JUDGE REQUIREMENTS
All judges are expected to be available FOR THE ENTIRE TOURNAMENT. If you have judges splitting an assignment either for Friday and Saturday or even partial times during the day, Tabroom should automatically take this into account and accurately reflect your coverage. If you believe the calculated burden is incorrect, please email adhere@phssl.org to verify. Fees will be levied against schools that fail to cover their burden on all days.
Per Pennsylvania law, all judges must have a their Clearances. You can find instructions and requirements on the DHS website.
DEBATE EVENTS
Instructions for entering judges into Debate events:
- For each debate event, there will be one judge required per two entries (in a team event, two competitors constitute one entry).
- For an odd number of entries, an additional judge is still required to cover the extra entry (e.g. 3 entries in an event require 2 judges).
- Requirements DO NOT crossover between events, including Extemp Debate (a change from past years). For example, if you have 3 entries in Lincoln Douglas and 1 entry in Extemp Debate, you will need 2 judges to cover the 3 entries in Lincoln Douglas and 1 separate judge to cover the entry in Extemp Debate.
- Please rate all judges using the system on Tabroom. This will help us use judges with adequate experience in break rounds.
- In order to have adequate coverage, judges are typically used in multiple events (e.g. a Lincoln Douglas judge may be used in a Public Forum round). If there is a debate event that a particular judge does not feel comfortable judging, please indicate that in the judge notes section.
SPEECH & CONGRESS EVENTS
Instructions for entering judges into Speech and/or Congress events:
- There will be one judge required per three entries (in a team event, two competitors constitute one entry).
- To calculate the required number of judges, divide the total number of Speech and Congress entries by 3 and round up (e.g. 11 competitors in Speech would require 4 judges).
- Judge requirements crossover between all Speech and Congress events.
- Please rate all judges using the system on Tabroom. This will help us use judges with adequate experience in break rounds.
- In order to have adequate coverage, judges are typically used in multiple events (e.g. a Congress judge may be used in Speech rounds during their downtime). If there is an event-type (Speech or Congress, nothing more granular) that a judge does not feel comfortable judging, please indicate that in the judge notes section. A judge is unable to opt out of specific Speech events.
HIRED JUDGES
PHSSL will have a limited number of hired judges available for the State Championship. Please let us know ASAP because as we approach the start of the tournament, finding available judges becomes increasingly difficult.
The cost per judge is $250 and judges are available on a first come, first serve basis. If you need partial coverage (i.e. one day or a half-day because one of your existing judges is unable to cover the full tournament), a judge MAY be available at a pro-rated cost, but this is not guaranteed.
If judge coverage and/or hired judge costs are an issue, please reach out to jodif@phssl.org with details on your specific situation. PHSSL may grant exceptions and/or provide financial assistance to schools in need on a case-by-case basis.
JUDGE FINES
There will be a $75 fine per missed round. Tabroom sends both an email and a text message to all judges notifying them of their rounds. It is especially important that judges pay attention to round start times and check Tabroom for a round. Tournament officials are not responsible for judges not receiving blasts via texts or emails, so make sure judges are checking their emails (Tabroom text alerts seem to be a little problematic for some people, but emails have never been an issue).
Please ensure that your judge has the correct email and phone number on their account. Additionally, please make sure that your judges do not have the settings that block texts and emails from Tabroom. The setting is found on each person’s Tabroom profile (when logged into Tabroom, click on Profile at the very top next to your email address).
Schools are not responsible for fines on any hired judges. These fines may be levied by Tournament officials in order to keep track of missed rounds but the fines will not be imposed upon schools.