2026 Silicon Valley Spark

Thank you so much for volunteering as a Community Judge! Your investment of time for these students is MUCH appreciated! They value your feedback about their speeches.

Sign-up form: https://stoahub.org/tournament/silicon-valley-speech-tournament-2025/communityjudgeregistration

First Time Judging Speech and Debate?

Here are some things you can expect. All of the following will take approximately three hours total.

1. Training

- NO experience is necessary! REALLY! Judges just need to be 18 or older and a high school graduate.
- You will go to a Judge Orientation room upon arrival; people will be available to answer any questions you might have before the round.
- If you are coming Saturday, you can watch a 20-minute orientation video before you come.

2. Getting ballots for the event you will judge

• Most Community Judges are brand new to this and don't have any preference for which event they judge. We will assign judges to speech or debate events on a first-come, first-served basis. If you would like to find out more about the 12 speech events and the 2 debate events (TP and LD, not Parli) we will offer, you can visit this link. This link also shows the 12 speech events.
• If you come Friday to judge a debate event, you will watch 1 debate and write comments. You will receive one ballot for the debate.
• If you come Saturday to judge a speech event, there will usually be between 5 and 8 students in the room you will be judging, and you will receive a ballot for each individual.
• You will receive feedback forms (called ballots) sometime after you arrive--before, after, or during Judge Orientation.

3. Watch the round

- This is the fun part! You get to watch the speakers, take notes on their ballots, and enjoy their presentations!
- For speech on Saturday, you will have 2 minutes in between speakers to make notes on their ballots.

4. Fill out ballots after the round

- You will take your ballots to the Judges’ Lounge to complete your comments to these students and include your rankings.

Notes:
- 3-3.5 hour time commitment
- Coffee, tea, and snacks available for you!
- There'll be some times when you might be waiting to get a ballot or waiting for a student to come to the room.
- After you judge, we welcome you to judge another round if you are interested!

Time slots:

When you sign up, the time slots listed are for the students.  However, you are needed before for training, and after for writing feedback. The Community Judge Registration page shows the actual times you are needed. Enjoy snacks while you finalize your ballots!

Thank you so much for your consideration and your investment in the next generation of speakers!

Sign up here: https://stoahub.org/tournament/silicon-valley-speech-tournament-2026/communityjudgeregistration

Questions? Email judges.sv@legacyspeechclub.com