East Iowa District Qualifier

for the 2026 National Tournament

Congress Requirements

The District Congress tournament is an important event for our District, as it is another chance to qualify students to attend the National tournament. The Congress tournament will be held February 21st at Grinnell High School.

In order to participate, a few guidelines must be met. These requirements are broken down by category: school, student, and entry guidelines.

School Requirements (Same as District IE/Debate)

Student Requirements (Same as District IE/Debate)

Entry Guidelines

Now that schools and students are registered and eligible to compete, there are some additional guidelines on what you can enter at the District Congress tournament. Here are the most important points:

1. Single Entry Intent Form – No student may double enter at the National Tournament. Therefore, each student must submit a Single Entry Letter of Intent, and the preferences should be part of the registration process on Tabroom.

Please ensure this is completed prior to the District Congress tournament date. If students are also double entering in IE/Debate, their preferences need to be completed prior to that tournament and should include Congress in their order of preference.

2. Entry Limts– Each event is capped at 2 entries per school in the Senate and a certain number of entries in the House. A school may enter as many entries as they can, based on their degree strength. You can verify how many entries you are allowed by visiting your profile on the NSDA website. You can verify how many House/Senate "slots" are available for your school strength on page 91 of the District Manual.

3. Congress Specific Rules - Here are some additional, Congress specific details:

A. Legislation - Each school is asked to send in at least 2 bills or resolutions by January 27. Each bill/resolution must be formatted properly. All schools must use Google Docs to make copy and pasting easier! All legislation must be the original work of students from the submitting school. Templates for legislation can be found at:

https://www.speechanddebate.org/legislation-templates/

On that page, just click on the "Templates" link for Google Docs for help with formatting. Google docs format must be used for ease of copying. Schools will receive legislation and it will be posted on a tab on the right at least 2 weeks prior to the tournament.

B. Time Allowances and Sessions - A district must offer at least two rounds, one of which must be a final round. If a district has only one chamber in a division (Senate or House), the scores from all rounds shall cumulatively determine placement and advancement to the National Tournament; a final round is not required. When planning the schedule, each round must include at least ten minutes per student in a chamber. For example, a round with 20 students in each chamber must be at least 200 minutes long. However, if there are 25 or more students in a chamber, the district may choose to hold four hour rounds instead. We will determine the exact time allowed after registration closes.

C. Judges - Schools should submit one judge. Each chamber will have 2 judges per session. In addition, each chamber will have a Parliamentarian who is there to keep the chamber running smoothly and will holistically rank all students at the end of the last preliminary round. We will still aim to have judges be unaffiliated with students in the room.

D. Senate Guidelines - In order to hold a Senate, where 2 students from the chamber qualify for Nationals, 6 schools are required to be present and active, as well as 10 students or more total (this is a change from previous years). If there are not 6 schools present and active at the tournament, a Senate cannot be held. If a Senate is held, 2 qualifiers will attend Nationals.

E. House Guidelines - Each District can hold as many Houses as their entry count justifies. In each House, 16-29 students in the chamber qualify two students. When you have more than 29 entries, you hold 2 Houses and advance to finals to determine the appropriate amount of qualifiers. NOTE: Each House must have a minimum of 16 students to qualify a student to Nationals.

Recency and Direct Questioning

Preset, randomized recency will be used in every round of Congressional Debate at the National Tournament. All district tournaments must use preset, randomized recency in Congressional Debate.

Direct questioning will be used in every round of Congressional Debate at the National Tournament. All district tournaments must use direct questioning in Congressional Debate.

The preset, randomized recency chart is reset for each new session using the preset recency supplied by tournament officials. The preset recency chart should be used in order for speeches and in reverse order for questioning.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hq7-DE6ls2ryVtOttxR4BNpRdP7xUbBr0M3SMYefek8/edit?usp=sharing