Team Requirements

The annual membership fee for the North Meck Debate and Speech Team will be a set amount determined by the booster club. The membership fee covers mandatory regular season tournament registrations, optional tournaments are not covered. Each booster member is expected to volunteer as a judge for a minimum of two tournaments. A $50 dollars volunteer judging credited is applied to the student member’s account (up to the season membership fee). If the team has reached its coaching obligation for any tournament, further judge signups will not be accepted. For this reason, judges are accepted on a first-come first-served basis. Members are encourage to provide judges throughout the season but after the membership fee is covered, further credits will not be applied to the member’s account.

All team members are required to attend each mandatory one day tournament as well as the State Championship. Students will be entered into their chosen event automatically when tournament registration opens. Students will be permitted to switch their event with the HEAD COACH upon availability. Each member is allowed four tournament drops per year. There is no financial credit for dropping a tournament.
Debaters must have both (aff and neg) written cases completed by the Tuesday before a tournament occurs.
Each debater (or partnership) must participate in at least one practice round of debate before they attend the first tournament for each topic as recorded by the coaching staff.
Speech members must practice their speech at least two times per after-school practice as recorded by the coaching staff. At least one of these practice speeches must be conducted with an audience of peers or coaches/ adults who can provide useful criticism.
Every team member is required to volunteer or contribute to the annual Viking Classic Tournaments.

Fee Schedule

Debate Competitors season fee is $350

Speech Competitors season fee is $400

All members are expected to attend all regular tournament competition. A surcharge for overnight or extended (more than one day) tournaments may be added to the seasonal fee for mandatory tournaments for those who attend as determined by the booster club.

Payments

All payments should be paid online via PayPal. Payment is due in full on September 21. If you are unable to make payment in full please submit payments in installments per the installment payment schedule. If you join the team after September 21st please submit payment for seasonal member fee when you turn in your application.

1st Installment $150 is due on September 21st or when new member application is submitted
2nd Installment $100 is due on November 1st
Final Installment $100 (Debate) or $150 (Speech) is due on January 3rd

Auxiliary Team Members

Any North Meck student may join the team as an auxiliary member. Auxiliary members pay for tournaments on an ad hoc basis with NO subsidy from the boosters.

Note

Any non- required (optional) tournaments (as listed) will subsidized for regular team members for an amount determined by the Booster Club. Auxiliary members will have to pay full price for all tournaments entries (minimum fee is $50).

Team Categories

Novice

“Novice” is defined by most tournaments as a first year competitor. For the purpose of team organization, a “novice” is a member who has not yet accumulated enough NFL (National Forensic League) points (25) to become a NFL member. Novices may attend “novice” competitions on the mandatory schedule. Novice categories are available at most “open” tournaments (mostly in debate events). First year competitors will be switched over to “open” categories as the season progresses, based on their competitive improvement and the judgment of the coaching staff.

Varsity

Any member in their second or more year of competition is considered “varsity”. First year competitors who have become an NFL members and whom the coaching staff considers sufficiently experienced shall also be considered “varsity”.