2025 Carry the TORCH

Your participation is what helps us host these tournaments. Without your active involvement, we wouldn't be successful. Because of this need, please review the following parameters and reach out with any issues or questions.

Requirements

1. Competitors must be accompanied by a parent or adult chaperone who is available to judge for the entire tournament. Your student will not be able to check-in at the tournament without an accompanying parent or adult chaperone. Each parent will be responsible for judging at least 3 rounds. We appreciate all parents who are willing to judge more than their requirements as it will allow our tournament to run smoothly and on time.

2. If a parent cannot attend, prior approval and an alternative contribution must be arranged with the tournament director for the student to participate.

3. To meet the tournament's judging needs, each out-of-town chaperone may only cover 2 students. Exception is granted to families with more than two children.

4. Community and alumni judges will be given priority. If there is not a ballot for you when you arrive at Ballot Push, please do not assume that you are not needed for future rounds. You may be needed to judge a round that you did not sign up for due to unexpected circumstances. Parents, please remain in the ballot push area until all ballots have been handed out in case you need to be called on to judge due to unexpected circumstances. Timeliness will help us keep the tournament on schedule.

5. Please be mindful of judging conflicts. Be advised that coaches and parents cannot judge their own students, and they may not judge a debate team (in the same event) twice during the tournament. If you have a close personal relationship/friendship with, are related to, or have coached a competitor, we ask that you do not judge that individual.

6. Please study the Stoa Speech and Debate Judge Training slides for the 2024-2025 season located here:

Tournament Resources | StoaUSA

If a parent is unable to fulfill this duty, please contact the tournament director to explain the circumstances and ask for permission to register without a designated judge. Please email us at (elizabeth.d.bell@gmail.com) (This exception will be given only to a limited number of students, first come, first served.)

Thank you for your commitment to these students. We hope that you have a great tournament!

Sincerely,
TORCH Speech and Debate Club