National Forensics League

All Bellingham school District debaters must be registered with the National Forensics League. The coach will register new members for the one-time $10 fee lifetime membership.

The National Forensic League is the leading educational resource for teachers, students, administrators, and parents in the exciting field of speech and debate education. With over 2,700 member schools and 90,000 active student members, the NFL is continuously striving towards the goal of promoting the art of speech and debate. In doing so, they provide educational opportunities, honors, scholarships, and awards that recognize students at local, regional, and national levels. The NFL has an 80 year tradition of "Training Youth for Leadership." (Information from www.NFLonline.org  )

 

History

Founded May 25, 1925, the NFL hosted the first national high school speech tournament in 1930 with 49 schools from 17 states. By and large the rules that governed that tournament are still in effect today providing one of the longest running national competitions for high school students. Approximately 1 million high school students have been members of the NFL since 1925. Well over 30,000 high school students participate in NFL certified events every year. The National Tournament for 2006 was held in Texas.

The NFL hosts the U.S. national high school forensics tournament annually in the US, attracting over 3000 high school students to compete for national honors in a wide variety of events.

All the above events are NFL-sponsored events which one can compete in at the NFL National Tournament. Students qualify for competition in the national tournament through competition in NFL-sanctioned district tournaments. Each district sends one, two (or, rarely, more) students in each event based on the number of entrants in that event. The rules for running a district tournament are published in the National Forensic League Manual, which include strict dress code requirements for all participants.

National Tournament

During June of each year, the National Forensic League holds a National Tournament. In order to participate in this tournament, student must qualify through their home district's qualifying tournament. The competitors in this tournament are believed to be the best forensic students in the nation. Each year, the tournament is held in a different location in the United States. The location in which the tournament is held is determined through a bidding process similar to that of the Olympic Games.

 

The Rostrum

The Rostrum is the official monthly magazine of the National Forensic League. The magazine was originally titled the Bulletin, which was first published in 1926. Since its creation, the Rostrum has evolved into a forum for debate education and news, soliciting articles from coaches and debaters. The Rostrum is a popular place for [[debate camps] and brief companies to place their advertisements, supporting the magazine which is free to all NFL members.

 

Points

Those who participate in competitive forensics earn points for their efforts. In the debate events, a win in a round is worth six points while a loss is worth three. In the speech events, there are three point brackets; original speeches, worth six points, interpretation events, worth five points, and speaking events, worth four points. Six point events include Extemporaneous Speaking, Original Oratory, and Expository; first place in one of these rounds earns a competitor six points, second earns the competitor five, third earns four, etc. Five point events include Prose, Poetry, Humorous Interpretation, Dramatic Interpretation, and Dual Interpretation. The four point event category is reserved for events like Impromptu Speaking.

National Forensic League Points (NFL points) are employed in the scoring system used by the National Forensic League to rank competitors' lifetime progress, and to determine how many competitors a school may register in an NFL District Tournament.

In debate events, the winner (or both members of the winning team) each earn six points, and the loser earns three.

 

Members can only earn up to 750 points in each of the three areas of competition: debate, speaking events (original oratory, extemporaneous speaking and the interpretative events), and Student Congress. Points earned at NFL District Tournaments and the NFL National Tournament are not subject to the 750-point cap. The point limit was raised in 2004 from 500 points.

Members can also earn "service points", which accrue for certain activities outside of speech competition. Delivering speeches before audiences of twenty-five or more adults, for instance, earns a fixed number of service points.

As a member accumulates points, they earn NFL degrees. Each degree corresponds to the jewel pattern of an NFL pin which the degree-holder is authorized to wear, and to a seal which will be placed on the degree-holder's diploma. The following are the Membership Degrees:

 

 

 

Point Archive: Coach/Instructor

School Instructors also receive points, which are dependent upon their students' performances. The instructor receives 1/10 of a point for each point received by one of the instructor's students. The better the team, the better recognition of the instructor. Instructors follow the exact same degree as students; however, an instructor receives a diamond after accumulating point totals of 1,500, 3,000 and every 3,000 points thereafter. All instructor points are dependent upon the performance of the instructor's team, although the coach or coaches decide how to award accumulated coaching points among themselves.

 

Membership

According to the National Forensic League, any participating high school student who has attained 25 points becomes a member of the organization. However, this new member is required to pay a $10 lifetime fee. Even though membership is lifelong, one can only compete as a high school student. The lifetime ranking of an NFL member is determined by his or her Point Score, explained in the Point Archive

 

State leagues

While the National Speech and Debate Tournament and the qualifying District Competitions are hosted by the NFL, most forensics tournaments during the school year operate under the auspices of other organizations.

In other states, speech is classed with other high school interscholastic competition and is overseen by the same organization as football, basketball and gymnastics such as:

Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA)

State leagues operate independently. Some leagues sponsor events not offered by the NFL. These events may still qualify for NFL points, however.

References

·         Peters, Tammy. (2003). In Defense of the NFL (and debate in all its forms). Rostrum. Retrieved December 30, 2005.

·         Kempner High School: NFL Speech Events National Forensic League, Retrieved March 9th, 2006.

External links

·         http://www.nflonline.org/Main/HomePage Website of the National Forensic League

·         http://199.199.209.250/ReportSelector.aspx Website containing all the NFL Reported Points and Standings of Coaches, Students, and Schools.

·         http://www.nflonline.org/Rostrum/ArchiveByIssue The Rostrum - The NFL's official magazine

·         http://debate.uvm.edu/NFL/rostrumlib.html Archive of Rostrum articles from the University of Vermont's Debate Central.

·         http://www.joyoftournaments.com  Joy Of Tournaments: Official Website

·         http://199.199.209.250/reports.aspx?rpt=DistrictStanding&year=current&SortBy=district_num The Annual School standings within Each District of the National Forensic League.

·         NFL District List The list of all the National Forensic League Districts, their District number, and their Head Chair.