TECH & CONNECTIVITY POLICY
Debate Events:
Competitors will be afforded up to 10 minutes of technology time during the round. Please be patient as any issues are addressed. Competitors are permitted to rejoin and continue where they were in a speech at the time of any technology issues. If issues cannot be addressed within 10 minutes, the competitor risks disqualification. Consult with the tab staff before disqualifying a student due to technology issues.
Speech Events:
If a student’s technology drops out, they will be afforded an opportunity to rejoin the room and continue WHERE THEY DROPPED OUT. If students are in the room; however, cannot rejoin by the end of the round (minimum sixty minutes, but no more than ninety minutes from the start of the round), they should be ranked last. If you are waiting on a student to return, and time has elapsed, please dismiss the other students and keep your window open until the ninety minute mark has been reached.
Congress Events:
If a competitor loses connection/has a tech issue while speaking, they will be afforded up to 10 minutes of technology time. Competitors may rejoin and continue where they were in the speech at the time of any technology issues. If issues cannot be addressed within 10 minutes, the speaker will be permitted back into the session, but may not complete the interrupted speech. The session should continue to move forward if 10 minutes have passed and the speaker has not rejoined the room.
If a competitor loses connection during a session, but was not actively speaking at the time, the chamber will pause debate at a natural pause point (i.e. between pro/con speeches, before opening debate on next piece of legislation) for 5-10 minutes (depending on when issue occurred and when the natural break could happen) to allow time to resolve the tech issue. After that time, the session will continue. The student may still rejoin the session after the 10 minutes have elapsed.
