Congrats Finalists: (In preset recency order)

A warm invitation is extended to all Wisconsin schools to enter the Wisconsin Forensic Coaches Association State Congress, held IN-PERSON at the Wisconsin State Capitol Building in Madison on April 5, 2024.

Important Dates:

Legislation Due March 22 @ 11:00 pm (see requirements below)

Legislation Posted by 3 pm on March 25. If it is available sooner, an announcement email will be sent to registered teams at the time of posting.

Registration (students and judges) due and fees/judge burdens fixed April 3 @ 7 pm.

Chamber Groupings and PO requests April 4 @ 5 pm (late groupings will result in random assignment).

Prelim Schedule Friday 4/5:
Location Wisconsin State Capitol, Madison, WI.

8:00 am Capitol opens. Registration in upper Rotunda
8:45 am Opening Meeting/Announcements, proceed to chambers
9:00-11:15 Session 1
11:30-1:30 Session 2
1:30-2:45 Lunch on your own, finals postings online ASAP
2:45-5:30 Finals, awards at Sun Prairie West on Saturday
5:40 Senate Chamber closes
6:00 Capitol closes

Legislation: Please submit in pdf format. Two items per school, unique to the students of the submitting school and the current school year. One should be designated as the priority bill for prelims, the other will be used to create a reserve docket and will be considered for potential selection for use in finals by a committee of current/former coaches not affiliated with participating teams. Coaches are responsible for ensuring legislation complies with formatting requirements or it may be rejected without ability to resubmit. Legislation must be one page, minimum 11pt type, double-spaced, and with line numbers. All legislation should be submitted via tabroom or can be emailed to Tim Schefflertimscheff@aol.com

Section size: 13-25 participants as designated by the rules. Schools may submit groupings of students who will be randomly assigned to chambers. Random assignments may be hand adjusted to evenly distribute students who are pre-nominated to be presiding-officers and create even numbers of entries per chamber. Chambers will not be re-balanced to account for entries dropped less than 24 hours prior to the start of the event.

Entries: Schools may enter up to 16 entries.

Judges: One judge is required per school. All judges are obligated through then end of the event, including the final round. Judges comfortable with being parliamentarians should be identified in advance. Judges must be 18 months removed from high school. Nominations for the adult PO in finals (a coach or former competitor, including a first year out) are also appreciated.

Fees: $10 per entry, amounts will be added to the final invoices in speechwire for forensics entries and sent by the WFCA Treasurer post-tournament.

Important highlights of Congress procedures for Tournament day:

1. Docket - Created by committee of one representative per school. Schools present in the chamber who want to author their priority bill have the right to have their bill debated before priority bills without authors present and reserve bills.
2. PO - Each chamber has 3-4 individuals who pre-nominated for PO. If all 4 wish to PO (each getting a 1 hour block of time) there are no nominations from the floor. If there are less than 4, nominations can be taken for the empty spots. If there are less than 4 those POing may determine how time presiding should be split. POs should determine their order among themselves (with parli assistance if agreement is elusive).
3. Precedence/Recency - Speeches - Parlis have a tab where they should be able to view and share the preset order with their POs. Precedence and recency DO NOT reset between sessions. POing does not count as a speech for precedence/recency purposes. Questions - POs should use precedence (number of questions) but do not need to track recency to allow for a faster session.
4. Time and Question - 3 minute speeches, First Aff/Neg get 2:00 min questions, all other speeches get :30. Questioning is direct in :30 blocks. Motions to suspend the rules on speech/questioning time are not permitted. In finals subsequent speeches get 1:00 questioning.
5. Advancing - An equal number must advance from each chamber. Ideal number advancing is 12. A statistically unlikely unbreakable tie for 4th place in a chamber could result in only 9 advancing.