportunity to challenge themselves academically, achieve personal growth, and improve their critical thinking, argumentative, and communications skills. The team has experienced immense past success including numerous state champions and finalists based on the passion and work students commit to the team. Our firm belief, however, is that more is gained through simple participation than winning trophies. As such, while practices may seem short, coaches and volunteers meet students where they are -- providing as much challenge and feedback as students are willing to take on.

The Fairview Speech and Debate team is open to all students regardless of grade. Many students participate on the team while also being involved in band and numerous sports.

Practice

Practice is every Thursday from 4-6pm from September - April, with students interested in staying for additional practice rounds and instruction able to stay later. Practice begins each week with the first 20 minutes devoted to an "Extemp Quiz" on the most recent current events of the week and administrative tasks such as registering for tournaments, going over transportation, and discussing fundraisers. Then, students break into their "event groups" (see side for events) and, depending on the week, will have taught lessons presented by coaches or captains, run practice rounds, or use time to research and write cases.

For the 2023 - 2024 season, we are meeting in person beginning in room 660. 

Tournaments

While students may absolutely participate in speech and debate by just attending practice, we encourage students to attend tournaments where they can really apply their skills and meet new challenges. Each year the month of October is reserved for Novice Competitive Season during which time only students who are new to speech and debate may compete. Then Varsity Season is from November-April each year. The team competes in both Northern Colorado and Denver and typically there is a tournament available every weekend.

In addition to regular tournaments, there are several special tournaments held throughout the year:

• State Tournament (Early to Mid March)

• National Speech & Debate Qualifiers (typically Late March or Early April)

• National Speech & Debate National Tournament (June)

Travel

For select groups of students who demonstrate outstanding commitment to speech and debate, the team also offers travel opportunities to highly competitive tournaments outside of Colorado. In the past students have attended the Harvard Invitational Tournament, the Stanford Invitational Tournament, and Berkeley Tournament.

Events

There are three main types of events: debate, speaking and interpretation. Read about all of them here. Students typically compete in more than one type of event and can "double enter" at tournaments.

Team Agreement

When joining students agree to our team agreement, which states:

By joining the Fairview Speech and Debate team I acknowledge and understand that I am joining an activity and community that is focused on learning and growth, and I am committed to creating an inclusive, positive team environment. I will be respectful and considerate of other members of the team and members of the community including coaches, judges, and students at other schools. I will follow policies and guidelines set forth by coaches and the school. 

I understand that I am responsible for my own participation in the activity and that what I get out of the activity relates to the effort I am willing to put in. I take ownership for my attendance at practice and tournaments as well as my preparation; I will communicate proactively if I need to miss a tournament or would like additional support and resources. As part of participation, I will participate in regular team activities like reading the news, trying new events, and supporting fundraising events.

Team Policies

1. Permission slips and team sign-up forms must be received prior to competition. 

2. Read and follow weekly team announcements and any plans or requirements for participation in tournaments. 

3. Compete with the team only at tournaments where a Fairview Coach is present unless otherwise agreed.

4. Register for tournaments by deadlines provided and actively contribute to recruiting and sourcing judges.

5. Do not make changes to the registration on behalf of other students if you have not been asked to do so. 

6. Communicate with fellow students and coaches appropriately and respectfully.

7. Cover judging for 50% of the tournaments attended. This can include providing a parent judge or adult volunteer, hiring a judge, or making a donation. (Note that because we must provide actual judges only a limited number of donation-covered entries will be accepted per tournament.)

8. As applicable: travel to tournaments with the team. If group travel is not arranged: notify a coach before leaving any tournament and only leave with a parent or guardian or with a prearranged speech and debate carpool.

Forms

STEP 1: Attend practice in person from 4-6pm on Thursdays in room 660 to receive information about joining the team communication platform. 

STEP 2: Complete the 2023 - 2024 Fairview Speech & Debate Team Member Form with a parent. 

• Included in this form you will submit a permission slip for the whole season. 

• Note: for online activities or meetings, students agreed to online involvement and tools through use of their BVSD emails.

STEP 3: Save and bookmark the team dashboard and student resources folder.  

• Once students and parents have completed the Team Member Form, they will receive access to a team dashboard (Google spreadsheet) that contains important links, weekly announcements, team information like the carpool roster, and tournament registration details. 

• Students also receive access to a student resource folder that they will use to work with fellow students, captains, and coaches. 

STEP 4: NEW MEMBERS - Create Accounts -- These are so you can compete at tournaments and receive points!

• Account #1: Create an account on https://speechanddebate.org/. See top right for "Member Login" and then click "register". Use an email you check! Look for the verification email and then ask to join the Fairview team,

• Account #2: Create an account on https://www.tabroom.com/. See top right to begin the process. Select "non-NSDA member" and then make sure you verify your email when you get the email! Please use the same email as on your top account. 

Parents

Parents are asked to attend our in-person parent meeting. For the 2023-2024 school year this is planned at 6pm on Thursday, September 28, at 6:00pm at Fairview HS in room 660.

The Speech & Debate community relies on generous volunteers and paid judges to adjudicate speech and debate rounds. Without judges there would be no tournaments. Because of this, we are asking our team members and families to commit to covering judges for 50% of the tournaments attended by their student.

If a parent cannot judge, another adult may also volunteer, a hired judge can be sought, or a team donation can be made. We understand that this might not work for all families; however, without judging support we are unable to attend tournaments. Coaches will do our best to recruit community judges and provide additional ways for families to support judging efforts when they cannot volunteer. We also understand if plans change and will do our best to offer flexibility and fairness with this process. 

Coaches truly love speech and debate and are committed to doing everything we can to help get students to tournaments. We need support from parents and families and hope you'll learn a lot judging!

Voluntary Donation

We also ask students and families consider a donation to cover the cost of tournaments. This will help offset the cost of tournaments which must purchase online debate software and future transportation needs. Typically we encourage a donation of $50 per student for those going 1-2 tournaments a month and $100 for those going every weekend. You can make a donation online using RevTrack: https://bvsd.revtrak.net/high-schools/fhs/fhs-clubs-and-extracurriculars/#/v/fah-speech-and-debate-team

What if I cannot attend on Thursdays? That's okay! We have several students that have sports, band, choir, whatever, during our normal practice time. You can still compete with the team, but you'll need to figure out what event you are interested in and get connected to captains. We also encourage you to try to come to whatever part of practice you can attend so you can meet other members of the team. 

If you can only come to part of practice, try to come at the beginning: 4:00 - 4:30pm.

What if I cannot attend every month? That's okay! We know some sports seasons go until November or start in February. You get out of this event what you put in so we highly encourage you to come to as many tournaments as possible, but many former students have joined halfway through the year or only attended half the year. 

Note: if you are new to the team we highly recommend you compete in October season, this is novice season when only new students can compete. It's absolutely doable not to join until November, but we find most new students prefer attending at least one October tournament.

Can I compete in more than one event? Yes! We encourage all students to compete in more than one event. Typically this is one event from each of the categories: debate, speaking, and interpretation; however, you can choose to do two speaking events or two interps! Competing in two debate events can be difficult. 

Keep in mind: different tournaments have different rules for events so sometimes you may not be able to "double enter" in your preferred two events. This means we encourage you to be flexible and try new things, and double whenever possible. 

Do I have to compete in more than one event? While we highly encourage you to participate in more than one event, you are not obligated to do so. In very unique circumstances we may ask students to "fill" in an event, meaning help meet entry requirements for a given event. In these instances we encourage students to take the event seriously and prepare to their best ability.

How does tournament selection work? Most tournaments will limit us on the total number of entries we can have per event. Sometimes this is to ensure they have enough rooms; for virtual tournaments this is to ensure they have enough judges. Because of this we may need to select students for competition spots. In general we will look at overall engagement with the team: this includes coming to practice prepared, past attendance at tournaments, and engagement with compiling team resources. For highly competitive tournaments we will also consider competitive record and seniority.