District Dates Form is Open Now!

Before the District Dates Form is completed in Tabroom.com by the district chair, the whole committee should review and consider the following options and policies:

Each district should offer all events (PF, LD, CX, BQ, DI, HI, DUO, INF, POI, OO, IX, USX) as part of the initial tournament registration. When registration closes, if an event doesn’t meet the minimum requirements, a qualifier for that event will not be held as part of the district series. District Committees should at that point let students register for other events where permitted by the Unified Manual.
When you're scheduling dates, remember that the Last-Chance Qualifier is being held April 25-27, 2024, and registration closes April 19. If your district's schools are interested in participating in the Last-Chance Qualifier, make sure your tournament is complete before these dates.
Providing everyone with a tournament experience that is welcoming, safe, and free from harassment and discrimination is a shared responsibility and intrinsic to this organization. Again this year, we encourage all districts to have a Belonging and Inclusion Station (BIS) as part of their district tournament series. The Belonging and Inclusion Station is a tournament resource designed to provide interpersonal support to participants who feel excluded from an aspect of the tournament. The BIS also safeguards against potential violations of the NSDA Harassment and Discrimination policy. We have modified the BIS to make it easier for districts to appoint a Belonging and Inclusion Advocate (BIA) and make the BIS more approachable. These changes include a heavier focus on teaching and healing and recommendations on how BIAs can serve as judges. We have also created a more user-friendly BIS Development and Implementation Guide. If you’re on the fence about having a BIS, Dr. Paul Porter would be happy to chat with you about this resource. Please contact him at paul.porter@speechanddebate.org.
As part of the District Dates Form, each district is asked to name an accessibility contact. An accessibility contact is someone coaches, judges, students, and/or guests may contact if they have questions or concerns about access or wellness before and/or during the tournament. If you have a Belonging and Inclusion Advocate, you could ask them to serve as the accessibility contact as well. For more information, please contact Dr. Paul Porter at paul.porter@speechanddebate.org.
Each district has the option to select and present a variety of awards as part of their district tournament series. When you complete your District Dates Form, chairs will be asked to select which honors you would like to award. Five of the optional awards are district-to-national level awards. This means that the person recognized at the district level will also be considered for the national-level award. Those five awards are: Coach of the Year, New Coach of the Year, Assistant Coach of the Year, Administrator of the Year, and Student of the Year. You’ll find the nomination forms for each of these awards on the District Leader Forms & Manuals page. Districts also may choose to present three local-only awards: Volunteer of the Year, Communicator of the Year, and Alum of the Year.
District Committees may choose to tabulate their tournament using Tabroom.com or SpeechWire. If you select to use Tabroom.com, the tabulation fee will be waived. If you select to use Tabroom.com and use NSDA Campus rooms for online competition spaces, the district will have to purchase NSDA Campus rooms at the rate of $8 per room per day. If you choose to use NSDA Campus rooms with Observers, the rate per room per day is $14.